Can You Embellish on That?

In the world of giclée printing – most notably canvas giclée printing - embellishing is the hot trend.

Whenever we discuss hand embellishing of prints, we get a flood of questions, like:

• Should you embellish your giclées?
• What choices are there for embellishing?
• What products can be used?
• How does embellishing affect archival quality of the print?
• What the heck IS embellishing, anyway?

Webster’s dictionary defines embellish as:
1. To make beautiful by ornamentation: adorn.
2. To add fanciful details to. 

As applied to fine art paper and canvas giclées, embellishment refers to painting over areas of the print to enhance color and/or adding brush strokes to the finished print. The following list of do’s and don’ts for embellishing your giclée prints should shed some light on the subject. 

the tools you need for adding brushstrokes

1. We do not recommend embellishing fine art paper giclées with watercolor paint. Although our giclée prints on fine art paper are water resistant, the inks can be lifted with water and a brush. Instead, if you want to punch up a color, use a colored pencil (Berol Prismacolor work well,) or use a pastel pencil. Pastel pencils tend to have a duller finish than colored pencils. If you simply MUST embellish using water based paints, use the smallest abound of water needed to achieve the effect you want. In any case, use a light touch at first and experiment on your proof until you get the effect you are looking for.
2. Fine Print canvas giclées come to you sprayed with a protective coating, allowing you to paint on top with acrylic or oil paints. If using acrylic paints, mix a bit of gloss gel medium to the acrylic paint to provide a sheen that will match that of the canvas finish. Do not spray or varnish over the canvas after you have painted on top of it. Your finish may not be compatible with ours. How much or how little embellishing you do is entirely up to you.
3. You can also add texture to your canvas giclées by adding brush strokes with Liquitex gel medium (make sure you get the kind that dries transparent), brushes made for acrylic paint and water (for thinning). You can apply it pretty thick if you want – we applied areas up to about 1/8” thick and, although they took 24 hours to dry, they did dry transparently. If you want to embellish for color and add brush strokes, add the acrylic paint first, then the gel medium after the paint has dried thoroughly.
4. You can add brush strokes to giclée prints on watercolor paper. However, we do not coat the watercolor paper, and adding the gel medium will noticeably alter the density – in other words, your print will appear much darker/punchier after applying gel medium. For this reason, we do not recommend adding texture to giclée prints on watercolor paper.
5. We recommend that you stretch or mount your canvas giclée before adding texture or embellishing. 

  

adding brushstrokes to a canvas print

As always, you can call and talk to one of our specialists to get more information. 800-777-1141. 



Kate Dardine has been helping artists and photographers market their work for over 26 years.  She is also a professional artist and our staff embellisher. You can see her paintings at www.KateDardine.com.

Trends in the Art World

by Tonya Aspegren, Fine Print Marketing Maven

"The Good Wife" set

What comes around, goes around. Trends are part of our culture. Everything comes full circle, maybe just to see if it ever went out of style in the first place! We love them, we hate them. They are part of our fashion, our decorating, our way of thinking. Sometimes a color scheme, a hairstyle, or a fashion makes its way into your consciousness. What do you do with that information?

In the last year, we’ve noticed a trend in botanicals. We’ve seen it on the walls of TV series such as "The Good Wife" and "Madam Secretary", as well as the cover of Professional Framing Magazine and the pages of Pottery Barn catalogs. Fine Print even had a mention in the magazine This Old House as the printer who could produce vintage botanical prints on high quality art paper!

As an artist, you want to continue your own style and originality. You likely have a collection of similar works. As trends come and go, you don’t want to abandon what you do for something that may be gone tomorrow. However, if you are tuned into the current trends, you may be able to grab onto a color that may be attracting the eyes of a buyer or a motif that fits your painting style.

There is nothing wrong with noticing the trends around you even if you don’t want to jump on the bandwagon. If you notice a trend in more contemporary, streamlined styles, you may choose to go with a simple, less decorative frame. If you notice a color scheme that is standing out, you may want to showcase a painting that complements those colors.

What trends have you been tuned into lately?

The Sky's the Limit!

A recent post by Lori Woodward on Fine Art Views got me thinking about limited editions.  In the post, Lori asks the question, “Does limiting editions create value?” You can read the post here.

Her conclusion and mine are similar. In my experience, both with over 25 years in the printing industry and as a professional artist selling prints of my original paintings, is that limiting editions, for most artists and photographers, does NOT create value (or increase sales!)

Before I go into my reasons for not limiting editions, let me say that there are a few occasions when limiting an edition makes sense.

My Top Three Reasons for Limiting Print Editions:

  1. When the artist has achieved “star” status – originals selling in the tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars, when the demand for the artist’s works outpace his or her ability to produce it or when the artist is a celebrity, like Grace Slick, Tony Bennett or Tony Curtis. In cases like that, a hand-signed and numbered limited edition print has perceived value and may increase in value over time.


2. When the prints are made to be sold to raise funds for a non-profit, such as a Museum, and only a specific number of prints will be made.

          3. When the prints ARE the original, such as in works created using the computer as a medium, or hand-pulled original prints such as monotypes, serigraphs, etc.

My Top Three Reasons for NOT Limiting Editions:

1.  Bookkeeping. Because giclée and photo prints can be printed on demand, the task of numbering them becomes more difficult without a good system in place for keeping track of the numbers.

      2.  If you limit the edition and the print is popular, once you sell out the edition you can’t make money on that image anymore. Why limit the income you can make on an image?

3      3. Unless you are a top-tier artist whose new works are sold for $$$$ before the paint is dry, people buying prints from you are not likely looking at the purchase as an “investment.” They like the image and want to hang it in their home.

  

Don’t Limit, But Do Sign!

A signed print holds more appeal than one that is not signed by the artist. A while back I took an “unofficial” poll of people who bought prints. Most people said they liked it when the print was signed – that it meant more to them and had more value than if it was not signed. A few said that given the choice between a signed or unsigned print, they would choose signed and might even pay a little more. Very few said they would pay more for a print because it was a limited edition, unless “the artist is well-known/famous.”

If You Are Set on Limited Editions:

1       1. Do keep good records! An Excel spreadsheet is a good way to keep track of which print numbers have been used.

       2.  Make sure you know from the outset whether you will have separate editions for different sizes or whether your edition includes all sizes.

3         3. Include a Certificate of Authenticity with each limited edition print, stating the type of print, title, original medium, number and size of edition. At Fine Print, we give Certificates with each custom print order which document the type of print, expected longevity, and proper care. The artist can then fill in their name, title, original medium and edition. Our certificates can also be used for open editions.

       Kate Dardine is a professional artist and the marketing director for Fine Print Imaging and Colorado Frames. You can see her work at www.katedardine.com.