Whether you are an amateur artist, an avid art enthusiast or just someone who enjoys strolling through markets and art galleries you have or will inevitably come across the word giclee, (pronounced zhee-KLAY). You may have also noticed that giclee prints can be quite expensive. So what on earth is a giclee print? And why do artists often charge so much for them? After all the are just prints!
Well in the simplest of terms a giclee print is an art print created using an ink jet printer. Easy right? well it's a bit more complicated than that. Especially for the artist seeking to make giclee prints of their work. You see giclee is an unregulated word. WHAT does that mean? Well it means that there is no quality standard for a giclee print, and thus the quality can vary dramatically depending on where you buy them or have them produced. Let me give you another example of an unregulated word vs. a regulated word. Black Forest Ham. In the United States Black Forest Ham is a term thrown around in the most frivolous manner. Any ham with even the semblance of the characteristic Black Forest Ham flavor can be called a Black Forest Ham. But in Germany...well that's a different story. You see in Germany the term "Black Forest Ham" or Schwarzwalder Schinken is a regulated word. That means for a manufacturer to label a ham as a Black Forest Ham, it actually has to be made in the Black Forest region of Germany and adhere to rigid specifications. One might even call it an art. So if you go to Europe and buy a Black Forest Ham, you know exactly what you are paying for. But if you buy a ham labeled Black Forest in the US of A, well it is anyone's guess. See? Regulated and Unregulated. So when you are shopping around for a giclee print or company to produce them for you remember the story of the Schwarzwalder Schinken.
An original water color painting that I recently had professionally scanned.
How do you, as an artist or customer know you are getting a giclee print worthy of the name? Well one thing that could give you a good idea is the price. You have probably heard the old adage "you get what you pay for". I have found that this, more often than not, holds true in the art world. A high quality giclee print starts with a high quality scan and ends with a high quality ink jet printer. Neither of these things are particularly cheap. And in the middle of the process is the person cleaning up any imperfections or inconsistencies that have showed up in the scan and manually correcting colors to get as close as possible to the hues in the original. Now if you are a photographer of any kind you know that the digital alterations done on the photos are often the most laborious part of the job. This extra cost accumulated by the use of expensive machines and human labor is naturally passed on to the customer purchasing the art. Look at the photo above of my 18 X 24 watercolor painting "Somewhere Far Away". This is a photo of the original. I brought this painting to a fine art center here on the Big Island to be professionally scanned. I paid 120 dollars for this service. It includes digital clean up, color correction/matching and two 1/2 (approximate) sized giclee prints, one with the color correction and one without.
You can easily see that the colors of the print on the top are more vibrant and more crisp than the print on the bottom. This is because the print on top is the final product of the work done by the person operating the scanner and applying manual color correction and touch ups. She did an excellent job!
(These prints are for proofing purposes only and not really meant for selling although with a bit of matting and trimming they can look pretty professional.) So in addition to the cost of the scan, I also need to pay for any prints I make using the scan. These vary in price based on size and what they are printed on. (art paper, watercolor paper, canvas ext.) So you can see how the cost can quickly add up.
There are always exceptions, of course, and just because something is expensive does not necessarily mean it is high quality. With this in mind I have found that the best way to assure you are getting a high quality giclee print is to compare it to the original work of the artist (or your own work if you are the artist). The vibrancy and color hues of a good giclee print should be virtually indistinguishable from the original, and depending on the medium of the work, a high quality print may be even more vibrant than the original art piece. A good printing company will always let you proof your work before you are charged for any services, and an artist selling high quality prints should be happy to let you compare them to any original work they have on hand.
Look at a detail of my painting and see if you can tell which one is the original and which one is a giclee print of the color corrected scan.
Can you pick out the Original?
The colors and vibrancy of a high quality print are nearly indistiguishable from the original painting.
So which painting did you decide is the original? The one on the right? Or the one on the left? My husband Jason picked the one on the right. The original work is actually the painting on the left, and the one on the right is the print. You may have noticed that the print is slightly more vibrant than the original. This is due to the high quality scanner and ink jet printer as well as the professionally done color correction. Needless to say I am more than happy with the results. I am especially excited because I just ordered a full sized print on watercolor paper for my Mom to help decorate her new house. As an artist, it is a great feeling knowing that your art is hanging somewhere it will be loved and appreciated (even if it is for your mom lol). Especially when you know it is a high quality and beautiful representation of your original work.