What is a Giclee Print?
Giclee is a French term. With the advent of the Giclee, the art of fine art printing has become even more precise. Because no screens are used, the prints have a higher apparent resolution than lithographs. The dynamic color range is like serigraphy. In the Giclee process, a fine stream of ink, more than four to five million droplets per second, is sprayed onto archival art paper or canvas. The effect is similar to an air brush technique, but much finer. Each piece is carefully hand mounted onto a drum, which rotates during printing. Exact calculations of hue, value, and density direct the ink of four nozzles. This produces a combination of 512 chromatic changes (with over 3 million colors possible) of highly saturated, nontoxic water-based ink. The artist's color approval and input are essential for creating the final custom setting for edition. The latest advancements in the Giclee process are the work of a sophisticated fine art production facility that utilizes the highest resolution digital printers. This edition of fine art prints is a collaboration between the artist and specially trained printing craftsmen. Displaying a full color spectrum, Giclee prints capture every nuance of an original painting, be it watercolor, oil, or acrylic. The end results are museum quality prints. In addition, many artists go back and paint highlights onto the Giclee prints, called enhancing, thus making every print unique and one of a kind.
Limited Edition Fine Art Giclee's:
My Giclees are printed on canvas and are available in limited number of prints per painting. Your Giclee will come framed, with a beautiful handcrafted custom-made frame. I have chosen the frame personally, and the finished product gives the appearance of an original at a fraction of the cost.
Artist Proofs:
When a limited edition is printed, typically 10% over and above the edition size is designated as a separate edition, if you will, known as Artist Proofs, and they are numbered as such. For example, AP 10/25. They are widely viewed as more desirable because there are less in the "edition". Therefore, they are considered to be more valuable. That is why the initial price is higher than identical prints out of the edition; and why some people collect only Artist Proofs.
