Poster style print now available

After a long absence due to other obligations (ie kids) I've decided to take the plunge into prints.  The first one will be a bit of an experiment, though I suspect it will have a ready built audience to some extent.  With the go-ahead of the owner of the original, I am now offering a print of the pastel, Desire, on fineartamerica.com.  Rather than going with a straight forward print though, I've made it more poster-like.  That way she still has a unique and original piece of artwork, but the general public gets something too.  And a guitar seems an appropriate subject for a poster.  The size of the poster is 12 x 16, which preserves the size of the original pastel while making the poster large enough to fit a standard size wall frame.

I'm hoping people will take this one to concerts with them this summer, on the off chance of getting a band member to sign it.  If you should get so lucky, I'd love to see your picture of my poster with The Edge's autograph on it!

I'm thinking about offering a few other prints with this same sort of template.  Photoshop can be a bit tricky since it can be so complicated, but I feel like I'm starting to get the hang of it.  The next one will probably be Nautilus, I'll post it once I get time to breathe.

Opinions on prints?

Some time back I mentioned on the blog that I had been thinking about offering prints of my work for sale. I haven't gotten around to it yet, since it will require the extra effort of getting high quality photographs taken.  But just recently a friend mentioned that one her friends would like a print of one of my pastels and there has been considerable discussion on an art blog that I follow about prints, which has brought it all up to me again.  I'd like to hear the thoughts of both artists and non-artists on this subject.

On the art blog the opinions ranged from "prints/reproductions/giclees/lithographs are the bane of all artists everywhere" to "I like to offer prints, but only for a few pieces and in limited editions" to "I wouldn't survive as an artist without them".  Giclees, by the way, are high quality limited edition digital prints on canvas that have been touched up by hand.   Lithographs are also high quality limited editions, but using much more traditional techniques.

So, I was wondering what the average person thought of prints.  Would you buy them?  How much would you pay?  Are you willing to pay more for a higher quality, limited edition print?  Would you buy an original if you knew that a less expensive alternative was available?  Would it bother you if you knew that an original you owned was made available as a print?  What I am getting at is that there is an argument that having prints available "cheapens" originals.  And there is the counter argument that having affordable prints available increases interest which in turn increases the value of originals.  I'm not sure which is true; it's possible both of them are.

What do you think?

Thinking about prints

Some time back a friend asked if I would consider selling prints of my work.  At the time, I dismissed the idea.  The only way I was aware of to make prints was by going to a print shop and having giclees made, an expensive endeavor, or by having poster type prints made at someplace like Wal Mart, which was not the quality I was looking for.   Since then I've done some research and discovered a whole new marketing possibility - print on demand.

The basic idea is that I upload an image to a web site, which then will print (and frame if requested) the image whenever anyone wants one.  I pay a fee or commission and the web site takes care of the rest, including shipping, and sends me a check each month.  Everything from giclees to posters to greeting cards are a possibility.

Here are the two sites I am looking at:  imagekind.com and fineartamerica.com.  Imagekind is more expensive (not by much though) and has fewer options, but seems to be made more for the "serious" artist, if I can use that phrase without sounding terribly snobbish.  It is an affiliate with CafePress, so can be linked to the possibility of t-shirts, mugs etc.  That seems to defeat the "seriousness" of the art, but opens up more options.  Fineartamerica lets me sell through Facebook, create catalogues and sell greeting cards.  It's a huge site, which means a lot of potential customers, but also the possibility of getting completely lost in the crowd.  It's a tough choice.

I'm now seriously considering this, but I'd like to get some feedback from all of you.  Would you consider buying a print online?  Would you be willing to pay more for a higher quality print?  If you had an original, would it bother you if a print of that piece was made available?  Conventional wisdom states that one should sell prints only after originals have been selling well.  If I go ahead with this idea I will be going against that, but I'm hoping this will be another opportunity to get my name and artwork out there.