Does anyone else just hate signing prints??

With a blank piece of waste paper I can do a nice flowing relaxed-

looking signature every time; okay, so then I grab my cool pigment

ink pen and poise over the newly-matted final print, which if I mess

up will cost me about a hundred bucks and a lot of time to do over,

and I get so nervous to get it right that it almost never comes out

as relaxed as the practice ones, and in the process I gain sixty-

three new grey hairs and lose a week off the end of my life for the

stress of it. I see other artists who have the nicest easy-looking

signatures on their pieces, and wonder if I'm the only one who

stresses the signature thing. Does anyone else out there hate

signing prints as much as I do?

 

~cj

Ditto. I've considered getting a rubber stamp.

I dont have as big of a problem since I sign the prints with pencil, I can always re do it, but on the same vein I got me a little japanese chop, it is 1 cm square and it fits perfect below the print border. I got it from the japanese connection and they do make them with any engraving you might want. I dont know what you could use for ink though, but maybe they can advise.

Sign it with a pure sterling silver "rod" 1 mm or more in diameter, sharpened with sand paper. At first the signature will be a bit faint, later as the silver oxidizes the signature gets darker. A silver print with a silver signature!

 

Or use a number 3 pencil! If you mess up - erase the signature and redo it!

Here is a suggestion. Take one of your personal checks next time you do your bills and cut out the area that you would sign it and with masking tape, align it over the area that you would sign your prints and pretend you are paying one of your utility bills with a pencil.

 

Your anxiety is in using the pigment ink pen. Lose it and you will be just fine.

I love to sign prints! It means I sold something! Yea!

 

Chris, if I could make prints like yours I'd be a happy guy. Sign that thing with attitude - you're proud of the print aren't you? Be big, bold, and bodacious (I stole that line from Edith Edelman, a master gardener whose garden designs are BB&B). Sign that thing with a flourish!

I have thought about getting an embossing stamp. I can do all the graphic artwork on my computer and send it as a .tiff file to the stamp factory. The stamps are not cheap, but they look good and can be used forever. Here are some examples (from a swedish stamp factory)

 

http://www.stampelfabriken.se/visasubkategori.tpl?katid=sub200104211316197371

It is a bit vexing at times. I usually sign in pencil below the mounted image and within the overmat. I don't think any two of my signatures look the same. On a recent project, I decided to print my name in very tiny letters and I'm almost tempted to continue that with all my prints. I try not to let any of this get me down though. A very sucessful photographer I know of signs his prints with great consistency and flare, but his prints on the other hand?

I prefer not to see a signature when I look at a photo or painting - I find them visually distracting. Instead, I sign and date the back: near the edge, in light pencil. That way, it doesn't matter if the signature is sloppy, or if it varies from piece to piece. If someone likes the image well enough, they ask who made it. The fact that someone bought it and hung it up is probably enough marketing.

I'd be more than happy to sign your prints for you Chris.

 

Just sign them. Geeeezz......

For what its worth, I have seen some folks who print digitally scan their signature and then print it in the border along with with image. I suppose in the gallery world this might detract from the value a bit but it would certainly facilitate your need.

Chris,

 

I'll take all sixty-three of your new grey hairs. That would be sixty-three more hairs than I have now. I've never stressed the signature thing. I sign on the matt - light pencil, lower right and small. Doesn't interfere with the overall image or presentation.

 

Of course, I've signed damn few.

 

BTW, great presentation in View Camera. Ya gotta explain the time exposure process.

Naw. My signature looks like it was made by a third grader who fell off his bike without a helmet, but people tell me it's unique and artsy. Hey, who am I to argue?

<P>

Now cutting mats, <I>that's</I> what I hate.

Chris ,

I also don't sign on the print .

 

Since i only mount my prints with archival tape , ( i found a way

not to make even large prints buckle ) , I start from the back of the

image itself , were in LIGHT pencil i write a standard text ,

namely : This is an original silver print , printed from original

negative , numerated and signed by the author .

This is the 5th of a limited edition of 62 .

signed : domenico Foschi

 

Then on the lower left side of the matt i write the edition number

( 5 / 62 ) and on the right side my monogram with the year the

image was taken .

To avoid potential differences in signatures i opted for a design

of my two initials , and i never looked back .

Take care ,

Domenico

www.dfoschisite.com

I don't hate signing my work. It's just marking what I'm proud of. I usually just put my initials at the bottom on the right like I do on my paintings. It's just a mark to tell I did the work but not too big enough to be distracting. On the back I put the date , my name, somtimes my sign and sometimes a number if the picture has been printed more than once. BUT... when I put something on the web, I put a scanned sign in one cormer. It might be a bit ugly but I won't let go my shots on the web without it.

Having a sign embossed in the paper sounds nice. I'll think about it !

If you get jumpy signing prints, be grateful you didn't live in the

era when it was accepted practice to sign the negative. The

glass plate crowd had to learn how to do their signature in mirror

writing if they wanted it sharp. Time to sign up for a copperplate

class.

I'm in the don't sign the front group.

 

I have a certificate of authenticity in a small envelope taped to the back which contains all the vital information. (Title, Date, Edition #, Type of Print, and Signature) I also print on the back of the mount with all that information on the back of the mount in case it ever gets re-framed and separated from the original mat.

 

Ever re-paint your bedroom? I figure that eventually my work will get re-framed. Signing the mat doesn't help there, but the certificate can easily follow the image around... The framer would also find all the info inside when the frame was opened.

 

IMHO I can't remember being bombarded with signatures seeing photography exhibits at large venues - usually always a little card next to the work to identify the piece. But to each there own.

The Weston prints I looked at recently at the CCP were signed in pencil along the lower margin, very simple and none too fluid, a tribute to a man of simple means. I keep thinking back to the recent View Camera with Cole in it (a few other guys you may know of as well, keeping good company as it were). He was the first to graduate high school in his family.

 

What the heck, let it all hang out. Sign in thick, juicy, black magic marker right across the middle of the print, then let the critics do their work. Give them something to comment on, they need it to justify their existence. Perhaps it would change the banal carping and verbal flatulence (sort of like this post, no?).

Yes! Only I have it drawing. If a picture is working out better than my wildest dreams, I freeze up, over do it and blow it every time. It's a good solid case of looking over ones own shoulder. We can be our own worst critics. This is useful in the arts, but becomes a problem when we're afraid to make a mistake.

 

All the buyer needs is something to show it's yours, or maybe you do. Either way, It's just a signature. Anything will do. Just because it's the last step of a long effort of perfection doesn't mean it needs to be a work of art. It's just a symbol, not a work of art. Maybe deep down you don't like messing up a print with something so unimportant.

 

"Less is more."

 

Try something simpler. Try something less destructive to the art if your pen blobs all over it. Look at the print and think of how proud you are of your work. When that warm feeling hits, let lose with whatever you've chosen to show your acceptance of your own work. Then look back at the print, not the signature.

I down a shot of Cuervo before signing prints. Works everytime :D.

For many photographers a signature looks out of place at the bottom edge of an image that is meant to be a direct representation of lived reality. Printmakers began signing their work in the nineteenth century. Earlier artists did not sign or number work. The practice of signing artwork comes from an autograph-collecting mentality that is somewhat silly. Still, the artist's name signifies that the artist approves the image, which is not so silly. Many photographers sign, date, and title the back of their prints at the bottom edge of the sheet, not on the reverse of the image itself.

Chris: I think everyone is overlooking what you're really saying here.

 

I stress my signature too - actually my 'lettering', since I don't sign in cursive. However, everyone else seems to think my sig looks great, professional, etc. It's apparently just me. There's a direct relationship between the sig and the print itself. I struggle with outputting only perfect prints in all regards. Most people don't see the problems that I might see in a print, much like the signature.

 

So, do like Kevin Hundsnurscher suggests: have a sip, only make it Sauza. Cuervo blows.

<i>"So, do like Kevin Hundsnurscher suggests: have a sip, only make it Sauza. Cuervo blows."</i><br><br>

LOL! I know Cuervo sucks, but it's that blast of harsh alcohol which helps loosen you up a bit. But this is coming from someone who could drink either Mezcal or Don Julio. LOL!

Break out in a sweat every time!

In addition to the above: I have been signing illustrations and paintings for more years than I care to remember and <b>without</b> becoming a gibbering wreck. The point is I know that I can always remove the signature (if I misspell my name, LOL) and redo it. Trouble is, even signing my matte prints with a soft pencil, I know if I try to remove the signature it will damage the paper coating and the print will end up in the bin.<p><a href="http://www.keithlaban.co.uk">www.keithlaban.co.uk</a>