Brian's Gallery Giclee printing Services
Giclee Art Printing
Giclee (zhee-klay)
The French word "giclee"
means a spray or a spurt of liquid.
Giclee prints are an advantage to artists who want to produce art prints as needed, or on-demand.
Once an image is digitally color corrected, and archived, additional reproductions can be made with minimal effort and reasonable cost.
Eliminating the outrageous upfront cost of mass production for an edition.
Archived files will not deteriorate in quality as negatives and film will.
Another tremendous advantage of giclee printing is that digital images can be reproduced to any size.
What makes real giclee printing superior for art reproductions?
Real Giclees are printed on a variety of acid free archival papers and canvas, watercolor, satin, glosy, or matt papers.
color corrected prints on archival canvas, watercolor or other substrates will make photos and paintings come alive
with deep blacks, saturation and gradations not possible with other media as long as proper color contol for indiviual colors has been incorporated in the setup of the giclee print to match the orignal art work.
What Makes A Real Giclee Print?
The concept is not new:
Artist are sensitive to colors. Artist are very picky to the colors they used in their artwork so they expect the best colors on their giclee prints and they deserve to have that, after all they are paying us to give them our best, and "color control is what its all about".
By reading giclee printer's websites I have discovered that many who offer Giclee printing really dont understand the importance of color control, they think it's just a matter of using a good printer with uv inks and archival papers, and this is very true,.
But there is much more to what makes a "REAL GICLEE PRINT"
and that is by "INDIVIDUALLY SELECTING COLORS AND SECTIONS for full color control " in the giclee setup.
Maybe these ones should learn more about what artist expect and give them what they expect, most of those who offer giclee printing do not offer individual selective color control of all colors and hues to reproduce an accurate giclee print of the original art piece,
because if they did this, these printers would have to spend many hours controling each color of the painting, especially when it comes to mixed media which involves much more time to control the individual colors due to different mediums absorb light differently so each color and medium must be adjusted individually to make a great giclee print.
How do i know about color because i am an artist and a retired photographer and darkroom artist with many years of darkroom creativity so believe me i know color when it comes to creating and reproducing art. After all giclee printing is not just simply printing,..... IT IS ART.
I do not pass satisfaction untill each of all colors and sections are to the best it can be.
We offer precise individual color setups not just "average color setups" and if we see more areas or sections of the print that need work we select each color untill we get it as close as possible to the original art work, we work on that area till it meets our satisfaction before the artist even sees the final print and it does take many hours of work. I treat each piece of art that comes into our gallery as if it were my own art piece.
Artists made etchings on copper (plates) and would make limited editions prints on paper centuries ago.
Some artists never even sell their originals: they only market limited editions.
Others enhance the print with painted brush strokes, giving each piece a unique feel.
If you are an artist or a photographer, a digital artist who manipulate your images, giclee prints are for you.
We offer full isolated selective individual color control and sections for precise color correction on all giclee printing
Canvas Printing
Proper coating can help eliminate scratches or even add surface texture never is varnish used as it will yellow in time.
Color gamut:
the major issues with some canvas is a reduced color gamut not so with our canvas.
The new way of hanging canvas giclee prints is without a frame.
Below are three ways of displaying your canvas artwork,
as a canvas stretched gallery wrap or Print on a Regular Canvas Wrap or as a regular stretch.
or use the classic floating frame for canvas giclee paintings from our
picture framing department
Water resistance:
A good canvas should not run when touched or when a little droplet of water falls on it.
Giclee Watercolor
You will be surprised how great watercolor giclees can look. Because pure cotton textured papers similar or identical to the traditional papers. Gamut rendition is very good
We use only pigment inks for canvas or watercolor giclee printing
What makes a great giclee print?
We can setup and prepare your files for giclee printing but if you prefer to do your own giclee setup make sure your files are color balanced there is no clipping in highlights and shadows.
You can easily see any issues by running a histogram in Photoshop make it sharp.
A giclee must be made with a high quality printer.
Inks and substrates
As for inks, it goes without saying that pigments should be used.
The papers archival, acid free substrates.
Are giclee prints worth printing?
Some think that originals are the only way to go. But over the centuries artists have painted paintings that would crack, yellow, or even rott. This has never stopped a good work of art not to be appreciated and valued, after all how many times have the museums repaired famous paintings worth millions. But it is not the medium that matters, it is the rarity and desirability of a piece that will command value.
Giclee Printing Longevity
Accelerated tests for giclee prints have been conducted in many fields with extremely high amounts of UV light, humidity etc are applied to simulate what will happen in a long period of time.
and all reports are very promising.
We have a test print in our window testing for fading from the year 2000. Still no signs of fading
in 2020 it will be in my window for 20 years.
Also have tested L/E lithograph prints lasted less than a year.
The giclee technique is becoming so popular because an artist can actually make a decent income in addition to selling the original art.
If the artist wishes, the original does not even have to be sold.
Digital artists as myself create giclees as their choice of medium.
Photographers now can offer their work on fine art papers and canvas.
And some artists including my giclee art printing use original and digital painting techniques that are very time consuming.
If we were to depend on just the originals, we could not make it, in some cases making less than $1.00/hr..
Giclee printing offers a great outlet with much better color than other methods of reproductions and longevity.
Canvas or watercolor printing prices
High Quality Photo Printing
If your a prolific photographer or just starting to learn photography, giclee printing is the highest quality you will find and has the best longivity for your printing projects. Photographic artist can now have their photographic art printed as the highest quality of giclee photo printing and enlargements possible.