My mother had a painting of my grandfather. Now that she’s passed on, she has four children who would all love to have it.
Personally, I would be happy with a good quality reproduction of it as it’s not the monetary value I see. I just want to frame it and hang it in my home as a reminder of my grandfather.
I’m totally ignorant as what my alternatives are. Is this something I could take to my local Wolf Camera store and have them run a high quality scan on?
Other than having someone repaint it, which I know I couldn’t afford, I don’t know what options I have of getting a copy of this to my siblings.
Thanks,
E3
A scan would be good if they either have a scanner big enough, or can digitally stitch together multiple scans (not as trivial as it sounds). It can also be done with a camera by someone who knows what they are doing but lighting and distortion become more of an issue than with the scan. Call the camera store and ask what they can do. You might also try a shop that caters to pros.
What size is the painting? What medium, oil?
Actually, there are some commercial artists who would reproduce the painting as a painting, using imagery from the original of course, for reasonable rates – not the cost of a portrait direct from a sitting. I suspect it would be a little higher than a digital scan or photoimagery, but not enormously so. You might contact one or more of them (local Art Guilds would be your best contact medium) for a quote.
My recollection is that it’s about 18" tall, by about 12" wide. It’s a picture of my grandfather while he was in the Russian Cavalry. He’s posing next to a font or a half height pillar thing that people stood by in the olden days to have their picture done.
Google the term “giclee” to find a service that will scan and print a high resolution copy of your painting. Ain!t cheap though.
For an 18 x 12, you should be able to go to some Kinko like office in town.
I’ve worked at a print shop for the last 5 years and I can second handsomeharry’s suggestion about going to a local printshop. You have a couple of good options at a competent printshop.
- Many professional printers (the machines, not the people) are able able to accomodate paper up to an 18x12" size. The only issue is that digital printers leave an approximately 1/8" - 1/4" white margin around the outside of the page to, assumedly, keep the printer from dumping ink into the innards of the machine. This is probably okay, though. Most pictures have superflous details around the edges, so that lost quarter of an inch probably won’t cut off your grandfather’s head or anything. You can go to a craft store and get some type of matting that will cover the margins. Doing it like this, you’d be looking at somewhere in the area of 80¢-$2.00 a piece depending on the type of paper used and how competitive the pricing is in the area. Keep in mind that the ink is going to be flat (unlike an oil painting) and it won’t have a texture. Having it printed on linen paper will make it look slightly more like it was printed on actual canvas, but it’s obviously not going to look exactly like the real thing.
Also, many printshops only regularly carry 11x17" in stock, but have easy access to ordering 18x12" paper. Don’t assume that they’re neccessarily incompetent and ill prepared if they have to special order the paper.
- You can have it printed on a poster printer. The advantage with this is that you’ll not have to worry about the margins. Also, if the picture is slightly larger than 18x12, you can still have the whole image printed without shrinking it down to a smaller size. Some printshops even have a type of canvas paper they can print posters on (this is the “giclee” process that Fear Itself spoke of. I’ve seen this personally and it’s fairly darn true to the original print (keeping in mind that the ink will still be flat, unlike a textured oil painting). This is a fair bit more expensive - probably in the area of $11.25 - $15.00 per print (about $7.50 - $10 per square foot).
If I were in your shoes, I’d probably just copy it on a nice 12x18 glossy or linen stock and save the money. Once you have the copies in the frame, hanging up in incandescent lighting in the hallway, you’re not going to be able to tell that it’s a copy of lesser quality unless you really scrutinize it.
Also, I would recommend you seek out a local “mom and pop” printer as opposed to Kinko’s, if possible. They’ll be more grateful for your business and it will show through in their service. Kinko’s will do exactly what you say verbatim, whereas a local printer may offer suggestions you didn’t even think about and they’ll be more likely to make adjustments if the first copy comes out sub-satisfactory. And, Kinko’s is not cheaper than local mom-n-pop printing in the same way that McDonald’s is cheaper than a local burger joint. The local shops keep their prices in line (and often cheaper) than Kinko’s because they know they’re fighting a brand name company.
Oh, one more thing. You may not want to take the picture out of the frame, but the copies will come out better if you do. If the light on the copier has to go through a layer of glass and a pocket of air, it will distort the colors and look more washed out.
Let me know if you have any other questions. I’m pumped that I finally found a topic on the Dope that I can provide thorough, accurate answers to 
You can also consider having a photo taken of the art (out of the frame also) and then large-format photo printing.
I haven’t done this with a painting, but I’ve done photo-to-photo (A photo taken of a photograph, and then photo printed, so as to reproduce the original in the absence of the negative) and was very pleased with the results.
I definitely would NOT go to Kinkos even if you go the scanning route.