Help! I want to order a fine art print but I’m not even sure what all the options I have to decide between mean!
Here’s a little primer to help you with all the choices you’ll be offered by Fine Art America when you order a print, so that you won’t feel overwhelmed and you’ll love the art prints you order…
1. Pick the artwork/s you love
You can browse all the artworks that are available for purchase as fine art prints over at my Fine Art America online store.
(Unless you live in South Africa, in which case it’s best if you order directly from me instead. Just email me at cath@cathduncan.com with your order request and we’ll take it from there.)
2. Pick your print surface
Fine Art America will print my artwork onto the surface of your choice. They offer archival art paper, canvas, metal, wood, or acrylic. My two favourite options are archival art paper and stretched canvas.
Canvas prints
Though canvas prints are a bit more pricey than prints on art paper, you can get away without framing a canvas print, while you’ll need to budget for framing your art paper print (though canvas prints also look great with floating frames!)
Other nice things about canvas prints are that you can maximise the size of the artwork within a space if you’re not having to account for the space that a frame takes up, and a lot of people really enjoy the canvas texture and the fact that there’s no glass between them and the artwork.
Fine Art America will offer you the option to receive the canvas print with “no stretcher bars”, in which case you’ll receive a rolled canvas. Stretcher bars are the wood frames that your canvas will need to be wrapped around.
Smaller packages are much more affordable to ship, so if you’d like a large print and want to save on shipping costs, then I’d recommend ordering your canvas print as a rolled canvas. When your rolled canvas arrives, get a professional framer to stretch it onto a frame for you. Many will do this for a reasonable price that works out more cost-effective than the shipping costs would have been if you shipped it stretched.
Archival Art Paper Prints
Archival art paper is better suited to more detailed artworks like my magazine paper collages (though these do also work well on canvas). Don’t be fooled by the word “paper”! It’s a nice thick card, and “archival” means that the paper won’t discolour over time. Fine Art America offers several paper choices. I recommend the “Archival Matt Paper”.
Of course an art print on paper needs to be framed behind glass to protect the paper from humidity, finger prints, or other spills, and to provide a structure for hanging it.
Some people would say that a framed artwork looks a bit more high-end than the more casual look of a canvas print, though I’m sure that others would disagree! It’s all about your personal style and preference.
3. Pick your print size
One of the coolest things about fine art prints is that you can have an artwork printed to almost any size to suit the space you’re working with. My originals are professionally scanned at a very high resolution so that the detail remains just as good when you enlarge the print.
One of my favourite print orders was the time when someone wanted 2 small A5 (6 x 8 inch/ 15 x 20cm) original artworks printed 27 x 35 inches (70 x 90cm) big! It was such fun to see it blown up and it really worked well and looked fantastic.
Decide where you’d like to hang the print and measure the space available. You’ll also need to decide whether or not you’ll be framing the print. If your print will be framed, then factor in the frame size when you decide how big you want your print to be.
4. Get it framed
As I said, if you opt for a stretched canvas print, you won’t have to get it framed, though they do look lovely finished off with a natural wood floating frame (See option 1 in this article).
Fine Art America offer a limited variety of frames to choose from, as well as a framing service, or you may prefer to rather use a local framer. The shipping on an unframed art print will be cheaper than the shipping on a framed artwork, so rather use a local framer if you want to save on shipping.
There are a lot of framing options that can look good so it can be tough to choose! My advice is to keep it simple and let the artwork be the focus, rather than going for “clever” framing designs. Here are 3 of my favourite ways to frame art.
Questions?
Feel free to email me at cath@cathduncan.com with any questions. Happy to help!
