Peek into Creating Art for Licensing - Patriotic

Happy Friday Creative Souls!

I like to see how other artist create their work. Everyone creates a bit differently. These are progress photos for acrylic paint on canvas panel. I have done this a bit backwards. If I were creating a 'typical' painting I might paint the entire background and then paint the detail on top. It just depends on what I want when I am finished.

First I sketch out ideas - in this case 'icons' for a patriotic theme. Nothing fancy, this is computer printer paper. I also make some notes, so that as I am painting these I don't forget what I was thinking! (click on images to see them larger).

Next I clean up and re-draw to scale of the canvas panel I will be painting on. For this collection I scribbled on the back of my drawing with pencil so I could trace/transfer it on to the canvas panel. The largest panel is 8x10 so it will fit on my scanner.

Jump in and start to paint! I paint the 'icon' first so that I can scan it in an drop out the background easily.

Time to scan, These do have quite a bit of texture - some of it will get lost when you scan it and color correct. You could take photos to capture more texture.

Once I have the isolated icons scanned in, I finish the paintings and then scan them in again. Since I do paint some background only panels - I don't know that I need to do this step, but it does give me a few more options.

Now it is computer time to set up patterns and product mocks! Taaaa Daaaaa!

Do you paint with acrylics? How do you use that medium to create art for licensing? I would love to hear from you! Thanks for stopping by :-)

How I Worked Up an Art Collection

My Sunshine Collection - click image to view larger.

Happy Friday Creative Souls! Today I am answering the question submitted: How do you work up your designs?

If you listen to Tara Reed's Ask Calls - I am going to steal her line - "It depends." So, I thought I would pick a collection and give you an idea of how I did it, CliffsNotes style :-)

I like putting pencil to paper. I would bet that 98% of my art starts this way. In the past I have inked it first and then watercolor it. *You might like this post: A Peek into Watercolor and Ink Process - read the comments, there are some good tips! For this collection I drew the line art in my trusty sketchbook, one of those nice ones with the fabulous paper! Then, I scanned in the line art. For example the potted flower above is 3" wide by 8.5" tall, 1600 dpi. That is probably a bit of over kill for most products (It is 44" high at 300dpi...)

Next, with the image all cleaned up and no background in Photoshop, I made a new layer (or two) below the line art layer and filled the shapes with color and pattern. I expanded the selection for the fill just a few pixels so that the black line of the line art traps the color.

I am guessing that tablet owners can do this more quickly! If you use a tablet - let me know how you like it - thanks! (Christmas is coming :-)

 

You might also like: Creating Art for Licensing - Make it easier on Yourself

Peek into Palette Knife Pumpkin Painting

Thank you for stopping by! Looking forward to hearing from you :-)

Creating Art for Licensing - Make it Easier on Yourself

The Skinny if you don't want to read more: Paint and scan the art in steps. Nuff said :-)

These are acrylic paint on cotton canvas panel. I only used one palette knife. The small square ones are 6" x 6" panel and the larger one with the two gold pears is 9"x 12" panel. These are part of an 'apples and pears' collection I am working on.

I paint small - so I can scan them it at a HIGH resolution. Normally If I were painting these to sell in a gallery or some place similar, I would block in the darks and work up to the light colors. I would have painted the background first over the stems and then paint the stems on top of the background, cuz that is easy.

BUT, for art licensing you are probably going to want just the pear/apple alone with no background. It is much easier to remove a white background in photoshop, THEN go back and paint in a background.

One more thought: If a manufacturer wants a different background - this may make that easier to accomplish. Especially if what I have shown them has the pear/apple on a separate layer already in photoshop (or illustrator).

I would LOVE! it if you would share how you handle art for licensing. If you don't want that to be public - shoot me an email anntroe@cox.net. Thanks so much for reading and sharing :-D

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