Artist's Proofs
Publisher's Proofs
Paintings
A relatively new, better type of print called "giclées"
They are often incorrectly referred to as posters or paintings.
Giclées are printed on paper and framed under glass, or printed on artists' canvas and stretched over wooden stretcher bars, or mounted onto board. Prints on canvas are commonly referred to as canvas giclées or canvas prints.
Giclées – whether they're on paper or canvas – are the best form of art print available today. They are generally superior to older print media such as serigraphy, lithography and etching because those older media may require require use of toxic materials, are inefficient to produce and therefore are usually more expensive, and don't accurately give all artists the looks that they want. (For Tony Max, the look that he prefers is traditional oil paintings and none of the traditional media can effectively produce that rich appearance with the brush strokes visible.)
Tony Max giclées are high-resolution, archival art prints, printed slowly and labouriously – one at a time – using fade-resistant inks on acid-free paper.
Each print is trimmed by hand, using a ruler and art knife, and inspected by the artist for quality assurance.
Flawed prints that can be fixed are put aside and embellished by the artist, who paints on the giclées to match the color of the print and cover the flaw. (This type of hand-embellished print is known as a remarqué.)
Flawed prints that cannot be fixed (about 10 percent of all prints printed) are cut into pieces and recycled, ensuring consistent, high quality throughout the edition.
The artist signs and numbers the limited editions prints and fills out the certificate of authenticity that accompanies each print.
Giclée printing – contrary to popular misconception – is not mass production. There is a significant element of hand-crafting and individual attention involved for each art print, and Tony Max is involved in every stage of production of his giclées.
The artist meticulously records in his books the history of each of the prints: first documenting the printing of each print, and after the print has been sold, the selling date, and the name of the buyer are also recorded, so each print has its history recorded.
Giclées are archival and last longer than than offset lithographs. Max's giclées on paper should be framed under glass. They last even longer under u.v. glass. Neither paper giclées nor canvas giclées should be exhibited for extended times in direct sunlight. Exhibition in lower light is preferable to prolong image permanence.
Giclée printing allows for more vibrant colors and a broader color gamut than mass production offset lithography because most of the giclée printers use seven, eight or nine ink colors instead of the four colors normally used in offset lithography, and the inks are long-lasting pigmented inks.
They are expensive to print because of the high cost of equipment and materials used, and the amount of care required to hand-craft these archival prints one at a time.
The hand-crafting, archival materials and the increasing reputation of the artist all serve to enhance the value of the prints for art collectors.
The artist has adopted a modern print naming and numbering system for his editions
the artist has re-defined the way that archival, limited edition art print editions are named and numbered. He has abandoned the traditional, archaic methods of having a main edition along with a small suite of identical prints of the same size (artist's proofs) because He discovered that that approach doesn't fit people's needs. Instead, he has switched to a new print classification system whereby prints are published in three or four sizes: small, medium, large and for some images extra large. His new system fills the needs of the art print enthusiasts much better than the old one, because one size does not fit all needs; not everyone wants the same size of print.
Generally, only his older print editions have artists' proofs designated in them, for the reasons stated in the above paragraph. His newer editions are designated as small, medium and large, and in some cases, extra large.
The artist apologizes for any confusion that may have been caused by switching to the new system.
Artist's proofs
They are usually transferred from the publisher to the artist.
With traditional forms of printmaking such as stone lithography and etching, the artist's proofs constituted a small number of defective prints, which were prized because the defects made them different in a unique way from the unblemished prints.
They are generally valued about 20 percent higher than the prints in the regular edition, even though nowadays people expect all prints to be free of defects.
Publisher's proofs
They are usually rarer than artist's proofs.
For the Tony Max's editions that include publisher's proofs, there are only five prints of each images.
Paintings
Paintings are normally painted entirely by an artist, using paint brushes that have been dipped into paint.
They are also referred to as "originals".
They differ from prints. (Prints are made with some sort of a mechanical printing device, such as an inkjet printer, an offset lithography press, a stone lithography system, a silkscreen screen and squeegee system, or an etching plate system.)