How to make art prints at home 🏠

by Haejin Park March 30, 2021

I have been getting a lot of questions about how I make and sell my art prints. I also got a lot of reviews saying that my customers love my art prints quality 😊 In this blog post, I would love to cover how I print, scan, and what materials I use for my art prints that I sell in my shop.

How you want to make art prints depends on your work

My work is very colorful and textural. There are details with many colors that I want to make sure that the original quality transit to my prints. I want it to be vibrant and have paper quality like my original work. And I want you to know that this is how I like to make it and there are many different ways! 😊

Why should artists sell their art print?

Prints have been a regular best-seller in my shop. Everybody loves and wants to keep a piece of artwork. I think prints are more affordable than many other things in my opinion.. 😊 Like they're cheaper than t-shirts or a bag!! or I don't know these days I feel like fashion can get so expensive!!! I like selling prints because it is the way of knowing how people love my artwork and they want to hang it on their wall. And I appreciate every sale! ❤️ it is a huge compliment to know they want to keep my work at home.

My art print size.

Currently, I make 2 sizes of print in my shop.

Letter-size print
Large print that is 13 x 19 inch

How to scan an artwork to make a print

Okay, so these are my scanner and printer.

Epson Artisan 1430 Wireless Inkjet Printer - https://amzn.to/3feQRC1
Epson V600 Scanner - https://amzn.to/2QE1wfb

I had these guys for 5 years and they have been essential for my everything... like scanning my artwork and printing. I believe that the printer is discontinued, so I would have to find an alternative if I have to buy a new one.

I always scan my work, I never photograph it and you have to make sure you scan it at least at 300 dpi. For the large prin, I am scanning it at 450 dpi. I put it on photoshop, and I adjust my levels, saturation, and size.

Print settings & Paper

Quality paper for art prints

I love this paper made by epson. It is museum quality, acid-free base to preserve fine art and photos. It is also made of 100% cotton rag for archivability and resembles my watercolor paintings.

Epson Velvet Art Paper - https://amzn.to/39lRYvM

I usually go to print > print setting to adjust the quality. This depends on your printer, but I have a print quality option. I usually set it to fine and hit save and print.

Borderless Printing

I also have a setting where I can do borderless printing. The reason I do borderless print is that I don't like the white edge on my bigger prints. It takes about 3~5minute to print small print and 10 minutes to print borderless large print. Every time it produces such a great print that I am proud of.

Shipping & Packaging

I use a stay-flat mailer for shipping a small print. For a large print, I use a mailing tube. The reason I use a mailing tube is that I am a little bit afraid that it will be easier to get bent.

My Shop Journey

At first, I didn't have the right materials to support the quality I want. I didn't have money to spend on quality papers. It took me a little while to experiment and find the materials that work for me. In the future, I would like to invest more in paper and experiment.

Haejin Park is an award winning illustrator living in USA. She sells stationery and art prints on haejinduck. @haejinduck

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