Giclee

Enhance your Canvas Print

Two popular media used for giclee printing are canvas and watercolor paper. Either substrate presents unique opportunities for enhancements. Canvas is a very versatile material to work with. Once a giclee is made on canvas, it can be worked in by painting areas to give them texture and detail. This is commonly referred to as "embellishing". Oil and acrylics can be used for this; it is better to use water resistant canvas to avoid any ink separation. All our canvases are water resistant. After the coat is dry, embellishing can be accomplished with no damage to the inks.

Canvas needs to be coated with a varnish specifically made for giclee. Not coating canvas will result in degradation and possibly yellowing and fading of your prints. Coats can be applied by hand with a roller, with an HPLV spray gun or with a coating machine. All these methods will lead to an even application but high volume coating is better done with automation or spraying. If a brush texture is wanted, texturing gels are a great way to apply brush strokes. These gels are water based and will clear dry. The effect is pretty stunning, giving the canvas deep Dmax and more saturated colors in addition to a texture not unlike traditional oil or acrylic varnishes.

Another technique is to lightly mix acrylic paints to the clear gels. The result is a semi transparent texture with color. This works very well with light areas of the print where the color in the gel can be seen. Black and white canvas prints can be colorized and achieve interesting effects.

Mounting canvas is usually done by stretching the material on stretcher bars. Lately a number of our clients has started to put canvas on masonite boards. When done with the proper archival binding materials, masonite is a very neat way to present giclee prints. One advantage of this system is that canvas giclees will not "relax" due to humidity changes; this is a common problem with stretching, especially for very large prints.

Watercolor paper giclee prints do not offer the same options as canvas with enhancement. Although embellishment can be done with watercolor paints, it is easy to stain the print if not careful. Start light and build up the paint. Metallic colors, which are not available in giclee printing, are a good choice to embellish watercolor.

Watercolor prints look great when put on floating frames and deckled edges. Deckled edges refers to the effect of making the edge of the print look like it was hand torn. Edge rippers are sold that can be used to create beautiful and error free results. Combining this effect with a floating frame (where the print is mounted in a frame on a thick platform) creates a stunningly finished product. Many well known fine artists and photographers use this type of presentation to sell their art.

Giclee prints not only offer a superior product compared to traditional mechanical printing but are also versatile in many ways just like original art work.