Are you are an artist? Have you ever considered selling your art?
If your first answer was yes, I am pretty sure that the second answer was also yes. Every artist for once has always considered of selling their art and earning money out of it. Although it can be really hard for the artists to say goodbye to their most precious works of art. Yes, there is an artist who works commercially and that is a whole different scenario. Spending time to pursue your art is necessary, but so is earning money for a living. Selling your art could be a great source of revenue.
The only way to earn money without having to sell a piece of your heart is to get your art printed and sell the prints. That way you can keep the original artwork with yourself and earn money and admiration from people.
Giclee Printing
Giclee printing is the best way to print your artwork in a high quality that does justice to your hard work. It uses inkjet printers to print the art using dyes that do not fade with time.
If you decide on getting giclee printing, you have to make sure that the paper or the canvas that you are using is of good quality, there are some specific papers such as matte, cotton rag or canvas which are generally used while Giclee printing.
The resolution in which the photos are taken is also very important, it has to be adjusted before getting it printed so that it fits visually with the intent of the artist.
The printing of the art should be done with as much consideration as the artist put while making the original art. Even the size that you choose for your print should be similar to that of the original art.
Picking a Printer
If you wish to print your art on your own, you need good quality equipment. Thankfully we now have modern technologies that allow us to do virtually anything at home. This includes having good quality art printers at home. Printing at home could be very economical if you already have a good quality printer.
Taking inspiration from the list linked above, these are our favorite choices of home art printers:
- Canon PIXMA Pro-100 – Runs around $300 but you can sometimes find them on sales (or used) for cheaper.
- Expression Photo-HD – This is great for wide-format prints. We have one in the lab!
If you want to make prints onto canvas, that’s a different story. You’ll need to track down specific canvas printers, or resort to a canvas printing service (which can get expensive).
Picking the Right Paper
Now you also need good quality paper, there are a few that we have listed down here for you to consider:
- Lightweight – Hahnemuhle Albrecht Durer: For high quality digital fine art print.
- Heavyweight – Hahnemuhle Etching Paper: For images that are highly detailed and require photographic quality.
- Thickest paper – Velvet Rag 330gsm: For museum-quality art.
To make the image last longer you should use archival ink because a good printing paper or the great resolution of the art image is of no use if the ink starts fading.
Using all the equipment that are of the best quality can be expensive for the artist; however, you get what you pay for, and the quality of your art with be rewarded (and ultimately the selling value of your art will be rewarded as well).
Now Get Your Work Out There!
Now that you have the capability to print your own art, get out there and sell it! This is obviously a whole issue in and of itself, and we’ll try to come out with some more blogs about how to best go about this in the near future.
However the first and most important tip to have is: Stay Positive!
Check back soon!
-Stasocool
