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Fine Art Giclée Printers and Digital Studio
403 Abrahams Path Box 594 -
Amagansett, NY 11930 Tel: 631-267-7910
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| >Volume II Number 3 |
< Atelier AskArt Fine Art
Giclée Printing E-News > |
Spring 2003< |
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Our website is dedicated to educating and assisting fine artists with
the reproduction, promotion, and sale of their work. |
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| Selling
Your Art Strategies: Idea #9 |
| Increasing Sales of Your Editions |
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Canvas Giclée
Editions
See Stellar Sales Increase
Prints on Canvas - Especially
Giclées
Are a Hot Commodity for
Dealers and Collectors
by Alexander S. Kabbaz
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A modern Giclée printer is a technologically superior
printing device which, once the graphics are finalized and the
"go" button is pushed, needs no attendant! |
| Exclusive to Atelier
AskArt - Recent enhancements in printing
technology combined with the great reduction in capital outlay provided
the original impetus behind the popularity of giclée in the fine art
world. |
| These
improvements in the quality of giclée on fine art canvas have coupled
with increasing recognition by the art-buying public to cause a
tremendous increase in sales during the past twelve months. According to
a number of sources polled at the recent Art Expo in New York, giclée
prints on canvas have a much greater collector appeal due to their close
resemblance to the original oil and acrylic works. Prints on paper
remain viable as reproductions of works originally on paper, but canvas
has sped ahead as the substrate of choice for editions of canvas and
digital originals. |
| Canvas has traditionally
been printable by three methods; offset, transfer, and giclée. In the
offset lithography process the inks come out in dots which, just as in
magazine printing, are too visible to the naked eye. The second method
involves the use of a transfer medium. The image is printed on the
transfer medium and then adhered to canvas. The ultimate method of
canvas printing is giclée. Giclées are not only printed directly on
canvas. Their color spectrum is the broadest of the three processes and,
in contrast to offset, the dots are virtually invisible. In fact, a
skilled giclee printer can usually make adjustments of ink sufficient to
cause the majority of the dots to actually blend together. This creates
what is in fact a continuous-tone print.One way we
take our measure of the public's preferences is through gallery
preferences as this is always a trend precursor. The majority (55%) of
recent requests for pieces destined for the various galleries we serve
have been for canvas. |
Traditional offset printing requires tremendously large and extremely
costly printing equipment ...
and a great deal of high-priced labor.
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| Reasons for this include the unavoidable fact that
canvas reproductions have a higher perceived value than paper prints. Of
paramount importance is that canvas, unlike paper, can be stretched and
framed without glass just like an original work. This provides the buyer
with the feeling of owning an original masterpiece rather than a
reproduction.
more |
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To The Top
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- - -
Article Continues below |
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April $uper $avings
$pecial |
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Discounts on ALL Services!
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Don't forget to order envelopes and other accessories
to make your notecard presentation professional. Shown here are the
Clear Self-Seal envelopes.
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For all orders received by us
during the month of April 2003,
the following discounts apply: |
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Notecards and Postcards
25% OFF |
All Giclée Printing
All Digital Services
15% OFF
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| Discounts apply
to your entire order (except freight) including scanning, digitizing,
color correction, typesetting, sell posters, additional type or graphic
design, set-up options, and all notecard accessories. To receive your
discount, just write Code V2N3MSSS on your order.
Orders must be received with payment to
qualify. No additional discounts or coupons of any sort may be applied.
Orders must mention code V2N3MSSS and be received by us here at Atelier AskArt
by April 30,
2003 to qualify. |
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Notecards can be used to showcase more than one of
your works. Here, a total of 10 different works are promoted. Additional
scanning and set-up costs apply
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The most professional presentation is Boxed Sets.
Include a selection of 4 or 8 different cards for maximum impact. Print
a Box Insert showing all of the images.
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Go to
AtelierAskArt.com
now, print Order Forms, and $ave! |
| Selling
Your Art Strategies: Idea #9
- - - continued from above |
| Increasing Sales of Your Editions
|
| Here at Atelier AskArt we have
experienced the trend toward canvas firsthand. Our giclée on canvas sales have
doubled just since the Summer of 2002. We use two types: waterproof
cotton fine art canvas and traditional cotton fine art canvas. Both have
their advantages. The waterproof, with its obvious benefit of being
completely resistant to the effects of water, has the disadvantage of a
shorter fade-proof life. Although with fade resistance now being
measured in centuries this may not seem significant, we consider it to
be an important criteria. The regular fine art canvas is much more
resistant to the UV effects and most artists are selecting the regular
over the waterproof. |
If done with skill, it can be gloss, satin,
or matte spray coated with a waterproof acrylic fixative or varnish.
This process achieves the waterproofing benefit but with the slight
additional expense of an extra step in the process.
From an artist's point-of-view giclée's
greatest appeal is the flexibility and extremely low cash outlay. Once
the work has been scanned and color corrected, the artist need make only
1 print. Depending on the size of the original when all is said and
done, the initial investment will fall between $75 and $300. And now
comes the most important part: Prints need to be ordered ONLY when sold!
For, in fact, once your giclée printer has your work scanned,
color-corrected, and proofed, the expense is only for each sold print. |
Lucia's famous "Sanctuary", shown here
reproduced
in the first official canvas edition, is a virtual duplicate
of the original work produced in the 1940's
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Michael Knigin (left), a true pioneer in the
printmaking field and a renowned artist in his own right,
is shown here with two of the beautiful canvas prints
of his "Vintage Nude" series at a recent show.
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For example: the initial set-up of an
11" x 15" paper print averages about $125 and the first print
will cost about $60. In other words, for $185 you have everything you
need to sell more prints. And now the best news of all. Your next 4
prints will cost you only $45 each and the subsequent 6 only $39 each.
Each quantity of prints thereafter is progressively less expensive.
Canvas generally runs about 10%-15% more than paper. With 11" x
15" paper giclées going for $250 - $450 and canvas giclées
upwards of $400 - $1000, your first sale actually repays the entire
up-front investment and then some!
To compare with the other two
printing methods use the following: The canvas transfer process will
initially cost slightly more than giclée. |
| But that is where the
similarity ends. The quantity/cost reduction curve of giclée is not
only much steeper in your favor than transfer, the quality of a
direct-printed giclée is immeasurably greater. And the offset process?
As they say, fuhgedaboutit! Your initial investment (without even one
print) will exceed $1500 and you'll need to make hundreds of prints just
to make this much lower quality process worthwhile. |
| The final critera lies in image selection.
Oils and acrylics, originally done on canvas, canvas board, or art board
are the top choices for canvas giclées. The "why" is simple.
Watercolors, gouaches, and other media originally done on paper
naturally look best when reproduced on their original substrate. When
printed on canvas, they tend to have a fake and unreal quality about
them. Other good candidates for canvas reproduction are many works of
digital art which, due to the method of their creation, cannot suffer
from the stigma of a change in substrate as they have no original
substrate. |
The surreal "Everyone Has A Church Within",
a '50's Lucia on canvas, was an ideal candidate
for an official historical edition.
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Marjory Dressler's "Sphere-Circle",
a digitally created work, proved ideal for
a large (40" x 58") canvas reproduction
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And what is the newest trend in canvas?
It's loosely termed the "original giclée". Cutting-edge
artists are now hand-enhancing their canvas editions to individualize
each print. This has been immensely successful in the retailing of
editions because it creates not only a higher price-point but also a
higher perceived value to the work of art. When an artist
hand-embellishes a work of art before it is sold, people are willing to
spend more money for the print. People like "having a piece"
of the artist. It is truly an original, one-of-a-kind ... but at a price
many more consumers can afford. |
| Put simply, today's increase in
the sales of canvas giclée prints is not a trend. It is a groundswell -
and with its mutual benefits for both artist and collector - one which
shows only an outlook for continued increase. |
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Back
To The Top |
That's about it for this issue. We hope you
found this article useful and pertinant. For more
helpful information on giclée, notecards, postcards, and a complete
glossary of digital and paper terminology, be sure to visit our web site at http://www.AtelierAskArt.com.
Until next issue, keep on creating!
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Alexander S. Kabbaz, |
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Giclée Printing Artist |
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