Original Digital Prints
The Castle Gallery promotes and sells original handmade prints; etchings, screenprints, lithographs, drypoints, mezzotints, collagraphs, linocuts, woodcuts, wood engravings and monoprints. We also sell original digital prints which make use of computer technology and digital printers. These are not reproductions.
Artists, such as Fiona Watson, make an informed choice regarding her use of printmaking technique. She is an accomplished etcher but for some images she chooses to use digital techniques as she can achieve more intense colour effects and more varied mark making.
Original prints are created because the artist enjoys the challenge of the technique, the marks, tonal qualities and other effects. The artist is intimately involved with the process which is labour intensive and technically challenging. The number of prints in the edition is ultimately limited by the durability of printmaking materials and the patience of the artist.
Original digital prints are conceived of as original prints, that is, there is no painting or other source from which the image has been directly taken. They are not reproductions, but original works of art created through the medium of a computer and printed by a high-resolution printer using long-lasting pigment-based inks. They can be found in the permanent collections of many of the world’s greatest museums.
An artist may gather together source material such as drawings, photographs and other material and input them into the computer to help create the final form of the image. This final image exists only in the computer until it is rendered onto archival paper using a high-quality printer. The renowned Glasgow Print Studio runs courses which involve the use of Adobe Photoshop to create digital images by manipulation of files and the use of layering to create montages.
An original digital print uses the same, or a similar, printing process as a giclée print. The term giclée began as a description of the way an inkjet printer sprays ink onto a surface. However, giclée has now become the label for inkjet-produced reproductions of art created in another medium, such as an oil painting. This has created some confusion and blurred the distinction between an original digital print and a reproduction.
Recently, publishers of reproduction giclée prints have been numbering and signing their prints in order to mimic the conventions associated with original prints. These reproduction prints have been cynically marketed as ‘artist’s prints’, ‘limited edition prints’, ‘fine art prints. Reproduction prints do not the same value and worth as original prints. When you purchase an original print, you are buying something of integrity by an artist who has put heart and soul into it. That cannot be said of a reproduction giclée print.
Artists, such as Fiona Watson, make an informed choice regarding her use of printmaking technique. She is an accomplished etcher but for some images she chooses to use digital techniques as she can achieve more intense colour effects and more varied mark making.
Original prints are created because the artist enjoys the challenge of the technique, the marks, tonal qualities and other effects. The artist is intimately involved with the process which is labour intensive and technically challenging. The number of prints in the edition is ultimately limited by the durability of printmaking materials and the patience of the artist.
Original digital prints are conceived of as original prints, that is, there is no painting or other source from which the image has been directly taken. They are not reproductions, but original works of art created through the medium of a computer and printed by a high-resolution printer using long-lasting pigment-based inks. They can be found in the permanent collections of many of the world’s greatest museums.
An artist may gather together source material such as drawings, photographs and other material and input them into the computer to help create the final form of the image. This final image exists only in the computer until it is rendered onto archival paper using a high-quality printer. The renowned Glasgow Print Studio runs courses which involve the use of Adobe Photoshop to create digital images by manipulation of files and the use of layering to create montages.
An original digital print uses the same, or a similar, printing process as a giclée print. The term giclée began as a description of the way an inkjet printer sprays ink onto a surface. However, giclée has now become the label for inkjet-produced reproductions of art created in another medium, such as an oil painting. This has created some confusion and blurred the distinction between an original digital print and a reproduction.
Recently, publishers of reproduction giclée prints have been numbering and signing their prints in order to mimic the conventions associated with original prints. These reproduction prints have been cynically marketed as ‘artist’s prints’, ‘limited edition prints’, ‘fine art prints. Reproduction prints do not the same value and worth as original prints. When you purchase an original print, you are buying something of integrity by an artist who has put heart and soul into it. That cannot be said of a reproduction giclée print.