True Confessions

I have a confession to make. I have never printed an Art print in my life. Yes, it's true. As you may of noticed I set up an Etsy Shop. I was hoping to sell a few prints so I could buy a full copy of photoshop. Don't click! This isn't a plea for money; just a confession. I put up my digital art in my Etsy shop and then have hoped and prayed that no one would buy a print. I made an ugly header for my shop. I feel a twinge of terror each time my work gets added to a treasury  on Etsy. I feel like a Monty Python script. I'm an adventurous person. I love learning new things. But I have been stuck.

Fortunately I don't believe I'll be punished for the rest of my life for not knowing. But it was time to take the next step. Today I called a printer on the premise of resizing a piece for printing. We talked about file formats, about colour profiles, dpi and enlarging prints, about paper seelctios and pre cut sizes. We also talked about sizing. What a relief!!! So I'm going to take my frog shaped drive down there this week. I'll let you know how it goes.

This brings me to another point. I'm sure I'm not alone. About a month ago I decided to sell my art. Sell some art to support my art habit. Before I knew it, I was knee deep in shop descriptions and shipping profiles, setting up paypal acounts. Who knew that you had to pay duty on art? Sometimes a good idea gives you so much more than you asked for. Then on top of it all, I was hoping not to sell anything.
At certain times one has to stop and re-evaluate. Now I have to make sure my stock is up to snuff (300 dpi). I don't want to enlarge something, only to realize that, that bird is only 72 dpi. and pixelated.
And a bonus. I found out that I can make much larger prints from my work than I preiously thought. I guess it never hurts to ask.