Welcome to the new and improved oldtowneditions.com! Although the bulk of the content is what we’ve always had on our website, this is a pretty big redesign, and a few things have been moved around, so we wanted to make this introductory post to let you know what’s changed and where you can find the information you need!

Relocated / updated pages

The first major change is that we’ve split up the “articles for artists” and blog sections of our website, to make it easier for you to find the information you need. Instead of having to scroll through our many pages of articles, we now have everything broken down into categories so you can go straight for the information you need the most, and easily find an article again later. Just click on the Articles for Artists tab in the header navigation to browse the articles.

The blog section will now be used more for studio updates when we’re working on exciting things, as well as artist features when our artists are working on exciting things! We want to be more active with these types of posts, so keep an eye out.

Mobile & tablet functionality!

If you’ve tried in the past to use our website on mobile devices you may have been as frustrated as we were with how it functioned. The menu bar was unorganized, making it nearly impossible to find the page you needed, unless you already knew exactly what you were looking for. If you’re not already reading this on your phone, give it a try! We’ve tested every page on mobile and tablet to make sure all of our content scales and translates clearly across all screens. Most notably, the navigation menu is organized, and it’s easy to find pages under their correct heading. We’re pretty excited about this, and we hope you are too!

Smaller changes & updates

Depending on how familiar with our old website you were, you might notice little changes here and these as you browse the new website. We’ve done our best to improve everything we can, and to make our website the best version of itself.

Every now and then we would receive a comment that our website could be hard to read, with black text on a gray background. Well say goodbye to the gray, and hello to increased readibility! We’ve switched to the classic black on white.

We’ve added quite a few new photos and updated some older ones to keep content fresh and also give our artists even more of a feature. If you follow our instagram you’ve probably seen many of the images already, but we wanted to include them here as well to share the amazing work our clients do.

The FAQ section all lives on one page now, making it easier for you to switch between topics without having to navigate between separate pages.

We organized our “paper and canvas” page, separating the different paper types into categories, to help you better understand what each paper is best suited for, be it art reproduction, photography printing, or more specialized projects.

There’s quite a few cosmetic changes all around, such as an updated header and footer.

We put quite a bit of love into creating this new website, and we hope you enjoy it!

Image credit: NASA, ESA, the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA), A. Nota (ESA/STScI), and the Westerlund 2 Science Team

“On 24 April 1990 the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope was sent into orbit aboard the space shuttle Discovery as the first space telescope of its kind. It offered a new view of the Universe and has, for 25 years, reached and surpassed all expectations, beaming back data and images that have changed scientists’ understanding of the Universe and the public’s perception of it.” http://www.spacetelescope.org

Old Town Editions and John Kiernan of Blue Line Studios have teamed up to donate a custom hand-embellished print for a special charity auction this Sunday, March 10, 2013 from 3 to 6 PM.  This benefit auction is for 17 year Alexandria Police veteran Peter Laboy. Laboy sustained a catastrophic gunshot to the head last week in a traffic stop just blocks from our own Old Town Alexandria print studio. He is still in critical condition. The benefit auction on Sunday is to raise money for him and his family to help as much as possible with bills and anything else they need during this tough time. Please come out to Virtue Feed & Grain this Sunday to show your support for your local law enforcement.

A hand-embellished print allows an artist to put a special unique touch on a print.  This technique can be used to offer variations of a fine art reproduction (also known as a giclee).  An embellished print is more valuable than a print that has not been embellished but less valuable than the original painting. It is important to note that just because the artist has put his/her unique touch on each print this is not to be mistaken in any way, shape or form as an original.  It is simply a hand-embellished print.  This technique allows an artist to offer a custom product for each of their clients at a lower price point from the original and a higher price point than the limited edition giclees.  This allows an artist to hit several demographics, creating a larger market for themselves.  Someone that can’t afford the original painting from an artist but still wants a custom piece of art from that artist can purchase the hand embellished print.

You can get updates on officer Laboys progress and make donations at www.caringbridge.org/visit/peterlaboy

Artist Amy Lin is back in Washington DC from her recent move to Russia. Amy’s brilliant new collection of works brings her back to our nation’s capital for her solo show opening “Diffusion” at Addison/Ripley Fine Art on March 2, 2013. Old Town Edition’s role in this endeavor was the capturing/photographing of all of Amy’s fine detail drawings. Professional art image captures/photography is essential for making sure an artist’s digital images look identical to an artist’s originals.

Old Town Editions is proud to work with talented young artists such as Amy. Congratulations on a gorgeous collection, Amy.

Amy is one of many artists working with Old Town Editions, utilizing the digital capture part of our process alone. It is especially essential with work like Amy’s to have a professional art photographer or reproduction studio with the proper equipment to evenly light and capture all the very intricate detail.

A digital image capture from our 216 MP capturing system is the last image one will need of their artwork.  The image capturing services that we offer for artists like Amy are just like the services we provide for museums. This is the best form of digital preservation for antiquities and artwork. This digital file encompasses any use that one would need.  Alternate uses for these high resolution digital captures include, but are not limited to, show entry submissions, card printing, lithography printing, book printing and many more. If the artist decides at a later date that they are interested in limited edition printing, they will have a file suitable for digital fine art or giclee printmaking with Old Town Editions.

Amy has not had any digital reproductions or giclee prints made of any of her work to date.

Having a professional image capture/photograph of your work insures that your digital images look identical to your originals.  Only photographers that regularly capture artwork  with the proper equipment understand and can apply the precision process of the setting up the camera and lighting for a perfect art capture.  You cannot achieve this with any professional or consumer grade DSLR camera.  This process is only achieved with the use of a few types of  digital scanning backs. Only the proper equipment operated by a true artisan themselves can have the capability of giving you the best image possible.

Below you can view Amy’s beautiful new body of work captured by Old Town Editions.

Reston Interfaith commissioned artist Dana Scheurer to create the original painting “Dancin’ On The Dome”, and one hundred limited edition fine art reproductions. Scheurer has created a following from her involvement with groups like Greater Reston Art Center. She also participates in local area art shows selling originals and prints.  She’s created original artwork for Reston Triathlon, Reston Kids Triathlon, and the Reston Home Tour.

Her involvement in the local arts community and her subject matter have drawn attention from several Reston based businesses.  Dana’s involvement in the community has created strong demand for her artwork.  This is evidence that being involved with local art associations, shows, and galleries helps an artist to gain publicity to become successful.  Dana has been creating limited editions with Old Town Editions since 2004.

Selling reproductions allows more people to afford an artists work, and ultimately offers the artist more exposure.  People come to her shows looking for her new prints and originals.  Images she’s created were used to conceal construction around the Reston Ice Rink.  OTE captured her artwork for printing in an extremely large format.  OTE’s ability to push the limits of convention and size has allowed her artwork to gain even more publicity.

OTE:  How do you use prints to help advance your art career?
Scheurer:  To sell of course…people that can’t afford the originals can afford my work, ultimately to return at a later date to buy an original.

OTE: What words of wisdom or advice do you have for anyone looking into creating giclees from their original artwork?
Scheurer:  Find yourself a reliable printmaker. One that you can depend on having the highest quality, and  will always be there for you.  Always look for ways to promote yourself like having small card size prints to hand out for someone to take away at a point of sale to establish connections.

About Reston Interfaith:

Since 1970, Reston Interfaith, a nonprofit, has reached out to 250,000 neighbors-in-need, helping them overcome tough economic times in an already high cost-of-living region. Reston Interfaith helps people build more stable lives by connecting them to vital resources that solve their needs for housing, childcare, food or financial assistance.

This week we met with Alexandria Recreation Outreach rep Michael Johnson and TC Williams printing program teacher Bob Trout. This meeting set the framework for Old Town Editions to mentor high achieving students from the TC Williams print program at our print studio.  We want to give the students a chance to learn printmaking and how it applies in a real world business environment. We have 2 excited students lined up for the program.

Soon, these select  students will come over during school day for 2-4 hours a week to learn digital fine art printmaking. This time will help these students prepare for their full time internships starting with us in May. Since the students are seniors, and the school has a special student placement program, they will spend their last month of high school working as full time interns with Old Town Editions.  This is a unique opportunity that we are excited to be involved with.

During the meeting we uncovered the fact that the TC Williams printing program will be coming to an end at the completion of the 2014-2015 school year.  We are currently trying to gain media attention to garner the community’s support in an effort to raise the funds to update and save the print program at the high school.

Yesterday, at approximately 9:30AM we unplugged our last IRIS printer. This was a bittersweet moment for us.  (Don’t get us wrong, it’s a great feeling to be out with the old and in with the new.) Bitter because these machines originally cost $40,000 each. It pioneered the industry we are in today and still creates beautiful prints. Sweet because the benefits of using new printers including larger color gamut, more durability, and prints being more archival far exceed the cost and other faults of the IRIS prints.

This is how we got the IRIS machines into our studio in Old Town Alexandria

The last of our IRIS printer fleet decommissioned

Earlier this year we were approached about a new concept The Art League had to build a photo booth. They were looking for a sponsor to aid in the purchase of camera and software for the photo booth and we jumped at the opportunity. What a great idea! Over the years we have donated extra fine art printing materials and offered special rates to Art League members. This was a perfect match.

We started brainstorming with them on their design, offering any insight we could to create the best photo booth possible. They commissioned photographer Tom Roberts to construct the photo booth and we offered to paint the photo booth as part of our sponsorship. We decided to use an oversize version of our logo to decorate the booth.  The only catch was it had to be hand painted because we had no way to transfer a print to the booth in a high quality way.

Old Town Editions staff painting the Art League’s
photo booth

New York artist Jay Hart came to us with a special request to print his image on transparent film for an installation at The Science Center in Ithaca, NY.  The vision was to have two prints, one overlaying the other. When lit from the front you see a satellite image of the continental United States.  When lit from behind you see all the major waterways.  We had to order samples of several types of film to test the best material for producing this final assemblage installation. After lots of testing we found that front print back lit film was the best material for the project. This film allows for rich colors with the transparent qualities required.  When lit from the front the image looks like a rich fine art print. When lit from the back the hidden underlying image brings the assemblage to life showing the rivers and waterways of our United States, creating a beautiful interactive final installation for the Science Center.

We always require testing for new materials to make sure the final choice is the best. When it all works out, like in this case, it allows us to offer this material to other artists in the future for their creative projects. Just because it is not listed on our web site does not mean we will not work with you to find the material that is best for your art.

Our newly lit workspace

That idea was to install John Brown’s imagery in the windows as if there was a tree on the outside with light diffusing into the room through the frosted color of the transparent film.  After a little trial and error we figured out how to prepare his images to fit the window panes. We printed and installed the images in the windows.  Now, not only do we have bright light filling our space, we have beautiful art to enjoy during the day.  At night the patrons walking the side walks of Old Town, Alexandria, VA get to enjoy the John Brown art being lit from our lights on the inside.

Keep your minds open and come in with your ideas.  Old Town Editions will spend the time developing ideas and testing materials with our clients to get the best, most unique final product available. Realizing their unique vision is essential for each artist to set themselves apart from the rest.

Washington DC based artist John Brown images used to bring new light to our space at Old Town Editions in Alexandira, VA