Do people really care what material your fine
art prints are produced on? All this talk over the last few years about "limited edition giclee′ fine
art prints" and how these prints look like the original and will last for a long time, etc. I do like them personally. I have produced several prints and they have turned out to be quite successful for me. However, recently I was having a long conversation with a gallery owner about producing some prints of my work, and she told me nobody cares if the
art prints are on canvas or paper....
Fine Art Prints - Canvas or Paper?
The same gallery owner mentioned that a lot of
"people don't care if the prints are a numbered edition or not". This may have to do with her clientel, I'm not sure. I am sure that some people do care. But it does have me thinking about what direction to move forward in when it comes to art prints however.
Producing prints of your own work is a different ball game than working with original art as you may already know. You want the prints to look great while keeping the costs as low as possible. Paper prints are usually cheaper, but stretched canvas prints seem more like a real painting. To me anyway. You usually can charge more for the stretched canvas prints too.
I have not produced any art prints in probably 4 or 5 years. Back then almost 100% were on stretched canvas. I just got tired of the proofing, buying inventory, getting them to the right place, shipping, etc. If you're not careful, working and marketing prints can eat up a lot of time. Hmmm...I do sound like I am complaining don't I? Certainly don't mean too. I only have about 3 prints left, which I don't really care if I sell or not. In any event I feel it is time for me to put some more prints out there.
This time I am going to start with smaller, signed paper prints.
Why go with paper prints instead of canvas? Because of the less time and up front money involved, cheaper shipping and I am going to produce smaller sizes. These prints will all be signed however. I am even going to do something I have never done before, and that is some greeting cards.
Why Produce Art Prints at All?
I feel having a few art prints around for a show or an event, and to sell on-line will not be a huge part of my art career, but a supplement. People that can't or won't layout a few hundred or a couple thousand for an original, will buy a print or two. It's already worked for me in the past, I see no reason it cannot work again.
The first image out of the gate is going to be "
Yellow Sweater/Freeman Store", pictured above. This has been a very successful image for me. Created in 2002, it still resonates in my area because of the historic nature of the building (which has been modernized). The original is in the home of an
art collector, and the prints sold really well until I had no more printed.
We will see what happens.
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