This past week I went on an awesome tour with
a small group to artists to Hemlock Printers in Burnaby, BC. I have never really understood everything that
can and is done to produce giclee. The manager Peter Madliger for the digital
graphic arts section was wonderful to take us on a tour of the facility and
answer all of our questions. The artist
that arranged it for us Lalita Hamill took a picture which we saw photographed
and taken through most of the process. (I
say most, as they only did the first print and there were still things to be
done in colour matching to make it match the original.) I really wanted to thank them again for
taking the time to walk us through the whole process.
Photographing the Work
Talking about inks and colours for off set printing and digital printing
Adjusting Colours and comparing to originals
Lalita's Originial with the first print
I did learn a few things that may be of
interest if you plan to produce giclees:
if the piece has lots of texture it is better to photograph it than take
a digital shot (digital shots will flatten the picture); oils should be photographed without the final
glaze and without the frame. After it is
glazed then do the colour matching; prints on paper last longer than those on canvas;
canvas giclees need to be treated with a UV coating; the process has a good rub factor and so will not
damage easily; they are usually finished in a Luster or Gloss finish, matt is
seldom used; a good place will keep a printer’s proof so they can colour match
on later orders; the “wrapped” part of the canvas is handled differently by
different printers, some will use a mirror image to cover the space, some will
just put it on smaller bars and at Hemlock they continue the picture around the
corner taking information from the main picture; of course the big cost is the
initial scan and colour proofing so their minimum order is 5 prints of a
picture. One final note was taking the
tour with a group was good because there was a good variety of questions asked
which helped us all learn.
