In the French dictionary a giclee (zhee-CLAY) will be defined as meaning “to spray or squirt.” However others might say "giclee" doesn't mean "to spray,” that "Giclee" isn't an infinitive and that it is the feminine of a past participle. So if there is some argument over what the term Giclee means I believe that the intention of the term is to define a printed copy of an original artwork. Giclee is basically scanning the artwork and then using that scan to print it out on a special printer. This printer is not the same as a standard desktop inkjet printer, and is much larger. Giclee prints are a little over a meter wide and are often referred to as a “knitting machine” as they look very similar.
Giclees are produced from digital scans of existing artwork. Also, since many artists now produce only digital art, there is no "original" that can be hung on a wall. Giclees solve that problem, while creating a whole new vibrant digital medium for art.
When printing there are any number of media for example canvas to watercolor paper to transparent acetates. Giclees are better then the traditional lithography in many ways. The colors are brighter, last longer and are so high-resolution that they are virtually continuous tone, rather than tiny dots. The range of color for giclees is far beyond that of lithography, and by viewing in comparison with each other you will find that the details are far crisper in giclee.
Lithography prints use tiny dots of four colors--cyan, magenta, yellow and black; to fool the eye into seeing various hues and shades. Colors are "created" by printing different size dots of these four colors.
Again Giclees use inkjet technology, but more sophisticated than your desktop printer. The process employs six colors--light cyan, cyan, light magenta, magenta, yellow and black--of lightfast, pigmented inks and finer, more numerous, and replaceable print heads resulting in a wider color gamut, and the ability to use various media to print on. The ink is sprayed onto the page, actually mixing the color on the page to create true shades and hues.
Giclees were originally developed as a proofing system for lithograph printing presses, but it became apparent that the presses were having a hard time delivering the quality and color of the giclee proofs. They evolved into the more popular form over lithography’s and are now the cheaper and more common way to make a copy print. They are coveted by collectors for their fidelity and quality, and desired by galleries because they don't have to be produced in huge quantities with their large layout of capital and storage.
In addition, Giclees are produced directly from a digital file that is created by scanning the original. This will save generations of detail-robbing negatives and printing plates, as with traditional printing.
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Showing posts with label artwork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label artwork. Show all posts
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Monday, March 15, 2010
The Salmon in Northwest Native Indian Artwork and Culture
There are several species of salmon fish in the Pacific Northwest region. These are the Coho, Sockeye, Pink, Chum, Atlantic and the largest which is the King or Chinook. Salmon are born in the rivers and swim down to the ocean where they live in the saltwater. At spawning time, they return to the river where they were born, lay the eggs, and then die. The young hatch and start the life cycle over again. Salmon fish have always been an important mainstay food source for the Northwest Native Indian people as well as much wildlife in the region including many large birds, bears, and river otters. This is the reason why the salmon is a popular subject in Northwest Native Indian artwork and culture.
According to Northwest Native Indian legend, the salmon were actually people with superhuman abilities and eternal lives. The Salmon people lived in great houses under the ocean but since they knew that humans on land needed food, they offered themselves to the land based tribes as food by turning into salmon fish. Their spirits were returned back to the ocean where they were reborn again. One tribe on land was short of food because the salmon never came to their waters. But they heard about the Salmon people. So the chief sent out an expedition to find these Salmon people in order to ask them to come to their waters. After many days of travel, the expedition arrived in a new land where the Salmon people were. The chief of the Salmon people ordered four of their villagers to go into the sea where they became salmon as soon as the water reached their faces. He ordered others to retrieve these new salmon fish which were then cooked as a welcoming feast for the guests in the expedition.
The chief told the guests to eat as much but the bones of the salmon fish, even the smallest ones, were not to be thrown out. All of the salmon bones were collected by the villagers after the guests were careful enough to lay them into little piles. The Salmon people then threw these bones back into the water. Minutes later, the four individuals who originally turned into the salmon fish reappeared and joined the others.
Over the next few days, the guests watched the Salmon people repeat this process with the salmon bones over and over again. However, during a subsequent feast, one of the guests from the expedition secretly held back some of the salmon bones. This time, when one of the Salmon people came back from out of the water, he was covering his face and said that some of the bones must be missing since his cheeks were gone. Another said that she was missing her chin. Alarmed by what had happened, the guest brought out the missing salmon bones he had previously held back. The two Salmon people with missing body parts then went back into the sea with these bones. Upon their return back to land, both Salmon people had their complete bodies again.
The expedition asked the chief to let some of his Salmon people visit their waters and streams to help supply much needed food. The chief agreed to do so as long as the tribe agreed to throw back all the salmon bones into the water so that the Salmon people could return home intact. If this was not respected, the tribe was told that the Salmon people would refuse to return to the tribe's waters. So the tribe always honored the return of the salmon to their streams every year and respected the rules set by the Salmon people chief. This ensured an adequate food supply for the tribe every year.
One interesting fact is that when White men first arrived to the region, the Northwest Native Indian people did not want to sell salmon to them. It was feared that the salmon not be treated with respect by the White men who were ignorant of the required customs and regulations set by the Salmon people.
According to Northwest Native Indian legend, the salmon were actually people with superhuman abilities and eternal lives. The Salmon people lived in great houses under the ocean but since they knew that humans on land needed food, they offered themselves to the land based tribes as food by turning into salmon fish. Their spirits were returned back to the ocean where they were reborn again. One tribe on land was short of food because the salmon never came to their waters. But they heard about the Salmon people. So the chief sent out an expedition to find these Salmon people in order to ask them to come to their waters. After many days of travel, the expedition arrived in a new land where the Salmon people were. The chief of the Salmon people ordered four of their villagers to go into the sea where they became salmon as soon as the water reached their faces. He ordered others to retrieve these new salmon fish which were then cooked as a welcoming feast for the guests in the expedition.
The chief told the guests to eat as much but the bones of the salmon fish, even the smallest ones, were not to be thrown out. All of the salmon bones were collected by the villagers after the guests were careful enough to lay them into little piles. The Salmon people then threw these bones back into the water. Minutes later, the four individuals who originally turned into the salmon fish reappeared and joined the others.
Over the next few days, the guests watched the Salmon people repeat this process with the salmon bones over and over again. However, during a subsequent feast, one of the guests from the expedition secretly held back some of the salmon bones. This time, when one of the Salmon people came back from out of the water, he was covering his face and said that some of the bones must be missing since his cheeks were gone. Another said that she was missing her chin. Alarmed by what had happened, the guest brought out the missing salmon bones he had previously held back. The two Salmon people with missing body parts then went back into the sea with these bones. Upon their return back to land, both Salmon people had their complete bodies again.
The expedition asked the chief to let some of his Salmon people visit their waters and streams to help supply much needed food. The chief agreed to do so as long as the tribe agreed to throw back all the salmon bones into the water so that the Salmon people could return home intact. If this was not respected, the tribe was told that the Salmon people would refuse to return to the tribe's waters. So the tribe always honored the return of the salmon to their streams every year and respected the rules set by the Salmon people chief. This ensured an adequate food supply for the tribe every year.
One interesting fact is that when White men first arrived to the region, the Northwest Native Indian people did not want to sell salmon to them. It was feared that the salmon not be treated with respect by the White men who were ignorant of the required customs and regulations set by the Salmon people.
Monday, January 11, 2010
Add extra value to your art work
There are several things that you might not have thought of, that add extra value to your artwork and can make it worth more money when you come to sell it. I'm not talking here about reworking pieces you feel haven't come up to scratch. Yes, it is sometimes possible to rescue a less than perfect watercolour by using a pen and ink technique, and you can paint right over parts of an oil or acrylic painting to in effect completely rework the area, but here I am talking about techniques that don't involve changing your artwork in any way.
Sometimes you only need to put a cardboard mount around a painting to bring it out of the doldrums, and there is no doubt that the right mount and frame can do wonders for a slightly mediocre piece of art. For a sculpture, or a piece of ceramics, the right stand and appropriate lighting can make a big difference to the way it displays, but after you've made sure that your artwork is being displayed to its best what else can you do to add to its worth?
The first and most important thing you should do is make sure that your artwork is signed legibly. It's surprising how many people forget to sign their art, but it makes a big difference to the buyer. A signed piece of work is worth more money than an unsigned one, and it doesn't matter whether you sign it on the front, at the top or bottom, within the composition, or even on the back, just as long as you sign it. If you have an illegible signature spare a thought for future generations trying to make out what it says and wondering whether they have a piece by a famous artist. The first thing almost everybody wants to know about any piece of artwork is who made it, what's the name of the artist. If it's unsigned it's almost as though you didn't rate it enough to put your name to it, and if you don't rate it no one else will either.
The second thing you need to do, in order to add value to your art, is to give it a title. Now, some people don't like titling their work because they feel that it pigeonholes it and in some way restricts the viewer to seeing it within a particular set of conceptual boundaries, so if you are one of these people then you should really consider calling it 'Untitled'. Even with the title that says 'Untitled', a piece of work is worth more money than if it doesn't have a title at all. Artwork without a title leaves the potential buyer wondering whether perhaps it had a title once that has been lost, it leaves the buyer with an unanswered question and means they are less likely to buy it and more likely to move on to another piece instead.
Along with the title, your artwork would benefit from a short explanation about it. The more a buyer knows about a piece of work the more likely they are to buy it. If you think about it by putting yourself in the buyer's shoes for a moment, if you're faced with two pieces of work which are similar and you like them both, but you know nothing about one and quite a lot about the other, which one would you buy? Of course you would be much more likely to buy a piece of artwork that had information about it, because you'd feel more involved with it, you'd understand something about its history and about the person that created it, so it has more meaning for you and you feel a connection with it right from the start.
The short explanation or description about your piece of art can say whatever you want it to, there are no rules, but it's useful to tell people either what it's about or what it means to you. One thing you don't want to do is tell people what it should mean to them, the viewer or buyer of your artwork wants to be able to decide for themselves what the piece means to them, and it doesn't matter if it's something entirely different from what it means to you.
Most people buying artwork do like to know what it was you meant as you created it, or what drove you to create the piece the way it is. This can mean telling them something about you, your thought processes as you were beginning and working through the piece, or maybe what was going on in your life at the time you were creating this piece of art. You might decide to tell them about something you'd seen or heard that affected you in a particular way and that prompted you to express something specific with this particular medium. You might be telling them that this particular piece of art is one of a collection from your 'blue period', or your 'impressionistic landscape period', or whatever.
If you don't really want to give this information away, then perhaps instead you could describe the medium you have used, the particular techniques you've employed in using this medium and even the length of time it took you to create the piece. Really any information you give about the piece is better than no information at all, and it doesn't matter whether the potential buyer understands your concept or not, it still makes it more attractive to them to know that there was an intention of one sort or another behind the original idea.
Sometimes you only need to put a cardboard mount around a painting to bring it out of the doldrums, and there is no doubt that the right mount and frame can do wonders for a slightly mediocre piece of art. For a sculpture, or a piece of ceramics, the right stand and appropriate lighting can make a big difference to the way it displays, but after you've made sure that your artwork is being displayed to its best what else can you do to add to its worth?
The first and most important thing you should do is make sure that your artwork is signed legibly. It's surprising how many people forget to sign their art, but it makes a big difference to the buyer. A signed piece of work is worth more money than an unsigned one, and it doesn't matter whether you sign it on the front, at the top or bottom, within the composition, or even on the back, just as long as you sign it. If you have an illegible signature spare a thought for future generations trying to make out what it says and wondering whether they have a piece by a famous artist. The first thing almost everybody wants to know about any piece of artwork is who made it, what's the name of the artist. If it's unsigned it's almost as though you didn't rate it enough to put your name to it, and if you don't rate it no one else will either.
The second thing you need to do, in order to add value to your art, is to give it a title. Now, some people don't like titling their work because they feel that it pigeonholes it and in some way restricts the viewer to seeing it within a particular set of conceptual boundaries, so if you are one of these people then you should really consider calling it 'Untitled'. Even with the title that says 'Untitled', a piece of work is worth more money than if it doesn't have a title at all. Artwork without a title leaves the potential buyer wondering whether perhaps it had a title once that has been lost, it leaves the buyer with an unanswered question and means they are less likely to buy it and more likely to move on to another piece instead.
Along with the title, your artwork would benefit from a short explanation about it. The more a buyer knows about a piece of work the more likely they are to buy it. If you think about it by putting yourself in the buyer's shoes for a moment, if you're faced with two pieces of work which are similar and you like them both, but you know nothing about one and quite a lot about the other, which one would you buy? Of course you would be much more likely to buy a piece of artwork that had information about it, because you'd feel more involved with it, you'd understand something about its history and about the person that created it, so it has more meaning for you and you feel a connection with it right from the start.
The short explanation or description about your piece of art can say whatever you want it to, there are no rules, but it's useful to tell people either what it's about or what it means to you. One thing you don't want to do is tell people what it should mean to them, the viewer or buyer of your artwork wants to be able to decide for themselves what the piece means to them, and it doesn't matter if it's something entirely different from what it means to you.
Most people buying artwork do like to know what it was you meant as you created it, or what drove you to create the piece the way it is. This can mean telling them something about you, your thought processes as you were beginning and working through the piece, or maybe what was going on in your life at the time you were creating this piece of art. You might decide to tell them about something you'd seen or heard that affected you in a particular way and that prompted you to express something specific with this particular medium. You might be telling them that this particular piece of art is one of a collection from your 'blue period', or your 'impressionistic landscape period', or whatever.
If you don't really want to give this information away, then perhaps instead you could describe the medium you have used, the particular techniques you've employed in using this medium and even the length of time it took you to create the piece. Really any information you give about the piece is better than no information at all, and it doesn't matter whether the potential buyer understands your concept or not, it still makes it more attractive to them to know that there was an intention of one sort or another behind the original idea.
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