Showing posts with label pattern. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pattern. Show all posts

Friday, July 7, 2017

Artist Spotlight - Pencil Parade Collective


 
Tell us a bit about your collective:
Pencil Parade met in an online class in 2015. Our personalities clicked while chatting in the private Facebook groups and thought it would be a good idea (and fun!) to join forces as a collective. We use Google Hangouts for formal meetings about once a month and have a private Facebook group that we are active on daily. It wasn't until May of 2017 that we finally met in person, to exhibit at Blue Print trade show in New York City.

Tell us a bit about yourselves: Did you go to school for art? Are you self taught?
None of us went to school for art, but we all did creative majors: Betsy and Megan went for Photography, Brooke went for film (and taught Paint and Sip classes!), and Katie majored in theater! We’re all self-taught in art and have lots of individual experience that help in our collective.

Do you work in just one medium? Several?
We all have a range of styles and sometimes we like to change it up!  We work with watercolor, gouache, india ink, and even digitally: painting in Photoshop, Procreate, or vector-based artwork in Illustrator.  

What inspires you / where do you get inspiration from?
Betsy: Having little kids around invites lots of colorful patterns, books and doodads into my house. I also like to pick up vintage cookbooks and fabric at thrift stores when I see something I like.

Brooke: I get inspiration from exploring my city and trying new experiences. Recently I did an Escape room; the set design of the room was so cool and I found an old book that had amazing patterns on the spine. I was also inspired earlier this year by the tiles in the bathroom of restaurant by the beach. I guess it's just being curious and paying attention to the little details of the spaces around me.

Katie: I'm often inspired by what's in my own "backyard." From my literal backyard garden, to the nature that surrounds me, objects in my home, vintage textiles, and children's books.

Megan: Living with an engineer is quite inspiring in itself.  Every project he does is very detailed and logical - this often works its way into my artwork as fun little details and interesting ‘ah-ha’s!  I also enjoy practicing yoga which has a way of making you stop and breath and allowing your mind to think of things in a different way.

 

How did you start licensing your art?
Betsy: My first license was with a sock company. I sent in some designs for a contest but didn't win, but a few months later they got in touch to ask if they could license one of the patterns I submitted.

Brooke: Of course, I've started business relationships by sending new art to companies on a regular basis, but the Pencil Parade art collective has really helped me in my art career. As a group we're able to send out postcards more frequently, have a really well curated instagram account, and reach out to potential clients with a much larger selection of artwork. I think all these efforts combined has resulted in people paying a bit more attention to us. And in essence, it's basically doubling our marketing efforts as an individual.

Katie: I opened an Etsy shop to start selling art prints, tea towels, and stationery items. The first thing I licensed was with a company that found my work on Etsy. Around the same time I was also developing an online portfolio and starting to actively contact companies that I hoped to work with.

Megan: I began licensing when my eyes were opened to it while working in-house at a textile company in LA.  I didn’t even know it was a thing until I saw the work artists were getting after they submitted.  My first license was and is with a greeting card company who I still work with today!

What are you working on now?
We’ll all knee-deep in holiday designs for clients and also some personal work here and there when we can fit it in.

 

Any great advice for our readers?
Betsy: I have an alarm on my phone that reminds me to submit to 2 companies every Monday. I don't always do it if I'm busy with other work, but it's a great reminder to share my work.

Brooke: Find ways to connect with your artist community! It gets lonely working alone and having people you can bounce ideas off of or ask questions, is so important.

Katie: I struggled for years trying to find a style or feeling anxious that I didn't have one. My biggest piece of advice for people in the same boat is to keep making work. It's in there already, you just need to work and it will come out all on its own and then continue to evolve and change. Also, find a support system. Joining my art collective, Pencil Parade, has been one of my best decisions yet. We support each other, help each other, and push each other too.

Megan: I agree with everyone else, and in addition, I actually have some online tutorials and classes to help intermediate to advanced designers.  A lot of them are more technology oriented. I talk a lot about using Photoshop and Illustrator to their fullest and how to work like a graphic designer and not just an illustrator.

Anything else you would like to share with us?
Betsy Siber is really excited to share her first fabric collection in a few months! In January, she signed on with Michael Miller Fabrics as an exclusive designer, and it has been a wonderful experience so far!  All four of us have recently signed on to a photo card company, too, which we're all excited about!

Are you all early risers? or night owls?
Betsy is the only night owl of our collective (the rest are early risers!), but Katie enjoys the quiet of a not-too-late night.

What is your favorite food?
Being in Southern California, Megan enjoys fabulous Mexican food, Betsy likes buttered toast and sushi (though not together!), and Katie says her weakness is French Fries.



Pencil Parade:

Betsy:

Brooke:

Katie:

Megan:
Classes: www.megandunagan.com/tutorials-classes/

Want to be spotlighted? email me info@AnnGraphics.com. I am looking forward to your comments and thanks for sharing this great information on social media.

 

Make my day! and Buy me a cup of coffee (PayPal Link in right side bar, you don't need a PayPal acct.)
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Friday, May 5, 2017

Artist Spotlight - Judy Reed Silver

 
(Click on images to view larger.)

Tell us a bit about yourself: Did you go to school for art? Are you self taught?   
I went to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and focused on illustration and fine art.  While I was much younger I attended Brentwood Art Center for several years - started there when I was thirteen in adult life drawing classes as they didn’t offer any classes for kids at the time. I luckily had a family that allowed me to turn our kitchen into an art experiment. 
Do you work in just one medium? Several? 
It depends. If I’m working on canvas or for a fine art print I work with collage using my photography (sometimes steal my husbands as he used to be a professional photographer) and patterns that I created. I print to fabric or special papers. But for illustration, design and licensing I often work solely digital or scan in my drawings and vintage photos, manipulating within Photoshop. I also use cutline filters for a “vintage” effect. For wall patterns or fabrics, I usually use Illustrator, as most companies I’ve worked with prefer art supplied as vector files.
 

What inspires you / where do you get inspiration from? 
Japanese kimonos, fabrics, textiles, nature, especially anything vintage. I love modern architecture, interior design, fashion and that's what inspires me to incorporate my work for walls, rugs and fabrics.
How did you start licensing your art? 
A close friend and art director was working on a project for clothing and didn’t know the technical aspects of how to create patterns within illustrator. So she asked me to assist her on the project. This was back in 2005 and that job led to another large project with another design firm creating several clothing lines. I realized that between my love for fashion and architecture licensing would be a good fit. I was then approached by a licensing rep that convinced me to move forward and go all in.

What are you working on now?  
Designed another scarf recently for the National Cherry Blossom Festival (held in DC each spring); they sold quite well.  I also had fun with nature-inspired imagery for use on cool water bottles produced out of Sausalito. And then I'll work on a collage-y piece for a magazine. It's a nice blend of clients and I value what that diversity brings. Just now, my agent, Liz Sanders/Liz Sanders Agency and I have  promotional materials we're collaborating on. ...Would like to approach my blank canvas boards again!

 
Any great advice for our readers?
When approaching licensing, make sure the contracts make sense and are fair, most are slanted towards the Licensee. All copyright transfers are contingent upon payments in full, which should include a copyright reversion clause if any breach in payment or usage. The “Net” proceeds should be specific. Also the artist credit should be stated on the artwork and advertising/promotions. When seeking a licensing rep, speak to the other artists in their group to get proper background info.

Anything else you would like to share with us?
A few of my images are licensed through a company called, “Soundwall.” They produced this new sound/music technology that is transferred directly through the artwork and not a speaker. I listed their link below.
Are you an early riser? or night owl?
Really a night owl. I rarely go to sleep before 2 am. Everyone knows to never call me before 10 am. I do my best work at night.
What is your favorite food?
Indian food, and Caesar salads.



You can Find Judy:

Want to be spotlighted? email me info@AnnGraphics.com. I am looking forward to your comments and thanks for sharing this great information on social media.

 

Make my day! and Buy me a cup of coffee (PayPal Link in right side bar, you don't need a PayPal acct.)

 Don't want to miss the good stuff? Sign up for my newsletter ;-) Really looking forward to your comments below!

 

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Friday, February 17, 2017

Agent Spotlight - Debby Leggat, Blue Sky Art & Design

 

How long have you been in business and how did you come to be an agent?
My career as a licensing agent began in 1994 when I started the licensing division at Wild Apple Graphics. Wild Apple was an established poster publisher, and a licensing division was a natural extension since, with a treasure trove of art, manufacturers were already approaching them with requests to use images on their products. It was a wonderful opportunity for me. My first choice would have been licensed artist myself, but a decided lack of ability disqualified me so I got to do the next best thing, which is to find licensing partners for the very talented artists I represent. Before becoming a licensing agent I worked at House & Garden magazine, sold advertising at Travel & Leisure, and handled public relations for an international trade group. All my prior experience has been very useful in what I do now.

What do you love most about the art licensing business?
There are so many things! Among them are:
• Finding talent that I believe has licensing potential and being proved right;
• Sending (big!) royalty checks to artists. Really, the bigger the better. If the artists are doing well, so is Blue Sky;
• Putting artists and manufacturers together. It’s extremely satisfying to find the perfect fit between image and product;
• Developing relationships and friendships with artists, manufacturers, and other agents. There are a lot of wonderful, talented, interesting, and hard-working people in art licensing, and I have enjoyed and continue to enjoy getting to know them through working together.



What do you like least about the art licensing business?
No question, dealing with copyright infringement. It quite literally makes me sick. I’m happy to say that often we have been able to convert a piracy to a legitimate license. There are times when infringement is inadvertent and not malicious, and the manufacturer is usually anxious to making things right.  However there are also those times when the infringement is deliberate and there’s a ‘guess we didn’t get away with that’ or a ‘we dispute your claim and will keep the dispute going forever until you go away’ attitude, or a ‘we’re too big for you to fight’ approach which is infuriating. Art Licensing is a relatively small field so word can travel pretty fast about the bad actors, but there is still far too much.

Who are the manufacturers you work with - how did you establish those relationships?
We work with manufacturers across the board from stationery to decorative accessories, wall décor, rugs and mats, tabletop and ceramics, gift. Many of our relationships are long—standing, established years ago and are on-going. For the most part they began at a trade show where the licensees were exhibiting or through cold calling and e-mailing. There’s no magic or trick to finding licensees: perusing trade publications, shopping the stores, both big box and small gift shops, and attending the trade shows are the obvious ways to find prospects. After that it’s a matter of perseverance.

How do you market artists?
By attending the gift and trade markets in Atlanta and New York, which gives us the opportunity to meet face-to-face with our licensees. We exhibit at Surtex, but sporadically. Last year was very good for us, so we’ll be there again in May, but we evaluate after every show to determine it’s worth.

Beyond that we market artists largely through email: I believe in edited, tailored presentations designed to appeal to whichever category or specific licensee we’re targeting. I want my contacts to want to open the submissions that come from Blue Sky because they’re relevant to what the manufacturer is doing.  We’re conscious of not wanting to waste anyone’s precious time.

Finally, we use our website and facebook page as much as possible. Our website is up-dated frequently to reflect the newest images and facebook allows for regular up-dates on what’s happening with our artists and licensees.


What do you look for in an Artist?
We look for:
• Applicability of the artwork to a range of products. If I can’t easily visualize it on a minimum of three to four product categories it probably won’t work;
• The artist’s recognition that art licensing is a commercial venture. That means the work may have to follow trends, be altered to suit a licensee’s needs and might not be used at all;
• The artist’s commitment to licensing by producing new work regularly, ability to resist discouragement, and patience, since the payoff can be a long ways out;
• An artist that sees licensing representation as a partnership—neither of us works for the other, but we are working together to build something.

How much work do you expect an artists to create?
I’ve never understood this question. It’s a little like asking ‘How successful do you want to be?’ I know that every artist produces new work at his or her own rate, but the simple answer is the more art that’s produced the greater the likelihood of success. That said, one artist can produce ten pieces that don’t go anywhere, another can produce one that gets licensed all over, so in that case it’s a matter of quality over quantity.

There really is no short answer either, but I will say that Jane Maday, one of Blue Sky’s top artists is also the top producer of new work. She was already an experienced licensed artist when we started working together, but even so, she never stops pushing herself in new directions with techniques and approaches so her licensing program will move into new categories. She treats art licensing as the full-time job that it is and that discipline and ambition are largely responsible for her success


How has the Art Licensing business changed over the years?
When I started in art licensing there was a lot of resistance from manufacturers to using outside artists. Many companies had in-house design staff so they couldn’t see incurring additional expense for something they already had, they felt the accounting was going to be a hassle, and they’d have to increase prices to accommodate the royalty. Then, as it became clear that certain artists like Mary Engelbreit, Susan Winget and some others were selling a lot of product, those attitudes started to shift; before very long a lot of companies had given up their in-house artists and began to rely exclusively on outside artwork.

Then the internet provided a huge shift in the art licensing business. The advent of email and the now ubiquitous image software removed any barriers to entry for would-be art licensors. Many bloggers, Etsy shop owners and individual artists with computer connections are now successful art licensors. There’s more competition, but there are more opportunities as well.

What’s new at Blue Sky Art & Design?
There’s always great new artwork. Jane Maday is at work on a wonderful series of Vintage Journal Sketches that she’s painting in an old ledger bought online. There are already over 40 images of wildlife, Spring, coastal, inspiration, and holiday to name just a few of the themes. Veteran licensed artist Wendy Russell is adding to her Bird Dog series which got an immediate and enthusiastic response when first introduced.

In addition, Blue Sky has recently added several talented, experienced and FUN artists: Swirly Designs, comprised of husband and wife Paul and Lianne Stoddard make bright, colorful and imaginative ornaments from clay. Their work is already being developed for collectibles and gifts. Their images are also translated to flat art for multiple other uses; Nancy Archer is hard at work on new collections of patterns for stationery, fabric, tabletop and more; and artist Barbara Behr, well-known in Germany and new to the American market is making a big impression with her Victoriana collages and imaginative compositions. All this newness keeps things exciting!



You can find Blue Sky Art & Design
www.blueskyartandddesign.com
https://www.facebook.com/BlueSkyArtDesignInc/
Surtex 2017 booth #2824 May 21-23, 2017
debby@blueskyartanddesign.com

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Friday, February 3, 2017

Artist Spotlight - Amy Kirkpatrick

 

Tell us a bit about yourself: Did you go to school for art? Are you self taught? 
Art became my passion at a very young age. Living in South Florida, my parents set up a little art desk for me to keep myself entertained during their long hours working at a local newspaper they owned. I went through coloring books so fast that my mother finally gave me a stack of blank paper and told me to make my own.

I excelled in art through high school and received a BFA degree from Florida State University in Studio Art with an emphasis in graphic design. My first job was at a check printer, John Harland Company in Atlanta, Georgia. I have since created designs and illustrations for many Fortune 500 companies including high tech companies such as Oracle and Cisco, universities, power companies, hospitals and medical companies, industrial manufacturers, including fashion icons such as Adidas and my personal favorite, Ashworth Golf Wear.

Often my work was done through advertising agencies or design boutiques, but some were full time corporate jobs such as Oracle, where I created illustrations for web-based training. I have designed about every kind of corporate collateral you can think of along with logos, software user interface, and web advertising and design.

In 2000, I began freelancing and found myself often waiting for proofing revisions. To keep myself busy while I waited, I'd paint. I started selling my art on eBay just to see what would happen and they sold! As my confidence and sales have grown, I am only doing graphic design for my own art business now.

Do you work in just one medium? Several?
I started out painting with acrylic, but after taking a community class in watercolor, I became forever hooked with the way it blends and blossoms. I absolutely love it.

I have full knowledge of Adobe Creative Suite and spend a great deal of time on the computer.

I also do a lot of gel pen drawings. After I bought a pack at Costco on a whim, I fell in love with them. However, I have not released my gel pen drawings, yet. There's the issue of reproduction quality because of their reflective nature, so I do them for my own amusement. I have about 100 finished pieces but they are so different than my watercolor paintings that I'm still deciding the best way to market them.


What inspires you / where do you get inspiration from?
I am mostly inspired by nature. I love painting living things. I also enjoy taking art classes for inspiration and to be around other artists. I am lucky to live in San Diego with access to world class watercolor teachers and the San Diego Watercolor Society that brings in outstanding visiting artists. This year, I took a class with Charles Reid and for the first time, attempted painting portraits of people. Since then, I found a group of artists that meet every Friday at one of our libraries with uninstructed portrait drawing and painting with live models. It has been great fun.

How did you start licensing your art?
My first big break was with Better Homes & Gardens publications in 2011. I had painted a couple butterflies and shown them to a friend who immediately wanted to buy them. She was planning to remodel her kitchen for a BHG publication. My butterflies became the theme of the remodel and ended up in two magazines as well as online. I decided I better paint more before the magazines came out so I challenged myself to paint 100 butterflies in 100 days. My butterflies were immediately picked up by an art licensing buyer and have been selling worldwide.

More licensing opportunities have come to me directly through my Etsy shop where I sell my originals and signed giclées. AmyKirkpatrickArt.com

What are you working on now?
I have nearly 600 paintings and always have several I'm working on. I do all the scanning and processing for prints myself which is very time consuming. My goal for 2017 is to get them all scanned so I can begin showing them online. They can't sell if no one can see them! All this while I continue to paint.

I paint what makes me happy and hope my joy shows through to make someone else happy.


Any great advice for our readers?
A friend and I tease that whoever dies with the most paints wins! But in truth, it's not about how many colors you have, but what you can do with the colors you have. My advice is to always be practicing and try to come up with your own unique ideas and style.

The best advice I received when I first started selling was from a gallery sales trainer. He told me to decide what kind of artist I wanted to be. There are many paths an artist can take and each requires a different level of skill, subject, style, and self-promotion. For example, what sells in a gallery won't necessarily sell to a product manufacturer. He was the first person to talk to me about art licensing.

Anything else you would like to share with us?
I paint because I love it. I think it may be an addiction. I have so much in my head that I want to paint that sometimes I can become paralyzed with too many ideas. I keep an ongoing list and a sketchbook of my ideas. I surprise myself sometimes when I review them and see something I think is really good that I had forgotten about. I am always grateful for having the forethought to document it, because how many ideas have I lost because I didn't do a quick sketch?

I do not have an agent. I have done very little self-promotion with manufacturers but have been fortunate for those that have found my art and contacted me. My most recent licensing agreement has gotten my art in the wall art section of Wayfair.

Are you an early riser? or night owl?
I am not an early riser. Since my husband gets up at 6:00am, he thinks I've slept half the day away when, as he puts it, I "finally" get up at 8:00am. To me, that's my perk of self-employment.

What is your favorite food?
My favorite food is Thai food. I love a good Penang curry!



You can find Amy:

amykirkpatrick@roadrunner.com
AmyKirkpatrickFineArt.com
AmyKirkpatrickArt.com (Etsy)
AmyPrints.com (Fine Art America)
Facebook.com/AmyKirkpatrickFineArt
www.instagram.com/amykirkpatrickart
twitter.com/ak_art

Make my day! and Buy me a cup of coffee (PayPal Link in top-right side bar, you don't need a PayPal acct.)

 Don't want to miss the good stuff? Sign up for my newsletter ;-)

 

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