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Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Life Size Woodland Trail Printed on Canvas

Blueprint SolutionsOne of the great things about large format inkjet printing is the ability to immerse someone in an environment, which is exactly what Blueprint Solutions recently did with a life-size reproduction on canvas of a woodland trail near Fond du Lac, Wis.

“The customer is using it as a wall mural. It’s a photo of a trail near his home, which he wanted life size so it seems that you can walk right into it, and it fits nicely on his wall from floor to ceiling,” says Scott Draves, owner of Blueprint Solutions in Fond du Lac. “He told me that if anyone was interested in getting a canvas that large he would allow them to come into their house and look at the finished product. It was pretty incredible that he offered to do that.”

Blueprint Solutions, as the name of the company implies, specializes in document reproduction, from small to large format, primarily for the construction industry. Over the past few years, however, the company has diversified its large format products and services, including canvas printing.

For this project, Blueprint Solutions used Sunset Select Matte Canvas printed in one piece at 60″ x 84″ on the company’s Canon iPF9000S 60″ inkjet printer. Finishing what Draves says is their largest stretched canvas piece to date was a challenge.

“The initial issue was getting all the pieces together, and that’s where Erin [Krcmar, Blueprint Solutions’ personal customer specialist] was the biggest help: making sure we got what we needed with the bracing and at the right sizes we needed,” explains Draves. “We used the Sunset Pro Stretcher Bars that are 1 1/2″ deep. I really like the Sunset Stretcher Bars; they’re very easy to work with. On smaller pieces I can put a canvas wrap together in less than half an hour, but this particular piece took me a couple of hours to assemble. We took it slowly because it was so large, the print was flawless and we didn’t want to have to re-do it.”

Draves turned a pool table in the company’s back office into a production table to accommodate the extra-large print on which it was wrapped and coated. Draves used two coats of ClearStar ClearShield Type C to finish the print for delivery to the customer.

“It worked out really slick. Everything is nice and smooth and flat and it came together perfectly,” adds Draves.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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The Perfect Combination: Amazing Photography and Amazing Canvas

Sky on Fire The Canyon Gallery
The Black Canyon of the Gunnison, just east of The Canyon Gallery in Montrose, is one of Harmsen’s favorite places to shoot. This particular capture Harmsen describes as possibly “the most stupid shot I’ve ever taken,” being at altitude overlooking the canyon with a lightning storm enveloping the area.

Wil Harmsen, owner of The Canyon Gallery in Montrose, Colo., is a busy man. Not only does Harmsen run the gallery with his wife, Amy, but they do everything soup to nuts, or capture to framing in this case.

Sunburst at Painted Wall by Wil Harmsen
Captured at sunset, Harmsen says the sunburst over the Black Canyon of the Gunnison is about 18 seconds of light as the sun disappeared behind the canyon walls. “The clouds rolled in and I thought I would have complete overcast and get shut out. Patience paid off and I just sat there and captured the sunburst,” says Harmsen.

One of the Harmsens’ specialties is canvas printing and finishing, either framed or as a gallery wrap. Wil Harmsen says canvas is the gallery’s most popular medium, providing a painted look that gallery browsers crave.

“Gallery wraps are typically less expensive than framed pieces. If we have a really nice photo, the person who can’t afford a framed print can buy a less expensive gallery wrap. When we print something that big, it could be a $600-700 difference simply because of the frame,” explains Harmsen. “My wife is the framer extraordinaire. What I like about the frame is that it makes it feel like a painting, a piece of art, that gives it a different look and it’s been fairly popular. We usually mount the canvas on archival mount board and put it in the frame. It’s a simple process and the canvas stays flat and beautiful. We’ve been doing it for about five years and haven’t had any problems.”

To get the most out of their images for those who buy their prints, Harmsen has recently switched all of their canvas output to Sunset by Fredrix Matte Canvas, the new OBA-free canvas from LexJet with an unusually bright white point for an OBA-free print medium.

The Canyon Gallery
Harmsen chalks up this spectacular eagle capture to pure luck. Shot at Ridgway Reservoir in the winter, Harmsen recalls, “I’d like to attribute that to my incredible skill, but that was just luck. We printed it on the Sunset by Fredrix Matte Canvas because we get such spectacular detail in the feathers and the trees, but with a painterly effect people like.”

“I love the brighter white base and the wide color gamut I get out of it. I don’t lose any detail, sharpness or tonality. It tends to be spot-on,” says Harmsen. “You cannot tell the difference between printing on this canvas and photo paper other than the canvas gives you the feeling of a painting that many people like.”

Before framing or making a gallery wrap, Harmsen says they coat each canvas with Sunset Satin Coating or Sunset Gloss Coating three times, coating horizontally, then vertically and horizontally again.

Sneffels Range by Wil Harmsen
The Sneffels Range near Ridgway, Colo., is an iconic Colorado photography spot. Harmsen says you’ll see hundreds of photographers flocking to the area to capture the mountain range in the fall.

“I’ve learned in working with canvas is that if you have dark areas and shadows in the image, one coat typically doesn’t cover the dark spots correctly. It takes multiple coats so you don’t see any lines from rolling on the coating. That way it makes sure to even out the entire photo so there aren’t any issues,” explains Harmsen. “And here’s a big one, especially for galleries: a lot of times when we coat canvas we might get some ink peel coming up with the roller when we were coating. For some reason the new canvas is absorbing the ink a lot better and to date we’ve had zero ink pickup on the roller. That’s huge for us. I’ve got a Denali shot that I can’t print on other canvas because the blue in the sky would pick up on the roller. Now that we’re printing on Sunset by Fredrix, problem solved… gone.”

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Technology & Products
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Boost Production and Quality with Sunset by Fredrix Gloss Canvas SUV

Sunset by Fredrix Gloss Canvas SUV

Designed for print shops running solvent, low-solvent, latex and UV-curable printers, LexJet and Fredrix Print Canvas have jointly developed and introduced a new OBA-free gloss canvas that optimizes canvas output: Sunset by Fredrix Gloss Canvas SUV.

Ideal for gallery-wrapped and framed fine art, photographic and décor applications, the new gloss canvas has a brighter white point than other OBA-free canvases, and is easy to stretch, frame and finish, ensuring a consistent and efficient canvas production workflow.

Sunset by Fredrix Gloss Canvas SUV has an acid-free, pH-neutral poly/cotton base with a light texture and 2×1 weave for archival prints that maximize color gamut and image clarity for custom and production canvas projects.

“As the output quality of solvent and latex printers has improved, demand for a canvas that takes advantage of advances in those print technologies has increased as well. This is all driven by the popularity of canvas prints among consumers, corporations, retailers and other end users,” says Jaimie Mask, LexJet product manager. “Now, print shops with solvent and latex printers can take advantage of that end-user demand and produce canvas prints that meet their needs.”

Sunset by Fredrix Gloss Canvas SUV is now available and shipping from LexJet’s North American Distribution Network, supported by LexJet’s 30-Day Money-Back Guarantee and personal, free and unlimited phone support. Sunset by Fredrix Gloss Canvas SUV comes in 30″, 36″, 54″, 60″ and 64″ widths.

To find out more and to order, call a LexJet customer specialist at 800-453-9538.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends, Technology & Products
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New Canvas Maximizes Quality for Solvent, Latex and UV-Curable Printers

New Era Portfolio Print on Sunset by Fredrix
Fine art print on Sunset by Fredrix Satin Canvas SUV by New Era Portfolio, Austin, Texas.

 

For print shops looking to maximize the quality of their canvas production output, LexJet and Fredrix co-developed Sunset by Fredrix Satin Canvas SUV. The new canvas was designed to maximize image quality when using solvent, low-solvent, latex and UV-curable inks.

“Best canvas to date. Our color came out perfect; we have never seen a truer white hue before.  We have received numerous customer compliments, so they can definitely see the difference. Thank you for helping our business produce the highest quality at the best price,” says Zach Gardynski, Director of Operations, New Era Portfolio, Austin, Texas.

The poly-cotton canvas has a traditional two-over-one weave with a bright-white, pH-neutral, acid-free base for consistent, high-quality printing, whether it’s a production run of 1,000 décor canvas wraps or a custom fine-art print.

“Canvas print production is a high-growth market segment. Our goal is to help print shops with solvent, latex and UV-curable printers maximize their success in the canvas market. This new canvas, with its bright white point and consistent print surface, is designed to do just that,” says Jaimie Mask, LexJet product manager.

Sunset by Fredrix Satin Canvas SUV is easy to work with during production and post-production: it won’t crack during stretching and can be mounted and framed. Now available from LexJet’s North American Distribution Network, Sunset by Fredrix Satin Canvas SUV comes in 30″, 36″, 54″, 60″ and 64″ widths.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in News & Trends
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Inspiration and Practical Application Info at Digital Art Creation Magazine

Digital Art Creation MagazineYou can never have enough information, even in the Information Age. Digital Art Creation, which is a quarterly online publication, is filled with content that includes photo and post-capture techniques, printing and post-printing tips, and a variety of other subjects of interest to photographers, designers and graphic artists.

Digital Art Creation is free for the read-only edition at the website: www.digitalpaintmagazine.com. Simply fill out an opt-in email form at the home page and the link to the quarterly publication will be sent to your mailbox. A read-only version is hosted on the site and downloads are available for $4.99 per issue.

The September issue is scheduled to be ready around September 15. Back issues of Digital Paint Magazine – the precursor to Digital Art Creation dedicated primarily to digital painting – can also be found at www.digitalpaintmagazine.com.

Here are some highlights from Digital Art Creation to catch up on from the past year (click on the publication date to access the full content)…

February 2013: Profiles of artists from the 2013 Digital Art Summit, including Darrell Chitty, Thom Rouse, Marco Bucci, Paul Tomason, and many more.

December 2012: Canvas Wrap Details, Old Master profile Picasso, Using Drawings as a Management Tool by Victor Lunn-Rockliffe, Digital Printing Alternative Surfaces: Recycled Plastic by KathyAnne White, and more.

October 2012: Gallery Wrapped Canvas Prints by Ralph Cooksey-Talbott, Woody’s Smoke Brushes by Woody Walters, Old Master Rembrandt by Nadia Lim, Printing on Silk by KathyAnne, video marketing, an interview with Miklos Foldi and Peter Nagy, and more.

And there’s more when you go to www.digitalpaintmagazine.com/blog/magazine-back-issues.html.

Posted on by Regan Dickinson Posted in Case Studies & Profiles
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Making the Forest and the Trees Shine at a Fine Art Photography Exhibition

POETRe Exhibit by Visio Photography
The POETRe Exhibit by Visio Photography at The School in Valdese, N.C., feature’s Visio’s fine art landscape photography printed on Sunset Photo Metallic Paper, Sunset Select Matte Canvas (the Coming Storm image on the left side of the centerpiece) and acrylic prints by Artisan Colour (right side of the centerpiece).

VISIO Photography is best known for the exceptional wedding and portrait photography crafted by the husband-and-wife team of James and Jenny Tarpley. Located in Marion, N.C., just outside of Asheville, the couple is also making its mark with high-end fine art landscape photography.

Exhibition by Visio PhotographyA recent exhibition at The Rock School in Valdese, N.C., brought VISIO Photography’s nature photography to light with a focus on trees. Called POETRe, the exhibition ran from June 3 to July 26. Thanks to a combination of immaculate capture, printing detail, print material selection and photo finishing, the exhibition literally glowed.

“There were people at the exhibition who were looking around the edges of the prints to see if they were backlit,” James says. “They were impressed with the way the images leapt out of the frames, and it was also nice to hear from peers who saw the exhibition that the colors looked really good.”

Visio Photography Fine Art Landscape ExhibitThe majority of the prints for the exhibition were printed on LexJet Sunset Photo Metallic Paper. One was printed on LexJet Sunset Select Matte Canvas, and the remainder was printed using a traditional chemical process applied to acrylic by Artisan Colour, Scottsdale, Ariz.

“The Metallic prints were framed behind museum-grade anti-reflective glass. We used black matting on the majority of them to really hone in on the image; I wanted the display to take a back seat to the image,” James explains. “We do a lot of our wedding printing on fine art papers, but we’ve been doing a lot of landscapes lately and we’ve found the Metallic paper displays really well on the wall, especially when it’s lit properly. The great color gamut and vivid reproduction makes this paper wonderful for our landscapes.”

The image printed at 20″ x 60″ on Sunset Select Matte Canvas was finished with LexJet Sunset Gloss Coating. James says the Sunset Gloss Coating increased the contrast, providing extra pop to make it more consistent with the other brilliant images in the collection, which you can see more of at jt-fineart.com.