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Author Topic: Art  (Read 865 times)

black-is-white

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Art
« on: February 25, 2010, 11:10:04 pm »
So anybody else submitting artwork for Keycon? This is my first year that I am presenting some of my work, and my second year at Keycon. Wanted to know what other people were doing for framing/matting and things such as that. Also looking to meet up with some other artists that will be there showing some work.

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crowdog66

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Re: Art
« Reply #1 on: March 07, 2010, 11:15:20 am »
Since I won Best Sci-Fi piece at last year's con, I'm definitely going to be submitting art again this year. :) No "analog" art, only digital prints, but I'm having them printed at The Lab Works:

http://www.thelabworks.com/

They'll do 8x10 archival Kodak prints (guaranteed colorfast for 75 years) for around $5 each if you provide ready-to-print RGB TIFFS, which as far as I can tell is the best deal in town.

As far as framing, I tend to pick up cheap mattes and create artwork to fit them, but I've got a couple of pieces this year that I created a few years ago, and those will need to be custom matted. I'll probably be hitting Ashton Gallery on Main for those. This year I want to check out Michael's to see what kind of matte/frame combos they have on sale at a reasonable price, since having a piece both matted and framed does indeed increase the likelihood of the piece selling.

As far as meeting up... do you mean before the con? If you mean at the con, what name will you be exhibiting under? :)

And in case you're curious, my deviantART page has several pieces from last Keycon, including "The Captain's Cat" (Best Sci-Fi)... http://prairiecrow.deviantart.com/
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black-is-white

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Re: Art
« Reply #2 on: March 08, 2010, 10:51:11 pm »
I have been looking into various places to get stuff printed. I have been getting work printed at the U of M print shop and been pretty happy with the results. I can't spend a lot of money on this exhibit so I am looking for print shops with good quality for a few dollars a print. I am still learning how to do a lot of the final preparations for artwork display such as the matting and such. Until now I haven't really been worried with proper display.

And yes I was referring to meeting artists at the convention. My name is Bradly Wohlgemuth, most of my work will be digital drawings. I hope to get some more work done before the convention. It seems that date is getting close really fast.

I looked at your deviantart account, nice work. I would comment but I am really supposed to be studying for art history.
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crowdog66

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Re: Art
« Reply #3 on: March 09, 2010, 12:01:46 pm »
If you're looking for good quality at a low price, The Lab Works should be at the top of your list IMO. So-called Giclée prints (ink-jet prints) may look nice at first, but they aren't colorfast and start fading after only a few years. Part of the issue for me is providing a quality product to my clients and those who choose to buy/bid on my work, so I've chosen the Kodak archival print route.

If you want to meet at the con, I'd be up for that and can try to get some other artists together as well. Will you be wearing a nametag with your real name on it? If not, you can keep an eye out for mine (Laurie E. Smith); I should be in the Art Show room when it opens on Friday to do set-up of my panels. I'm short and somewhat stout, with red hair and round Harry Potter-ish glasses. :) Perhaps we could do coffee that day around 4 PM, before the con really gets up and running?
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black-is-white

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Re: Art
« Reply #4 on: March 09, 2010, 07:37:24 pm »
I didn't know that those prints fade. I will definitely look into printing there. I am a bit worried about going through all this work and not selling very much, leaving me with all these preparation costs and a bunch of prints. I guess you could say I am nervous, I have never done anything like this before so I am learning as fast as I can.

As for the nametag I rather doubt it though I am not hard to notice (mostly because of height). I am 6 ' 5" with dark hair, beard, generally wearing black, sometimes red or white, and have a few piercings. I guess I will be there Friday to set up my stuff. It would be nice to go for coffee, it would be really unique to get other artists to join if they could.

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ArtPrinter

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Re: Art
« Reply #5 on: August 04, 2010, 11:35:02 pm »
So-called Giclée prints (ink-jet prints) may look nice at first, but they aren't colorfast and start fading after only a few years.

This is very incorrect information.  If you've had that experience with "Giclees", it's because a lot of people call things "Giclees" that aren't, they're simply inkjet prints done off a cheap printer intended for disposable business or home type printing.  (Few people know what a "Giclee" actually is, so it's pretty easy to use the term fraudulently.) Low-cost printers use dye-based inks, which are cheaper to manufacture than pigment based inks.  Any standard printer you buy at an office product store - HP, Canon, Epson, etc - for under $200 will use dye based inks, and yes, they do fade.  (In fairness, most of the printing by the average consumer or business does not need to be archival.) The higher end printers - Epson 2200/R2880, etc, and pretty much any wide-format printer - use pigment inks, which are as near permanent as any ink can be.  The pigment inks still need to be used with archival-quality paper in order to achieve long life without fading.  A print from an Epson R2880, using Epson ink or a properly identified substitute like Media Street's G-Chrome, on Epson Archival Paper (formerly called "Enhanced Matte", now called "Ultra Premium Presentation Paper"), will not show any fading for close to 100 years. 

There is a great article on art and photo reproduction by Henrik Wilhelm of Wilhelm Imaging Research at http://www.dpandi.com/resources/permanence/Wilhelm062000.pdf .  He's an independent analyst, not employed by any of the companies making printers.
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crowdog66

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Re: Art
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2010, 03:23:44 pm »
Thank you for the information, ArtPrinter. :) I appreciate being educated. So if I understand you correctly, proper Giclee prints use archival ink and are colorfast, but cheapie Giclee prints (which shouldn't be called Giclee in the first place) are much less so?
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ArtPrinter

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Re: Art
« Reply #7 on: August 29, 2010, 12:13:50 am »
Yes, that's pretty much it.  "Giclee" is a word that gets abused a lot - technically it actually referred to a very specific printer that was very high-end equipment, 15 or 20 years ago.  That printer, and much of its technology, are pretty much obsolete now, but the name ended up becoming a generic term for a high-end inkjet print, sort of like when people say "making a xerox" for any kind of a photocopy.  And of course, there are some people who use "giclee" to simply mean "inkjet print".

Unfortunately, it's tough to tell just by looking at a print whether it's truly archival or not.  It's always good when an artist uses a term other than giclee, that specifies a little more about the actual process used. But generally, if it's an artist who's reasonably well known, you're at least fairly likely to be safe.

Hope that helps.  It's great to be cautious, no one should get stuck with a poorly made print, but I know there are plenty of artists who sell on the con circuit who are doing well-made prints that won't fade in your lifetime, and you shouldn't have to be afraid to buy their prints! :)
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