Champaign's Dixon Graphics reproducing woman's paintings

Amy Chrisman wanted to "stay local" when it came to making prints of her watercolor paintings of Vermilion County landmarks.

She couldn't find a printer in Vermilion County that did the special process she wanted to use, but she did find Lance Dixon and Dixon Graphics, an all-digital printing company at 105 W. John St. in Champaign that also does fine-art reproductions.

The density of dots per inch used in Dixon's giclee process produces a print so detailed that it's hard to detect anything but the original colors made by the artist's brush strokes, even with a magnifying glass.

A typical newspaper uses 200 dpi, a magazine 300 dpi and the giclee method 1440 dpi.

An original is either scanned into the computer or, for larger works, digitally photographed. That creates a very, very high resolution image, Dixon explained. Then color corrections are made, which adjust any variances between the original and the reproduction. This may be done more than once.

"We want it as close to the original as possible," Dixon said. "We create a proof and then work with the artist to make additional color corrections, if necessary."

The inkjet printer uses archival paper, archival ink and the very small pixel gauge.

"Champaign-Urbana has a very lively art community," Dixon said. "I figured there could be a lot of call for quality prints. With giclee, you get a unique quality and durability. The print will last 100 years and won't fade or yellow like other processes."

Chrisman said giclee is the process used by museums. The process also offers the artist the option of having one print at a time created.

"They can sell a print, then have a new one made," Dixon said. "Sometimes, that's the only way they can afford to have prints made."

The artwork is saved and archived, which allows for an extended time between printings with the colors locked in.

"We've had the process for seven years and we've had clients that long," Dixon said. "We can print the same print today as seven years ago and it looks identical."

The process is probably 12 to 15 years old, Dixon said, and is usually found in businesses in much larger cities like Los Angeles, Chicago and New York.

"We're an everyday, ordinary print shop and do a lot of things, but reproducing fine art work is a wonderful thing to be able to do locally. These are the artists' babies; we treat them with respect and try to do well by them. Matching the colors is like solving a puzzle. An artist can call your attention to a slight variance in color in some area and, since it's in digital form, you can enhance it. This ability has actually been requested by artists who couldn't get the exact color they wanted, but we work together to get it. That's the fun part."

Dixon said a shop in Chicago might charge $500 just to do a consultation about making a print.

"We have Champaign prices, not champagne-and-caviar prices. The majority of our artists are local, although we have several from several states away as well. We want to create the best print and still be affordable."

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