Purchasing a downloadable Art Print from your favourite artist will be a cheaper more cost-effective way to bring colour and life into your space. It helps the artist, who let’s face it, is more than likely struggling to even cover costs let alone earn a wage. It also allows you to have some killer artwork to brighten your day and because it is so affordable you can inter-change them often.
There are a couple of things you need to be aware of when printing your own art prints.
Firstly, it is absolutely do-able on your printer at home. You may not get the Giclee quality – after all there is a reason you spend an arm and a leg. However, you will get some really good quality prints to frame and mount in your home or office or to give as a gift.
If you are printing in colour make sure you have enough colour ink in your printer. I can not stress this enough – your art print will look terrible if the colour is out of balance.
For black and white sketches, increasing the sharpness of your image slightly can be advantageous.
TIP: Make sure if you have the digital file, keep a copy of the un-touched image incase you go overboard with editing.
You may need to print it more than once to get it perfect. All printers and monitors are different – one printer might print vivid bold colour, where another it may be a little pale and lack luster. If you are printing a digital print from an artist, you shouldn’t have to mess about too much but adjusting the brightness and the contrast slightly can make the world of difference.
Size matters – and it’s not always the biggest that’s best. When an artist sketches or paints an image, they paint it at a certain size. Most artists selling downloadable prints will have a set size – you will be able to decrease the size and still have a beautiful image – increasing the size too much will have a detrimental effect on the details of the image. This should be avoided. You will lose some detail in an art print (sometimes brush strokes will look smoother) already. Keep this in mind. No more than a 5% increase in size is advised.
Paper – one of the most important parts. I print on to good quality sketch or water colour paper. At least 250gsm. This gives it a professional feel and look once printed. I would steer clear of any paper that is too rough (tooth). Smooth paper with a little bit of grain is perfect.
TIP: Print on to regular paper in black and white to save ink if you are unsure about size. Once you have the size adjusted perfectly, print in colour on regular paper. Once you are happy with the composition of that, only THEN print on to your good paper. This paper can get pricey, save yourself some money.
On a very serious note, if buying a digital downloadable print from an artist, it is still subject to copywrite. You are still only able to print a few copies for your own personal use. They are in no means there for you to sell on or use as your own art. Cutting out the artist signature is illegal in many countries. Remember that the art print is cheaper for 2 reasons, to allow the artist to possible actually earn some money off their talents and to allow you the consumer affordable art. Both reasons are too put more art into the community, which I believe is an essential part of life.
Art brings joy to those who appreciate it. As well as sometimes causing controversy and making people talk about things that otherwise would not be spoken about.
See the downloadable prints available in my Etsy store.
