Archive for the ‘For Artists’ Category

Artful Color is offering a 30-day special that is sure to ease your end-of-summer blues!!

***Artful Color is offering a FREE digital capture with orders of $300 or more in prints***

As always, Artful Color is dedicated to creating museum-quality giclees that are exact reproductions of your original work – and a high-resolution scan is the first step to achieving this level of perfection. Standard flash digital photography doesn’t compare to the 384-megapixels of our ultra hi-res scanning back camera.  A great scan is the key to an exacting reproduction of your original artwork, so take advantage of this great opportunity!
Please email Amelia (Amelia@artfulcolor.com) to schedule a time for your FREE scan – but hurry! Because this offer won’t last forever!

Artful Color is a fine art reproduction studio in Apex, N.C. specializing in digital capture and giclée printing. We work with artists, photographers, museums, galleries, art collectors and designers to create exacting giclée reproductions using the finest papers and canvases and the highest quality archival inks.Our Premium Line provides giclées on the highest quality papers and canvases available, while our Décor Line boasts prints that offer fantastic color range and sharpness at heavily discounted prices. Our unrivaled technical experience in color management and print production makes Artful Color one of the premier fine art giclée studios in the world!!
For more information please visit www.artfulcolor.com, or email Amelia@artfulcolor.com.

Please note: Artwork must not exceed 30×40 to qualify for this offer. Required print order is per-scan.

“Giclée 101”

Have you ever been in an art gallery, museum or online art store and wondered, “what in the world is a giclée?!” Here is your easy to understand, 101 guide to what a giclée is and how they are utilized – courtesy of Artful Color, a fine art giclée studio in N.C.

What is a giclée?

• Giclée, pronounced “jheeCLAY”, is a term used for fine art archival inkjet printing on specialty papers or canvas.
• Artists use giclée printing to create museum quality, exacting reproductions of their original artwork, photos, and digital art.
• Giclées are printed using large-format inkjet printers and archival inks. Ultra high resolution and random patterns are used in creating a giclée so no dot screen pattern is visible in the reproduction
• A wide range of impressive canvases and papers are available for giclée printing. Cotton, bamboo, alpha cellulose (trees) and sugar cane papers as well as poly blend canvases are just a few of the media options available for use in giclée printing.
• Many factors influence the end result of a well produced giclée, so choosing a professional giclée studio is essential.  A giclée studio must have expertise in both digital capture and color correction.
• Creating giclée reproductions are not overwhelmingly expensive, as some may believe. The ability to print on demand and utilize more affordable media options keeps printing costs very reasonable.

Who uses  giclées?

• Artists – studio, festival and gallery artists create giclées because they produce the closest representation of their original artworks. Artists can print on demand for limited and open editions of their artwork, making their images accessible to a wider audience.
• Photographers – giclée printing is the best way for photographers to produce extra large prints, photo canvases, and prints on specialty papers without compromising color quality. Photo giclées are superior to traditional silver halide and last up to twice as long without fading.
• Museums & Art Collectors — High quality giclée reproductions of original artworks are necessary for both private and public art collectors. They provide a way to display artworks, while preserving delicate originals. Giclées are also often sold in museum and gallery gift shops.

For more expert information about giclées or inquiries about placing an order, visit www.artfulcolor.com or contact Amelia at Artful Color (Amelia@artfulcolor.com).

Misconceptions about fine art giclée printing are prevalent in the art community, discouraging some artists and collectors from realizing their full potential. What many don’t realize is that giclées are a high quality, low cost alternative to traditional printing methods.

Lies, Damn Lies, and Giclée explores and dispels many of the fallacies surrounding fine art giclée printing. By scrutinizing the most important elements in creating an exacting giclée print – quality of the equipment, the printer’s skill at both digital capture and color correction, media quality, and print permanence – this article demonstrates that giclées are a valuable resource for artists, photographers, art collectors and designers alike.

For a deeper look into the key issues surrounding giclée printing, please read the entire Lies, Damn Lies, and Giclee article.

When Cape Lookout National Seashore decided they needed to preserve many of their historical watercolor paintings, they called upon Artful Color for their expertise in color capturing and giclee printing. Artful Color successfully captured and printed giclees of more than 50 original paintings by renowned North Carolina artists.

Wouter Ketel, chief of interpretation at Cape Lookout National Seashore, decided that in order to preserve the delicate original watercolor paintings, they needed to be placed in archival storage. He contacted Artful Color who meticulously captured all 50 paintings using their 384 Megapixel BetterLight Super 8K scanning back camera. Using the finest papers and archival inks, Artful Color printed two giclees of each painting.

“Just putting the originals away in storage would not do justice to them and was contrary to the wishes of the staff who enjoyed having them in their offices,” said Ketel. “The giclees allowed us to move the originals into storage while keeping high quality reproductions on the walls.”

The watercolor paintings are important in depicting the history of the North Carolina coast. Notable artists including Jim Stanger and Bob Blevins did many of the paintings.

The archival inks and papers used to print the giclees will last as long, if not longer than the original water color paintings. The giclees replaced the original paintings on the walls of Cape Lookout National Seashore where guests and employees can enjoy them.

Ketel was pleased with the outcome of the giclees and their astonishing resemblance to the original paintings, “the giclees were almost indistinguishable from the originals, and in side by side comparisons they were 95 to 99 percent exact.”

Giclees of the Cape Lookout National Seashore paintings will be available for purchase in various sizes.

Nine months ago Artful Color began a search for the right archival inks and media to create a new line of more affordable products for our artists. We have continued this effort and began testing a new ink especially formulated for Artful Color.

The test results from our new inks are exceeding all expectations! We’re not sure what excites us more… the fantastic tonal/color range and sharpness or getting that kind of excellent quality even on more affordable papers and canvas. Our goal was to come up with the best print possible at a stunning price and now we’re proud to announce our Décor line.

Rigorous testing continues, but preliminary results show that our new specially formulated inks are exceeding OEM standards even on economy paper. This new line of products is a big hit with our artists who can’t believe how close our reproductions are to their original work.

In addition to the new inks, we’ve added a 100% cotton paper (250 gsm for our Décor line and 500 gsm for our Premium). Regardless of which line you choose, we’re confident you’ll be completely satisfied with the amazing quality of your new giclée prints.

Thanks to advanced printer technology and the search for new business opportunities, a lot of folks are now claiming to do giclée.  Photographers, prepress shops, graphics printers and the like are dipping into the giclée market with unfortunately mixed results. The art of reproducing any fine art work is a highly skilled technique and should only be trusted to those who truly understand the science of color. It’s a multi-step process and any weaknesses in the chain will affect the quality of the end result.

It all starts with image capture. When artists are picking their shop, they should never underestimate the importance of the camera. This is where many giclée wannabes first go wrong. The beauty in fine art is in the details, those delicate nuances, the swirls of mixed colors, that give paintings a depth of texture. You can’t recreate that through photography without a scanning back camera or similar system.

The BetterLight 8K we use at Artful Color has 384 megapixels and a unique trilinear array sensor, giving it a distinct advantage over single shot flash digital cameras. The problem with a planer array sensor used in single shot cameras is that it lacks the resolution and color fidelity necessary for a full size print. The difference in quality is so remarkable, even an appraiser can be fooled without his microscope. You can learn more about the trilinear technology at www.betterlight.com/how_they_work.html.

The downside of the BetterLight scanning back system is the price tag. At around $28,000, many studios aren’t willing to invest. Cheaper alternatives are out there, though, like the PhaseOne scanning back system, but the technology is older and often only has well under 200 megapixels of resolution. In other words, with the 8K you get well over twice the resolution. For smaller pieces, a high quality flat bed scanner is also a good capture method (and sometimes even a flash digital camera will give you an adequate capture if you only want small prints.)

Hello and Welcome to the Artful Color Blog for Artists.

We’re creating two sections – one for fine artists who paint/draw or create mixed media and the other for photographers. Our goal is to make this a forum for those who know or want to know the world of fine art reproduction. There’s a real science to the technique of giclée printing and we want to help artists make the best choice possible.

Here at Artful Color we are experts in the technical side of color evaluation, image capture, ink longevity, and countless other aspects of making fine art reproductions that honor the original as much as technology will allow. Besides educating our clients about giclée printing, we also aim to clear up the vast amount of misinformation out there. Feel free to post or email questions of comments and become a Facebook Fan by clicking on the link.