Are you an artist who is thinking about having work scanned, or already familiar with the process? Either way here are a few tips to help you make sure you get the best results possible when you are taking your work to be scanned for printing or other uses.

1. Don’t sign your work too close to the edge. Computers are precise and art supplies are not. 100% of the time we have to make a slight crop in order to get a nice file. Be sure you think ahead with your signature. You are usually safe within about 1/2 inch away from the edge.
2. With the same idea in mind as the signature, it’s a bad idea to put any important elements near the edge of a painting, like words or other special details you wish to remain in tact. It’s fine to bleed the painting out to the edge, but just be aware of important things having some breathing room from the edge.
3. To varnish or not to varnish before a scan? This is a gamble really. It’s subjective because sometimes it backfires to varnish before you scan and sometimes it helps. In most cases, varnish over heavy texture will cause issues and it’s better to wait until after the scan has been made to varnish. Sometimes if you are using paints with various “shiny-ness” it can also help to varnish before you scan so you get an even distribution of “shiny-ness” rather than little spots of shiny.
4. Consider your media or material you are painting or drawing on. Any moist mediums will cause ripples to occur in medias like papers. Once they are rippled, it is virtually impossible to remove that. Don’t let this hold you back, but painting watercolors on flimsy paper might have too wavy of an effect that will get captured in the scan. Don’t let this scare you away from scanning. Many times a little digital touch up can heal the problem.
5. Consider your print materials before you print. One thing I caution people against is creating the illusion of conflicting patterns. Think about if you have a watercolor with a lot of heavy tooth to the paper and then what if you printed on a canvas. This might be cool in some cases, but in cases where you are tying to create the illusion of the original look ,it might appear funny to have a watercolor texture printed on a canvas material. They aren’t the same and vise-versa. It’s fine to print something with texture on something smooth, though. I just don’t advise mixing textures.

Scanning your artwork can be intimidating, but it does not have to be.

Any other questions? Swing by Damico Frame & Art Gallery with your artwork and we can address any questions or concerns.