a work in progress

Setting up the database is not my favorite thing to do in the studio obviously, but it is what I have been spending most of my time on for over a week, maybe that’s why I look so glum in the shot above! It was a thrill to actually put the database to good use over the weekend when I was asked for the prices on a couple of paintings and also about the availability of different prints. I simply typed in the titles and bingo! records of originals and prints with prices and locations were at my fingertips. Love that!
I have taken a break from the database to make some entries to competitions and plans for local shows, like White Street Walk, and I’ll post more about these local favorites as the events draw nearer. Right now I’d like to step away from the computer and oh, I don’t know, maybe PAINT! I do still have some more work on the database with show history, publications, and other bio stuff. There is also a section for supplies which I may or may not choose to use. If you are an artist interested in getting all your work and info cataloged or in tracking your artwork as it travels and sells, check out the software developed by painter Kathryn Townsend, Working Artist.

I wrote this post back when my printer was new and I was involved with a couple groups of artists looking into offering prints of their paintings. I have been waiting to post it until I had a photo of some of my framed prints. I finally took one at last Friday’s Holiday Sale and Party in my studio.

It can be quite helpful to offer your prints in sizes which will fit standard frames. Some artists even note on the packaging that a print will fit a standard 16″ x 20″ frame or whatever. For my work, I have been glad to find the popularity of square frames increasing. It is neat that my square greeting cards which are mounted on art paper and ready to frame now fit a frame that can be bought off the shelf. I display a couple of them framed next to the card bin and people seem to love little bitty works of art. Here are the square frame sizes which I have found to be readily available off the shelf: 3″x3″, 5″x5″, 8″x8″, 12″x12″ and less often 10″x10″ and 16″ x 16″.
My 10″ x 10″ prints are on 13″ x 13″ paper and can be matted and framed in a standard 12″ x 12″ frame. Most of the 8″ x 8″ frames come with a matte for a 5″ x 5″ print and that is the other size of the smaller prints I offer.

Another option is to matte square prints to a rectangular shape and frame them in a standard rectangular frame. The most commonly available rectangular frame are:4″x6″, 5″ x7″, 8″x10″, 8″x12″, 8.5″x11″, 9″x12″, 11″x14″, 11″x17″, 12″x16″, 14″x18″, 16″x20″, 18″x24″, 22″x28″, 24″x30″, 24″x36″, 30″x40″ That’s a lot of choices! I see many of these sizes as photo and portrait frames, offered with glass and backing and many of the larger sizes as open frames. I have found that many artists I know, including myself, run to the big craft store whenever the weekly special includes a half-off frames sale. There have been more a few times that I have arrived mid-week to find cleared out shelves. I now only offer a few of my artist’s proofs framed and limiting their sale to events where I am present.

Of course, it is possible to create your own frames from simple wood trim. I recently received a wonderful little painting by Louisiana artist David Holcombe and it was nicely finished with a black wood frame attached directly to the painting with brads. Simple, but it works well with this piece.

Professional artists must price their work the same everywhere they sell. There is a cost of selling whether a dealer or gallery handles the sale for you, you jury into a show and pay for a 10′ x 10′ space, or you sell in an online venue. The only difference is WHO spends the time and effort to sell the paintings or prints, you or your representative. Price is best determined by formulas and customers are most comfortable when there is some transparency to the pricing structure.

Some people will always price their work at hobby rates because art is their hobby. As a professional, that should not be a factor in how you price your art. My guideline for thinking about the competitive nature of selling art is to always remember that by remaining true to my values, honing my craft, and providing excellent communication I provide my best service to my clients.

What is your strategy or philosophy?

There has been some discussion among the members of the Visual Artist Street Team at Etsy regarding the decision to offer prints. I was writing the group a really long letter about my decision to offer and create my own prints when I realized that I have learned quite a few things about the world of fine art printing that may be helpful to others. So here is a list of things for artists to consider as they venture into the world of fine art prints.

• Many artists offer prints up to 80% of the size of the original to preserve the uniqueness of the original and justify its higher price. This seems like a good principle to me in light of the demand for prints on canvas and the quality of those prints. I’ve adopted this rule for myself.
• The retail cost of a fine art print is typically determined by multiplying the artist’s cost by five or six. This works especially well for open editions, which require much less bookkeeping and time tending to stock. I offer open edition prints for some of my paintings and limited editions for others. Initially I will print some proofs and offer them to see what items others are interested in-it doesn’t always match with what I like best. Then I select which items will run in a limited edition and determine the breakdown of sizes for that print. Because I want everyone to enjoy the same price, I do not increase the cost of limited edition prints until I reach the last five prints in a run. This allows me to slow down sales and keep a larger selection in stock. I also choose to allow people to order prints on demand of paintings which are not in a limited edition. That is to say, if I have created a painting, a print of it will be available to anyone who asks. I want my images to find their way to the places they belong. Pricing is always determined by a formula and there are never any surpise this way. Not to say prices will never increase, but they will only increase across the board as my costs of selling increase.
• Your cost includes a lot of materials you may not have considered, since you will have to package your prints. I use acid-free foam core and clear bags. I cut most of my foam core myself, but it can also be ordered pre-cut. There are less expensive ways to package prints, but the difference in quality is far greater than the difference in price. I decided my customers will get the best available for print conservation because that is a big factor in my choice of inks and papers. I also enclose a business card and apply a printed label for indicating the size and price to the back of the bag. Small cost for a professional touch.
• Prints are typically signed in pencil just below the image. Title aligned with left edge of print, signature to right. If it’s a limited edition the number goes to the right of the title.
• Most prints will be framed with a white border showing around all sides such that the title and signature will be seen. Make sure to account for this when you order your prints.
• Unframed and unmatted prints seem to sell better. A friend of mine who owns an art gallery has noticed that if a print is offered with a matte in one color, some people have a difficult time imagining it in a different color. Too many color choices can be daunting and halt a sale as well. Like many artists today, I do not matte my prints. They look great with their white border showing in their clear bags. I do frame some of my square prints, however, and while they are for sale, I do this more as an example of the types of off the shelf frames which are available for square images.
• When deciding which sizes to offer (and maybe even to paint in) it’s a good idea to take into consideration the standard sizes of mattes and frames. It’s a good selling point if the gallery staff can say “That will fit a standard 16″ x 20″ frame.” I’ll post a list of standard sizes later.
• Photographic papers offer phenomenal quality and longevity, but unless your paintings are truly off-beat, an off-beat paper can hinder your sales. Although most art buyers do not handle the packaged print, matte paper with some weight to it is preferred. I have posted an entry with a photo about some of the papers I’ve been experimenting with and you can read that here.
• Good prints require excellent scans or photographs. The best printer in the world can only print the information it is given. You must start with a very high quality image to get a very high quality print. 72dpi works great for the web but printed image should have 150- 300 depending on the size of the print. So much has been written about resolution, dpi, ppi, cmyk, sRGB that I don’t see a need to go into it here. If this a foreign language to you, your foray into creating fine art prints will begin with photographing your work. Tripods are good, sometimes I even use mine! I use natural light, fill the frame with the image, highest res setting possible and shoot bracketed images.I don’t want to alter my work digitally, I’m funny like that. I don’t like doing this part of my job at all, but I LOVE that we’re digital now and when I resent the photo shoots I remind myself of the days when waiting for slides to come back made the task even more trying.
• Prints, reproductions, giclees…giclee is just french for spraying a liquid! It’s a high resolution ink jet print. It can be on paper, canvas, or even silk and linen. Not just any ink jet printer can produce the resolution demanded by fine artists, but many of the desktop photo printers can produce the resolution. The newest technologies are further defined by the size of the droplets of ink being sprayed (expressed in picoliters) and the main thing to consider when ordering your prints is the quality and compatibility of the inks and papers. I suggest pigment inks for their permanence and at least a six color process. You may notice that the large format printers used to produce huge prints offer a lower resolution and larger droplets than the Epson R1800 that I use. They are still excellent quality and probably the best available for their size. The printer I use prints up to 13″ x 44″. I chose it on the advice of professional photographers who said the quality of the output far surpassed their (former) photo labs. This is more than you need to know if you are ordering prints and keeping things as simple as possible.

That’s it for now, but there may be more in my head! So if you have any questions you can ask them here and I will try to answer. I’m still learning lots about turning paintings into fine art reproductions.

The traditional advice for cutting foam core is to make two passes, one through the top layer of paper and foam and the second through the bottom later of paper. How tedious. After many trials (and errors), I have found that I can make very clean and straight cuts with just one pass of the blade. This not only saves time but keeps any of those annoying rips of the back paper from happening. I work at a low table and this can be hard on the back, but being able to make one pass makes it so much faster that this complaint is disappearing. I have a higher workspace available, but feel the lower table is best for positioning my body directly above the area to be cut. It reduces wrist fatique and that is definitely a consideration with all the time spent on the computer and at the easel. In the picture above you see my preferred tools:

a thick straight edge- my level works well both for measuring and keeps my hand out of harms way as I use it to guide the cuts
a pencil- to mark both ends of each cut

a cutting mat- saves not only the table, but the blades last longer. also essential for cutting through all layers at once.

a box cutter or utility cutter-as others have said before, snap off blades are awesome. The tool I use is perfect because I can dial up the blade to such a length that the edge of the blade’s sheath rests along the top edge of the level and provides enough blade depth to go through all layers at once.

The steps:

1. Measure and mark the starting and ending points for each of the cuts for your first piece.

2. Align the straight edge (in my case, level) with the two marks.

3. Slide blade forward in it’s sheath and press into the foamcore at the starting point for the first cut and so that it is pressed against the straight edge.

4. Hold straight edge very firmly with one hand and while pressing in firmly with the other draw blade the length of the cut.

5. Repeat, making adjustments in pressure used as necessary.

Tips:

Don’t skimp on blades. A sharp blade makes all the difference. Snap off the top piece of your blade after each full sheet of foam core.

Use a cutting mat. If you don’t have a self-healing mat for crafts, try one of those silicone cutting boards.

If you use a metal straight edge such as a square or triangle, watch out for black residue on your fingers and foam core. Wash and dry your hands well before packaging your prints with all those wonderfully cut pieces of foam core.

I promised to show some of the different papers I have experimented with as I begin producing some of my own fine art prints. I took this photo under a cloudy sky with the papers resting on a blank canvas. I found it interesting to see that the Somerset Velvet White is the same color as the canvas on which I paint. I can see why watercolorists often use this paper for their prints. It is soft, thick, and luxurious. The Radiant White is not quite as white I would like for my prints, but shares the same tactile qualities the Velvet White is admired for. These two papers are fine art papers which have been treated (enhanced) with a coating which makes them very receptive to the printing inks. They are wonderful to touch, but for most of my work, reproduce too softly and are too yellow.

On the right side of the picture are two much brighter papers and I find that truer whites really work best for reproducing the highlights in my paintings. Working in acrylics is a bit different form other media in that it is often most effective to paint dark to light, with the lights resting on top. This is very natural for me and I really enjoy the last few strokes of each painting as I watch the highlights bring it to life. The Moab Entrada Bright White is heavier than the Epson paper and has a very nice feel, but it is also a little too white for my work. You can see the washed out appearance of the greenish yellow color in this photo and the white highlights are much brighter than they were in the actual painting. I’m really happy with the quality of the reproduction on the Epson paper. While it was developed for photography and professional presentations, it has many qualities which make it superior for much of my fine art printing. It was created to work with the Epson pigment inks I use and when used together these prints are archival in nature. Tested to withstand 100 years under glass or 200 in an album. I choose to print this image, and most of my work, on this paper for the color and quality. It is white, but not too white, it shows the color of the highlights as they appear in the original. It is also very smooth and provides a very crisp reproduction.

While there are some paintings of mine which reproduce well on the Somerset Enhanced Radiant White, and others which I print on the Epson Watercolor Radiant White (not pictured), most of my reproductions are done on the Epson heavyweight matte paper picture above. I first presented these prints to the public at last Friday’s White Street Art Walk and I heard all sorts of comments and questions to indicate I had chosen wisely. “Who’s the photographer?” “Are these original pastels?” And my favorite, “What is this done on? Did you paint all these on fabric?”

After pricing fine art prints and then having a print job come back to me with the colors way off, I decided to improve my printing capabilities. I can now offer prints of all my paintings! It’s been amazing to see the quality of these prints and so much fun to watch a sold painting come back to life. My godson thought I had repainted a painting I sold a couple years ago the quality is so fine!

I selected an Epson printer which has incredible resolution at 5760 x 1440 optimized dpi and makes archival prints with 8-color pigment ink. This is better resolution than the large giclee printers and it even boasts ink droplets as small as 1.5 picoliters. Some of the big print houses refer to these prints as Studio Lab Prints to accentuate the quality of their output and distinguish them from other giclees. Furthermore, these inks and papers can last up to two hundred years! I have spent quite a bit of time testing different papers and working with the color management and am now creating my own fine art prints on paper and canvas. (I’ll post more later about the different papers I’ve tried .)
Word is getting out and I’ve already completed one job printing photos for someone else and will be working on another set of prints for a local business tonight or tomorrow. So much for the painting I had planned to complete! More ink is on the way and that’s a good thing as I need to make some more prints for the gallery and for Friday’s White Street Walk Studio Tour.