Giclees for other family members

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Jumping in late on this one, I make a practice of offering gicl

[Steve Craighead]

Ok, now I'm in this situation. I have a client who is spending $10k+ on a portrait. He wants to buy 4 to 5 giclees to begin with of the portrait to spread around to various homes, offices, and relatives. He also wants the option of calling up and ordering giclees from time to time. He described some giclees he's seen in galleries that have paint on them. I'm assuming he saw giclees on canvas with clear acrylic gel, but perhaps he saw something similar to the Kinkades described above. Anyway, I don't have any experience selling giclees. Any thoughts from anyone about what to charge? Have you sold giclees of your portraits? What did you charge? I suppose I'm going to have to do some brush work on them either with clear acrylic gel or oil paint.

thanks much,
Steve

[Michele Rushworth]

I'd think an artist would want to charge a pretty solid price to avoid diminishing the perceived value of their work.

Also, if you haven't done it before, trying to get giclees made with excellent color fidelity is a very time consuming (and sometimes impossible!) process. Whenever I've done it for myself (to make sample copies of my commissioned work that I then show locally) I've spent hours with the color guy at my local giclee place tweaking things before getting something satisfactory.

Aside from your time there are also several costs involved: getting a very high res digital scan of the original, doing the color correcting and creating test prints, the giclee print itself (which I've had printed on canvas), stretcher bars and then framing.

I can't suggest a specific price but I hope this gives you some things to think about, anyway. I'd be very interested in hearing how you decide to proceed.

[Leslie Ficcaglia]

Steve, just because someone has seen enhanced gicl

[Richard Monro]

Steve,

I have a contract with a firm that markets my giclees nationwide. Here is the pricing schedule from that contract. It is standard for all of the artiists represented by that company. Use it as a guide. Hopefully it will help all forum artists selling giclees.

Enhanced giclees can sell for 30% to 100% more than shown below. (See my post on enhanceing giclees earlier in this thread.)

Retail Pricing to be determined by formula as follows:

Canvas Price Formula
Up to 300 sq in - $2.40/sq in (round to next $10)
301 to 500 sq in - $2.00/sq in (round to next $10)
Over 500 sq in - $1.6/sq in (round to next $10)

Paper Price Formula
Up to 1000 sq in - $54/sq in (round to next $10)
Over 1000 sq in - $50/sq in (round to next $10)


WHOLESALE PRICE IS 50% OF RETAIL PRICE OR ACTUAL WHOLESALES PRICE WHICHEVER IS HIGHER.


Wholesale Prices may be adjusted by discounts as follows:

Order $ Total at Wholesale Additional Discount on Wholesale Order
$3,001 to $7,500 20%
Over $7,500 30%

[Steve Craighead]

So Richard, according to the company that sells your giclees, a 24x30 giclee on canvas would sell for $1150? (30x24=720x$1.60=$1152) Is that framed? And an "enhanced" giclee would then sell for $1500?

[Lacey Lewis]

I don't understand why there is such a great difference between the canvas and paper prices:

Canvas Price Formula
Up to 300 sq in - $2.40/sq in (round to next $10)

Paper Price Formula
Up to 1000 sq in - $54/sq in (round to next $10)

Is the "$54/sq in" a typo? If not, can you please explain?

[Richard Monro]

Steven, ypu are correct on all counts. The giclees are framed.

Lacey, the pricing differences are due to market perceptions. The perception is that a canvas support makes the giclee look like a real painting while paper does not. Interestingly, the cost of the ink and reproduction is the same in both cases. Only the support cost is different.

All artists should take a course in marketing, because we usually make such a hash of it without that knowlege. Please see some earlier threads where market forces, price point and buyer perceptions are discussed in some detail.

Remember to the market "Perception is Reality!"