Are you looking for a way to replicate your original paintings to resell online or gift a friend or family member?
You don’t need expensive photography gear or scanning equipment to get professional quality prints.
By following the tips we discussed in this article, you can recreate your paint into beautiful prints that are gallery worthy.
Step 1: Use a Smartphone or DSLR Camera To Take Photos of Your Art
Using a DSLR camera is an ideal option because there are lots of edit options you can try due to the ability of the camera’s sensor and lens to produce quality images.
But if you don’t have access to a digital camera, your smartphone camera can still capture photos of your artwork and produce fantastic prints.
Include an inch or more of the background behind your artwork while taking shots to give you room for editing when it’s time to process the image.
Don’t forget to clean the lens of your smartphone with a cloth before photographing your artwork. Our phones are constantly in our hands or in and out of our pockets, so there’s a big chance that the lens will pick up specks of dirt, fingerprints, and more.
Wiping it before taking the shots will ensure you get the sharpest, clearest image possible.
Step 2: Edit Your Image
You can do a lot of modifications to the images you’ve taken in a photo editing program like Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom. These apps offer excellent settings that’ll improve the quality of your image.
An essential post-processing action you can take is straightening, which lets you rotate the image till it’s completely straight. The background space you added while taking the shots with the camera will help here, or else you might mistakenly cut off part of the artwork while straightening.
Cropping is also an important step to carry out after ensuring your photo is straight. You want to ensure nothing is visible in the background except your masterpiece. Round up everything by removing blemishes, brightening the whites, and adding contrast.
Be careful with the color correction modifications, as you want the image to retain the qualities of the original as much as possible.
Step 3: Printing Proper
one of the most important decisions you will make while trying to make quality prints is the quality of paper you use for your art prints. Go for quality, acid-free archival paper such as specialist printing, canvas, watercolor, etc.
Setting a high resolution before printing is crucial for the art to print with the best quality. You can also consider printing your artwork on something like metal or acrylic glass.
Best photo printing services
Print-on-demand services are good alternatives for artists who don’t have the time to go through the steps we’ve listed above.
Mpix
The website is simple to use, and they print on Kodak Endura paper with lots of other paper options to choose from. You can import images from photo-backup services like Google Drive, Dropbox, OneDrive, and the most popular social networks.
Once you upload images to your Mpix account, you have various print options to choose from regarding size and print format. You even decide to print on canvas, wood prints, and more.
Mpix is not the cheapest service, but your artwork is certain to come out with rich and very true-to-life colors.
Printique
If printing quality is your only concern, Printique is your best chance of getting your heart’s desires. Although pricier, you know what you’re getting with each print, and they list print papers by their actual names.
There’s also the option to print the date and file name on the back of each image, adding some flair to your prints. The extra money you might spend using Printique will certainly get you much better quality prints.
Snapfish
Snapfish is for those on a budget but still want good-looking prints. They offer great results too, and their web interface is easy to navigate. You can upload your images to the site directly from social media such as Instagram, Facebook, Google Photos, Flickr, or your computer or phone.
How to Price Prints
Art prints are cheaper and easily accessible, so don’t be pricing your prints like they’re originals. Consider multiple aspects that ensure you’re left with profits when pricing.
Factor in your production costs, time, packaging, and shipping. Print-on-demand services work on percentages be aware of that too. Most importantly, be careful when pricing your prints because no matter their quality, you don’t want to take away the value of originals.
You can follow several pricing formulas online to get a rough idea of how much you should charge for your art prints.
Benefits of Art Prints
For the most part, many artists are too engrossed in their work to pay attention to making prints. The question for most creatives lis is whether it’s worth all the time and energy.
Ikona is a service that’s worth mentioning, as they goal is to provide High Quality Art Prints.
Here are a few reasons why it might be worth your time and energy:
Increased Accessibility
Making art prints lets you widen the scope of people who can access your art. Many people can’t easily afford the original works of artists they love. So buying prints is their closest chance of interacting with your art while supporting you.
Passive Income
You can easily sell several copies of a print online, so making prints and putting it up online lets money troop in while you’re focused on your art.
Leverage the Art Print Market
Art prints are a very popular tool for DIY home decoration. There are lots of inspirations on Pinterest and Instagram that have led to a surge in art prices.
Now, people are more inspired than ever to lighten up the walls of their homes with framed artwork. You might want to jump on this trend if you’re an artist of any kind.
Conclusion
Printing Art is a minefield that’s meant to explore by independent artists. It has the tools to blow up your practice. Capitalizing on your creative efforts and scaling up with reproductions is important.
Starting out might prove to be challenging if you’re handling the prints yourself, but obstacles are part of life. Once you get the hang of everything, mistakes will be a thing of the past or, at most minimal.
Selling prints as a professional artist makes you an entrepreneur and business owner. So be ready to grab the bull by the horn and start making quality gallery-worthy prints of your artwork.