Prints

Not long ago, I published a blog post discussing merchandise to sell at the London Stall, and there are a few different items that I can assemble for May.
This blog post will be going over the topic of making art prints to sell, which is a great, and easy way for any illustrator to make some money.

I previously looked at Caitlin hacked, who produces a lot of official merchandise, including prints. She is by far not the only artist who does this, with many artists such as Drew Milward, Dan Mumford, and Luke Pearson just being a few notables.

http://blog.houseofbetty.com/wp-content/uploads/DrewMillwardGriffun.jpg < image reference at this link.

I have experimented with making prints of my work before, in fact only a few weeks ago I produced a few screen prints based on a few select pieces of my art, and placed them for sale on my Etsy shop.

So far however I have not yet sold any of my prints, however I am optimistic that I can make some more enticing prints to take with me to London.
There are a few illustrations of mine that I have created during the production of the zine that I have expressed interest in printing.

There are many different ways in which I can print any illustration I have created, and this involves screenprinting, which I experimented with earlier on in the module, risographing, and digital printing, the latter two I need to speak to Jade and the IT department about.

Whichever route I want to go down with in terms of printing method, I want to balance speed, cost, easiness and quality equally.
I will go over the pros and cons of each printing method below, in order to get a good idea of which route may be better.

Screenprinting

Pros:

• Good colour
• Crisp
• Cheap

Cons:

• One colour at a time
• Slow preparation time.
• Not good for fine levels of detail.

Riso-graphing

Pros:

• Good colour
• Cheap
• Quick

Cons:

• Takes a while to dry
• Work can smudge

Digital Printing

Pros:

• Good colour range
• Quick
• Easy
• High Quality

Cons:

• Consistency of ink can vary
• Can be expensive

I think due to the cost, simplicity, and quality balance, I think that the route of digital printing will be the best method to go with, and I can achieve a high quality reproduction.
I will speak to Jade, and see what she thinks on the matter since she is more of a printing expert than me.

If I am selling prints, I would love to have some accompanied by a frame, and I recently went to IKEA, and picked up really cheap Ribba frames for £1.25 each.

If I sell each frame for £4.99, I can easily make a profit, as it cost very little to print.
















Thomas.