Online Mini Lesson 23
Painting Over
Giclées
A
"Giclée"
or "Giclee" (properly spelled with an accent over the first "e" as in
Giclée ...
but either with or without the accent, people use both spellings)
is a special kind
of Ink Jet printed on canvas ... for a definition go to Wikipedia
at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gicl%C3%A9e
The
Giclée is a very fine inkjet sprayed on canvas so
that no dots or patterns appear as in normal computer printers (or
magazine printed pages) ... no dots. There are other printers that
achieve dotless smooth printing (more on that below). The bottom
line
Giclées on canvas are used as fine arts prints where
an artist wants to sell multiples of their paintings. This Online
Mini Lesson addresses another Giclée use
---printing an artist's photo reference on canvas and painting over
the printed photo. This approach uses the printed
Giclée photo on canvas as an "underlay" or
"underpainting"
for their final oil painting.
Other sites that talk about
Giclées"
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080616152607AAPLJhA
http://www.pablopicassoclub.com/painting-over-giclee-27782.html
http://www.stanvosburg.com/balboag.htm
http://www.giclee-information.org/giclee_embellish.htmlhttp://www.fineprintimaging.com/about/tips/embellishing.htm
http://www.greatgiclee.com/giclee_coating.html
MY 50 Year Cover/Giclée Story
In 1957 I painted a magazine cover (left below) ... then in 2006 the publisher contacted me to do it again???!!! Ellery Queen was doing a year of "retro" covers from their past covers in 2006, found all the others they used again in 2006 but could not locate my 1957 original oil painting to reproduce from again ... instead they found me on the web and ... read the quote from Page 114, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine May Issue, 1957 below.
" ON OUR. COVER: This month another in our series of classic covers- the work of Barry Waldman. Mr. Waldman is a graduate of Pratt Institute, where he later held a teaching position. He has also had two successful careers in commercial art. In the 'fifties he did oil paintings for magazine covers and book-jackets, including the May 1957 EQMM cover copied for this issue. He subsequently founded three art studios that dealt with commercial art and portrait painting. Today he is a full-time easel painter who has had numerous exhibitions in several states. We managed to locate him, but not the original oil painting for this cover, in Georgia, where he currently lives. When we explained that we could not reproduce the cover without the original painting, he kindly offered to repaint it for us from scratch, using the fifty-year-old magazine as his guide. The result is a dead ringer for his 1957 illustration, and one of the best covers, we think, in the classic series."
I did the 2006 (right image) oil painting over a
Giclée, more
below the two covers
1957
Cover........................................................2006
Cover
I copied the 1957 cover itself into my computer and since the magazine had changed shape for the 2006 version, I then:
-
Reproportioned and recropped the art to fit the new cover shape for 2006
-
Added new areas that the in Photoshop to fit the new cover shape
-
Blew the image up to fit on an 18” by 24” canvas
-
“Despectled” the moiré pattern caused by the 1957 cover printing dots.
(see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halftone on Wikipedia) -
Sent the enhanced, 18” X 24” high rez image to a Giclée printer
-
Sprayed the Giclée canvas with a retouch varnish shield
-
Did a complete oil painting on top of the Giclee and sent it to the publisher
Let me clarify ...I did the above oil painting for the 2006 magazine cover using a Giclée as the underlay, but all the steps are not necessary for someone doing an oil painting. Say you had a photograph of a still life or landscape you had and wanted to paint that scene using a Giclée of that photo to paint over ... the steps would be:
-
Find a good Giclée on canvas supplier (hints below).
-
Consult with them as to how to put the photo or portions of the photo on the final canvas size you want.
-
Get the photo to them either by walking into their shop, sending the image via email or the Giclée vendor’s web site.
-
Get the Giclée printed photo on canvas.
-
Spray the Giclée printed canvas with your photo printed on it with retouch varnish*.
-
Start painting.
-
*I say spray retouch varnish in that Giclées use water based inks and brushing retouch varnish would smear the image.
-
Also don’t sneeze on the Giclée... that might also make the water based inks run.
-
Further, some Giclée printing shops offer to varnish the Giclées when they print them as an option. Painting over their varnish is an unknown. I have not done that, while my experience with my spray varnished Giclées has been good.
-
Some people also use Giclées to print their artwork , either oil paintings on canvas or watercolors on watercolor paper to make multiple sales of one painting. I am not talking about that ... I am addressing using a Giclée on canvas to paint over completely.
-
Some artists print a Giclée and PARTIALLY paint into it to sell reproductions of their work as “ENHANCED GICLÉES or ENHANCED REPRODUCTIONS ...again, I am not talking about that ... I am addressing using a Giclée on canvas to paint over completely in oil paint.
Giclée printer’s quality: Some printers on canvas do not use Iris Printers and do not use archival inks, but claim to. BUYER BEWARE!!! Check with other artists or blogs or WEB sites that evaluate Giclée printing on canvas.
"Google" Giclée printing on canvas and here are some result of a search I made:
http://www.yourGicléeartprinting.com/
New development: Epson 9800 printers
In addition to Iris printers, there are Epson 9800 printers. The 9800 model uses the K3 8 color ink system to render images.
Because it prints up to 2880 x 1440 dots per inch, it has no visible dot pattern.
The produced images maintain all the tonalities and hues of the original file.
The printer in the link below uses Epson K3 UltraChrome inks. Epson’s UltraChrome which they say is formulated to be resistant to UV light and is rated to remain true for at least 30 years although, depending on the paper used, some claim it can last over 75 years.
Here is an Epson 9800 printer: http://www.cp-digital.com/Giclée.html
Addenda:
"Isn’t using a camera, projector or a
Giclée
cheating?"
Leonardo DaVinci didn’t have a camera, so he took TWO easels and a large sheet of glass and placed the glass saddling the two easels and he TRACED the landscape to better understand the perspective.
Jan
VerMeer used a "Camera
Obscura" (click on
the words Camera Obscura to see more about it). VerMeer may have
TRACED the image produced as part of his painting process. The odd
perspectives and the strange and characteristic highlight or "light
pings" in his paintings are characteristic of the Camera Obscura.
There also is substantial evidence that Vermeer may have use another
optical device: the "Camera Lucida". See the books listed below and
buy them or get them from your library to follow up this fascinating
story about how these great painters used cameras and pre-camera
used other optical and mechanical means to build great pictures.
The camera arrived just in time for Edgar Degas. He became an expert photographer and the camera influenced his vision in his paintings. Prior to Degas, the figures in paintings were essentially totally contained inside the picture rectangle – Degas CUT OFF the figure in imitation of the camera. Look at his work
Many painters and illustrators have used projectors, a Camera Lucida and painted over photograph. The choice is the artist's ... not the critics. Someone with no drawing or painting skills using optical aids cannot produce good work and many who have used optical aids have produced good to great work. An artist needs drawing and painting skill to use the drawing aids referred to.
A
book on the use of the camera or camera obscura at Amazon.com:
Vermeer's Camera : Uncovering the Truth Behind the Masterpieces
by Philip Steadman
For more on all then uses of the camera and other aids to painting; also at Amazon.com is: Secret Knowledge: Rediscovering the Lost Techniques of the Old Masters by David Hockney
An index page of all Online Mini Art Lessons are at:
www.Interactiveartschool.com/free-art-lessons.html
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Not sure it's OK to do an oil painting painted over a Giclée? ... scroll down to the last paragraphs of this page titled: "Isn’t using a camera, projector or a Giclée cheating?".