Behind the Scenes of Shake a Tail Feather Collection - answering a few art licensing questions

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Answering a few of your questions

 

Happy Friday Creative Souls!

One of the most popular emails I get from all of you is how do you create art for licensing. I have done a couple of posts so you can get a peek behind the scenes of how I do it. (links at the end of this post). Here we are taking a peek behind the scenes of my "Shake a Tail Feather" collection. Please realize, there is no one way to do this! There are as many ways as their are artists. I know artist who paint complete paintings and do not set up mock ups or patterns. They may pull icons out of the finished painting.  I personally like having a lot of icons (a single rooster is an 'icon') to create different image combinations with. So I will paint in steps, then scan in the art after each step. Example: Paint the rooster first, scan in the computer, paint the background, scan in the finished painting. Sometimes I just paint a background to use.

Another question is how much work do I need to have before I get into licensing?
Gosh, there isn't a magic number. You could be a stunning floral painter and only need just a couple of paintings that catches a manufacturer's eye. I lean towards having several images and/or collections. That to me says you are serious, have more than one image to sell/make money on. Everyone including you wants to make money from your art. I think I had around 12 art collections before I started approaching agents. I also set up an art licensing website. It was my personal comfort level.

Finishing touches in Photoshop

Do I worry about not having just one style?

No :-) I primarily work in watercolor and acrylic. They dry fast! Some say I have a couple of styles. Some say that they can tell that all of it is my work. I like the idea of being able to offer a manufacturer a wider variety of art for their products. 

Watercolor sample image

What programs do you use?

I am a Photoshop girl!, since I create my art by hand (not on the computer). I scan it in to the computer at high resolution, so that the image can be around 36 or more inches at 300 dpi. I may work in Illustrator down the road, right now I use Illustrator for logo design, some t-shirt design etc. depending on what my client needs. I use InDesign for magazine layout, newsletters and it works great for billboards etc.

Sprinkled through this post I am showing you some in progress photos of how I paint the "icons" first. Above, I lightened the dark brown background to get a different feel/color to the painting.
• Find more painting steps in this post here
• Find out about building a portfolio and what a collections means to me here
• More behind the scenes photos, Patriotic collection here

One of the Shake a Tail Feather portfolio pages.

Thank you all for your social media shares and emails. The art licensing community is fabulous! Looking forward to hearing your comments about how you create art and licensing experiences.

What I learned from my trip to the AmericasMart in Atlanta

I recently met my agents ArtsDG.com in Atlanta at the AmericasMart. I didn't stay very long. I was there Thursday afternoon and left Saturday morning. I only saw parts of building 2 where there were a lot of gift manufacturer's show rooms. There are 3 very tall buildings in downtown Atlanta that make up the AmericasMart. If you are looking for trend information - scroll down to the link for Joan Beiriger's blog post, under "Humongous!"

People are just People - The importance of chatting.
I do SO MUCH of my business through email. It is great and efficient. BUT there is value in sitting in on a meeting and hearing a manufacturer's perspective. You can read about it on blogs etc. but listening and watching really brings it home. In my short visit in Atlanta, there were 3 times when I went into a show room just to admire their products and I struck up conversations with the person who approached me asking if I needed help. (Note: I let them know I am an artist and didn't want to keep them from a sale). We swapped business cards and have now sent them art to consider (Julie, my agent sent it :-) . That doesn't happen as easily in a sea of emails.

My agents works their butts off!
We met with a manufacture on Thursday afternoon and I got to see Julie & Mary Ann in action :-) They also let me sit in on a couple of meetings with other manufactures the next day. That day, Julie had back to back meetings. I am very grateful for the opportunity to sit in on meetings and have a much greater appreciation for all that she and ArtsDG.com do! You just can get a sense of that kind of commitment through email updates with each other.

Cheaper!
I think I have been to Surtex 3 times (art licensing show in NYC). It is expensive to go to Surtex! My hotel in Atlanta (near the airport) was only $72 a night. I used Uber for the first time and loved it. A ride from the hotel to AmericasMart ranged from $15 - $18. Depending on how heavy traffic was. That is half a cab ride! I tipped, but it says on their website that tipping isn't necessary.  I like the door to door service, but you could catch the train (MARTA) for even more savings. There is a MARTA station across the street from the AmericasMart.

Humongous!

For a bit I was frustrated that I wasn't staying longer in Atlanta. I realized I just wasn't going to be able to see much of the show. Then it dawned on me - there is SO MUCH to try to see, that taking it in and only seeing a much smaller chunk was so much better than day after day of show room looking and overload. No way I could absorb it all. --Joan Beiriger has a wonderful post if you are interested in market trends here.

Good for the soul

Friday night in Atlanta I hung out with several artist in a nearby hotel bar. I had a diet coke because I was pooped and in serious need of caffeine! :-D I realized that I need to find or start some sort of artists hangout group in my city. It is great to hang with people who don't think it is weird to discuss a certain shade of a particular color. ;-) I am already thinking of going to Atlanta again this July.

Do you go to trade shows? Were you in Atlanta? How was your experience?

Grateful for YOU! Happy Thanksgiving

Hello!
I wanted to do a short post on how GRATEFUL I am for all of you! You all make this blog work by visiting, sharing, following, commenting, guest posting and more!  A BIG Happy Thanksgiving for those of you who celebrate this holiday.  I heard someone say on the radio today that we should think of and write down everyday what we are thankful for. Great advice.

Hope all of you and your families are well,