Hi my name is Amanda and I am a colorful still life oil painter. In this video I am going to show you how I make prints of my oil paintings at home! When I first started making prints the task was a bit daunting but I have come up with a pretty easy way to do it. Figuring out how to scan my paintings was a big goal of mine for my art business because getting my paintings scanned by someone else costs me $100s of dollars and was not sustainable for how many paintings I make.
To make my prints I use the Canon Pixma Pro 200. This printer prints up to 13x19 size paper. The biggest prints I use it for are 12x12.
To scan my paintings I use the Epson Perfection v600 Photo Scanner. This scanner can scan up to 8.5 x 11.5 ish. I have scanned paintings as big as 12x12 and 11x14 using this scanner. I just take multiple scans and stitch them together. I can make a video about that process soon!
Before scanning my painting I like to make sure there are no bits of dust on it. I do this by putting painters tape over the surface. Next I dust off my scanner and wipe off the scanning bed. Epson has a software you download that lets you control the settings of the scan. I don’t mess with any of the settings besides the resolution and size of scan. I scan all my paintings at 1200 dpi and I size the scan based on the size of the painting I am scanning. Also I save it as a Tiff.
Once scanned I open the scan in photoshop and resize to the original size of the painting. I create a new layer and make sure it is set to sample all layers and then select the spot healing brush. This tool mimics the pixels around it and fills in the area you painted with those pixels. It is a quick way to get rid of little bits of dust. It also helps extend the edge of the painting if needed. Lastly I make a levels adjustment layer and slide the white and black to the start of the histogram. I then save it as a Tiff.
To lay out my print I open a new document that is the same size as the paper I will be using. For this print I used 8.5x11 paper. I make sure it is at 1200 dpi. I open file explorer and drag in the scan of the painting I want to print. I sized it to 8x8 because that is the size of the original so that will make for a good comparison of print vs painting. I then save it as a jpeg.
Now to print it just right click on the jpeg and click print! The Canon Pixma Pro 200 has wireless printing capabilities so I don't have to plug my computer into it. To get my printer ready to print. I open it up and turn it on. The paper that I like to use for my fine art prints is Canon’s Photo Paper Pro Premium Matte paper. To comes in 8.5x11 and 13x19. And the paper weight is 210g/m2. I like this paper because Canon sells it for a very good price for the amount of sheets you get. Next when loading the printer you want to make sure you are loading with the print side facing the right direction for your printer. I have noticed for this paper that the print side curls away from you. It is harder to tell with the 8.5x11 paper but with the 13x19 paper it is a very obvious curl. Also canon puts the print side facing up with the print instruction page. So just be mindful when you pull pages out to not get confused which side was originally face up.
While I was loading the paper I realized I was out of Photo Cyan Ink. So I replaced it really quickly. This printer uses CLI 65 Ink which is about $13 per ink cartridge! When loading the paper you just have to select the paper size and paper type. I like to use the heavyweight art paper setting. When I went to print for some reason my printer wanted me to place my paper in the manual feeding tray rather than the top tray. Lol sometimes it randomly tells me to do this and I have no idea why. With that all squared away I hit print. Depending on the size print you are making and the size paper this could take a bit of time. So I use this time to layout more prints or cut prints.
Once the print is done I cut off the excess using my Dahle 507 paper cutter. I like this paper cutter because the blade is self sharpening. So the cut is super clean every time!
In comparison of the print to the painting all you are missing is just some texture but other than that color wise they look essentially the same.
And that is it! That is how I make Fine Art Prints of my art at home. I hope you found this video helpful and that I was able to make this task seem less daunting. I think as an artist it is very important to make your art accessible to as many people as possible and for some that means they can only afford a print of your work. So learning how to make art prints yourself will lower the cost and in the end make the prints more accessible. Please like and subscribe if you found this video helpful and comment any questions you have! I am pretty new at making youtube videos so I might not explain things super well or show all the steps. But I really want to be a resource and a help to you all so just let me know questions you have! Thanks bye!
Check out my YouTube Video if you want visuals on what I explain in this blog post.
https://youtu.be/AngsHBcMRPM?si=S0DUtfOJHTXPY3ik