Oil Painitng

August 13, 2010 · Posted in Art · Comment

Oil Painitng

HOW TO CHOOSE A CANVAS PRINT

Have you ever noticed how many canvas prints there are on the television these days, Eastenders, Emmerdale, Hollyoaks, they have them in ever house and sometimes every room of that house, why?! Well the reason is quite simple, they are eye catching, easy to produce to a high standard, come in various sizes and depths, even custom made. If you can photograph it or scan it, then it can become a canvas print. But there are a lot of companies out there producing photo on canvas products so how do you choose between them?

Now before we delve into the - what to and not to do's let's start at the beginning.

So you have or would like to take a photograph that can be used in the production of a photo on canvas print, here are the 10 simple rules you should follow.

Your photo should be as large and to as high a quality as possible so turn up your camera settings to their maximum resolution. For example, if you have a 4 megapixel camera make sure it is set to 4 megapixels as a lot of camera companies set their cameras by default to a lesser quality to allow you to take more photos.
If its a portrait canvas you want make sure your camera is set to portrait, yes thats for a pet portrait too. If a landscape subject turn on your cameras view grid which is a series of 9 boxes, the basics for their use are to align a tree or telegraph pole for example with one of the vertical lines or to place your horizon on one of the horizontal lines, for more information on the use of the grid view see this guide at http://photography.about.com/od/takingpictures/a/ruleofthirdsdet.htm
Don't just take a photo of the subject but make sure there is plenty background around the subjects head, don't worry if your looking for a close up shot as you can crop or have the company you select to do your photo print zoom in and crop to your specific requirements.
Now that you have your photo you may want to start fiddling with the image and using software whether it be the professional photoshop software or any of the free software available to download from the world wide web or the software that came with your camera. DONT – a mistake many make, leave this to the professionals, the photo enhancement of your photograph should be free and if not, select a company that provides this service as free. You should be prepared to pay a little extra if you wish major image manipulation, for example to remove or change backgrounds but to brighten, straighten, enhance colour or to remove the odd hair or blemish should be totally fee of charge.
Which size to choose, well you would think this was up to you but there are things you should take into account before you choose, for example; your canvas print should not over dominate your hanging wall, should not clash with your existing walls colour scheme and you may want to consider lighting, with this in mind you should choose a canvas provider who guarantees their work, for example that the canvas will last at least 60 years and not less. This guarantee gives you the confidence that the canvas itself is of good quality and uses the best inks that will not fade over time. Remember fading will occur in direct sunlight, it happens with photo on canvas prints and it happens with traditional oils and acrylics too, watercolours for example, if professionally mounted, will be placed behind both mount and glass to lessen the effects of the sun on the colour pigments.
Which depth should i choose, well there are basically 2 popular depths of box canvas, these are the traditional 38mm, which you will find in most galleries all over the country and becoming more popular is the alternative 18mm depth which, if your walls are not huge, sits very nicely and does not dominate a wall surface, of course the 38mm is the professional size of choice purely because this size is generally used by artists who exhibit in galleries and should you be seeking a photo to painting rather than photo on canvas production the 38mm with ‘Exhibition' edging is the way to go.
Exhibition or Gallery wrap or a coloured edge, these are the professional terms used to describe how you wish your photo painitng or canvas print to be mounted on the box canvas, exhibition wrap means that the canvas will have white sides, gallery wrap means that portion of the photograph will be used to wrap around the sides, if there is not enough image to wrap the image is stretched around the sides. Lastly the coloured edge option which is just like it says, much like the exhibition wrap except that rather than white edges you can have the edges any colour you like to compliment or clash with your existing hanging wall colour scheme. An example of this can be found at http://www.canvasdomain.co.uk/gallery-wrap.html
The canvas itself, its important, no its vital that you select a company that uses the best artist quality canvas, many companies use a plastic type canvas, you know the kind that you see in shops ready to paint on, generally these are low quality synthetic materials and will not last at all, the image will fade and the corners will sag. A quality canvas should have 4 things, it should;
1. have a timber box frame, timber over plastic every time, timber says quaity
2. be at least 360, preferabley 390gsm artist grade canvas, anything less will not do your photograph justice
3. Ideally be made from cotton and not linen or worse still plastic or other synthetic materials, cotton is by far the best as it holds the inks better, lasts longer and stretches over the box canvas very well.
4. The rear of the canvas should not show the staples, quality productions will use artist kraft tape to finish the rear of the canvas as you would expect with a traditional painting. The box canvas should come ready to hang and be pre-fixed with a good quality hanging bracket preferably in brass or steel and most importantly at no extra charge. Lastly the canvas should show that it has been stretched and its still under tension, this sounds impossible to be certain of but it is real easy, in each corner there should be evident 4 wedges which have been applied to stretch the canvas, don't remove these as you may damage your print.
Price, well quality speaks volumes and unfortunately quality costs, its best to read a websites About Page and FAQ page, most have them these days and they usually cover everything you need to know and it always best to check those pages before a price page.
To Summary, my advice is don't go too cheap but don't pay way over the odds either, if you can find hand made always go for that rather than that which is mass produced. Quality, quality, quality, that is the key to a successful purchase after all you are the one who is going to have to live with it.

I hope this article has been of some service to you, feel free to link to it or to my website at www.fyneart.com

About the Author

Born in Lochgilphead, Argyll, Scotland, I specialise in producing quality paintings from your photographs and also provide a photo to canvas service on my website www.fyneart.com