Surtex 2014 and My Biggest Take-a-Way!

Art Licensing! (click photos to see them larger)

 

Surtex fires me up! I am going to start with my biggest take-a-way because I know you all are busy! Have you heard about ArtLicensingShow.com? It is Cherish Flieder's amazing site opening June 2. Founding Artists members can start signing up on May 27th - THAT is soon! No matter your role in the art licensing industry, this website is for you. It is 5 years in the making and I am very excited about it! Read about it and sign up for email updates here: http://redcarpet.artlicensingshow.com

I got to meet Cherish - finally, and what fun we had at the Art of Licensing meet up! (artoflicensing.com) There were two drawings and ARTISTS! It was loads of fun talking with so many of you. We need to get together more often - it is so good for my soul :-D I had a few artists sign my Annie's Doodlebugz logo backpack including the fabulous Ronnie Walter. She has a new book: "License to Draw: How I built a fun career in art licensing and you can too!" ...I didn't want her to sign my iPad since I have the eBook version. :-)

Lastly I have to give a shout out & a big THANK YOU  to my Agents Lainey and Teresa - Parcai Designs. Because of all of their heavy lifting at Surtex (and through out the year!) I can connect with all of you :-)

Please share your Surtex experience with me! Thank you so much for stopping by.

Peek Into Watercolor and Ink Process

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Halloween art debut at Surtex 2014, Booth 221 - Parcai Designs

 

Don't you love seeing how other artists work? :-) Here is a peek into how I create art for licensing using watercolor and ink. With this one, I am using a fine point sharpie marker and some tubes of guache and watercolor.

First, I scratch out some ideas (above). There were several more that I ended up tossing out. They just were not tripping my trigger. I usually scan in my ideas and print them our larger, cuz then they are easier to paint.

Next, I will trace the enlarged print-outs with ink on watercolor paper. When I do this, I am only using 90 lb. paper so I can see through it on my light table. I have been doing the inking first, because then I can scan in high resolution line art with no color. Comes in handy for rubber stamps. You can set up a "computer-colored" version of your work etc.

Once the line art is all scanned in and cleaned up, I finish painting and scan it all in again. I am not saying you SHOULD do it this way - just something I have been doing lately.

I really had fun creating this brand-spanking-new Halloween collection! Came up with some really cute patterns to go with it :-) Below is a peek of just a few of the things I did with this collection.

Artists: Let me know if you ink first or last, and how that helps (or why you like it). Maybe you don't ink at all!

Manufacturers: See the whole collection and a bunch more of my new art at Surtex in NYC, booth 221 or visit http://www.parcaidesigns.com

Thanks a bunch for stopping by and commenting. I love hearing from you :-)

Origami Jumping Frogs Galore!

Getting Ready for Surtex 2013

For those of you who are not familiar with Surtex - it is THE art licensing show for artists to connect with buyers www.surtex.com.

My agent Parcai Designs has booth #765. I am making small jumping origami frogs to hand out to people as I walk the floor. Notice I have written the booth number on each frog :-) I haven't counted, but I have in the ball park of 250 frogs so far - wonder how many I will get done before the show?!

Hugs! ~Annie