Getting Printed

I have been asked recently about getting works digitally printed for sales of commissions, and also about how you go about making choices about selling prices for prints.

DIGITAL PRINTS

Digital artwork is much easier than physical work, as you do not have to worry about the scanning or photography of the work, just the printing itself. Also you have less worries about matching the colour of the original, so you can either go to a standard printers, or to a specialist printer for paintings, which I will go into below.

I have carried out some large scale digital printing for exhibitions, ranging from A2-A0 size on heavyweight paper and canvas effect material (shown above). The canvas prints look great, roll easily for transportation and have are great for capturing deep blacks. I have found a very reliable printer on eBay, who can turn these around in a few days, at a very reasonable cost (https://www.ebay.co.uk/str/perfectlyprinted).

PAINTINGS & DRAWINGS

When it comes to paintings and drawings, a great deal is down to what you want from a print, where you will be selling it and so on, which will also be down to cost as well. Consider the fact that you should want a professional finish to your work, and never undersell it. Most people would be happier buying a high-quality, professional print than a home-made one, and your art will have a higher perceived value if you sell it at a higher price. Even if you were buying something as boring as a toaster, most people will avoid the cheapest, and go for one with a higher price tag.

As for art, if you were buying a life-size print of the Mona Lisa you'd want more than just something run off a home printer. Same goes for anything you put in your home really - If your work is top quality, so the print should be too! 

Option one is to do it yourself. You can scan or photograph your work, which is fine for a drawing or digital work, but the downside for a painting is that you may not get the colours and textures exactly right. You could get it printed anywhere really as the quality of the scan will be good, but not great. If your work is black and white, and you are a dab hand at editing, cropping etc., then this can work, providing you use high quality inks and paper, but even then you shouldn't undersell your work.

Option two is my preferred option for work of a high standard, and I've done this with my work too. 

Firstly, have a look on Niche Frames website and have a look at pricing, and if the price is right take it to Niche Frames on Zetland Road in Bristol to get it scanned and printed. They are the best. The scanning will be far superior to anything you can do at home as their scanners are very high end, have special directional lights which scan the image with every bump and flaw, plus they will clean it up and colour match it for you. Take a USB drive to get a copy for yourself. 

Their printing is on high quality paper, and they used to do a combined deal with scanning and printing, which will save you some money. You only need a minimum of one printed and you can discuss framing with them too. I The print will be giclee print, which is an archival quality print which won't fade and will look exactly like the original forever.

Personally I would rather make very little money and have a work that I'm super proud of and could attract further attention, but that said, a framed giclee, archival quality print of around A3 size by any good artist can sell for as much as £150-200 framed. Don't undersell yourself, and remember that this will be the bar you set for selling subsequent artwork prints. I have sold unframed prints scanned and printed by Niche Frames for as much as £70, so it can be done. the price of framing is too prohibitive I would still suggest the very best in scanning and printing with a more standardised off-the shelf frame, but make sure it is glass and not perspex if you can. The quality of the print is far more important, and it can be reframed if needs be.

There are many more options than and places to get prints created than I've mentioned here, but, as I've found, once you find a printer who delivers high quality prints every time, that is far more important than the initial outlay.