About Viewing ‘Original’ Art

When I shared this image on Facebook on November 16, 2024:

On A Wire, Blue – by Gabi Clayton, 11-16-2024

Alec commented:

The expressive lines at the top show up more clearly in the original than here. But if she chooses to print it she can control the color and contrast.

I responded:

Regarding the ‘original,’ my art is created digitally [mostly via an iPad and the Procreate app]. Every screen/monitor has its own settings of hue and saturation and contrast and value. So the original image that was created on my iPad and what it looks like on your screen is very likely not the same. For that matter, when I look at it on my iPhone and on my PC laptop screen it is not the same either. If I an image printed as a Geclée print at high-quality art printer working closely with me and able to see the image on my iPad, it won’t be the same. The screen always will look different from a print on paper, canvas, metal, glass, or wood.

As Alec wrote, if I am getting a print made with a local printer, I can work with them to control the color and contrast to some extent to get it to match as much as possible what it looks like on the iPad I created it on.

That is true for posting a photograph of a painting (created on canvas, wood, etc.) online or publishing it in a book. For that matter, when that painting is hung in my living room, it will look different than in your house or in a gallery depending on the lighting, and it will look different on sunny or a cloudy day.

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