Making a Fine Art Reproduction of your Work - Part 1

By ArtistsInCanada January 5, 2004

} Making a Fine Art Reproduction of your work By Paul Constable Recently, I was contacted by Tom Evert, the son of Silvia Evert, a fine watercolourist from Toronto. He like many others over the past year, have asked how to go about making a fine art print from their work. I like to think of them as reproductions. The following is the journey of Tom Evert in search of a Printer. Initial Contact Dear Artists In Canada, I am looking for a Printmaker who can make some fine art prints of my mother's artwork. Can you suggest a reputable printing company that can do this kind of work? Sincerely, Tom Evert _________________________________________________ Artists in Canada Hi Tom, My Administrator forwarded me your message about looking for a Printer who was capable of producing Fine Art Reproduction Prints. You probably want something in a smaller run and series, not a large printing company, but a graphics house. What kind of artwork did your mother do? How many would be required in the edition? What is the size of the originals and how many different original works would you want reproduced? How quickly do you need the pieces done by? One other thing, where are you located? I know of Printers in different parts of Canada that may be interested or is location not a concern? Images can be insured and couriered very safely and inexpensively. My aim is to help you find a Printer you are happy with and let the two of you work out the details. Regards, Paul Constable Director _________________________________________________ Response Hi Paul, Thank you for your prompt reply. I'm a novice at this but I have done some research. Your assumption about not wanting prints from a Printing Company is correct. I'd like to produce a small run of limited edition prints. Regarding your questions: My mother paints watercolours. As to the number to be printed, I'm not sure. Cost is a factor and all I know is that they will cost more than prints from a graphic house. I know they won't be cheap but I also understand that ethics would not allow me to print more should they sell successfully. I'm guessing between 50 and 100 but without a rough idea of cost it's difficult to say. The originals are sized at 14 x 20 inches. I have about ten that I think would warrant printing but I'd like to start with one only. As to timeliness, there is no timeline. Within a year would probably be OK if I could negotiate a better deal with the printmaker. I'm located in Toronto. All things being equal, I think I'd feel more comfortable working with someone local but would not rule out someone living elsewhere. Sincerely, Tom Evert _________________________________________________ Artists in Canada Hi Tom, I work in the graphics industry every day and I am also associated with a fine art Printmaking group. Here is the long and the short of it all. As the original work is a watercolour there is 2 ways to reproduce them. A Lithographic Printing House can scan the original, make 4 plates and run them with process colour on a printing press. Magenta, Yellow, Cyan and Black, these colours basically give you a close representation of the original product. The reproduction print will be made up of many small dots called a rosette, together they make up the image. For any economy you need to run quite a few. All the work is in the first print the rest is just paper. Make sure it is acid free or neutral PH, so it doesn't yellow. Robert Bateman has his done this way. They usually charge a bit more for fine art prints because the client is quite often, a bit fussy. You will have to bank the whole cost of production up front and make it back as the prints sell, unless you make a deal with the printer. Giclee Printing is a high quality, light fast process. The graphics house can scan your image and print it out on any surface you wish. I would suggest acid free watercolour paper for your mother's work. It is hard to tell the original from the reproduction. There is no dots in this process and as long as the buyer understands it's a reproduction, they are better off with this process that the previous. You only have to pay for the ones you produce. They can burn your image to a CD and also keep you on file if you want to order more, plus you can change the sizes. Here is a Giclee printer in Toronto you may want to contact. Cintar Graphics does other work for artists, so you can them to see some samples. Regards, Paul Constable Director _________________________________________________ Response Hi Paul, I wanted to let you know Cintar Graphics has made a print of one my mother's paintings and it's displayed online at their website www.edition2.com. Her name is Silvia Evert. The total time from my initial contact to the posting on the website took only a week. It was surprisingly easy and the quality of the giclee is outstanding. That I didn't have to print all three hundred at once also made it affordable. I printed forty in the first run. There is a cost for initial setup but it's not excessive. Future print runs of twenty will be even cheaper on a per print basis. Cintar charges 50% for any prints they sell on their web site similar to a gallery, but I think it's worth it for the exposure. It's not an exclusive agreement so my mother is also free to sell prints on her own. The next milestone is to sell one. Once I sell a few, I'll be able to fund the prints of some other paintings. Thanks, Tom Evert Part 2 of this article (on the Giclee Process) will be posted January 12, 2004. _________________________________________________ Paul Constable is the Director of Artists In Canada. He is a Painter / Printmaker and Senior Graphic Designer for an Advertising and Communications company in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Paul Constable can be reached by email HERE. His paintings may be viewed at: www.ArtistsInCanada.com/pconstable. Your suggestions for future articles are welcome. _________________________________________________ © 2003 ArtistsInCanada.com

• Posted: 2004-01-05