preparing a submission

Years ago I had a request from Disney to submit my portfolio for consideration on a print project. Specifically they said they had selected me and 4 other artists and asked if I had any 'underwater' work. I found out it was for Finding Nemo. Long story short I did NOT have underwater work so spent the weekend trying to put some together. When the weekend was done and I was getting my artwork boxed up, I made sure to include the new work.

I did NOT get selected. Heartbroken (thinking this was my lucky big break) I told myself I was boycotting that movie. Of course I saw the movie and have gone to Disneyland since and seen every darn Disney animation since. But I learned a valuable lesson that weekend. Just because someone wants to see a subject matter that you don't have, does NOT mean you need to create something just for them. Why? Because I was in such a hurry to just give them what I thought they wanted, that I was NOT true to my art, and sent something that did not measure up to my standard. In retrospect, I believe that was my portfolio downfall. I created two additions that were not as thoughtful, were not as well executed because I thought I had to.

The reason I bring this up is that last week I had an inquiring potential licensor. I did end up creating some new work to submit today. However I used my very serious editorial eye and did NOT submit several pieces even though they were the right subject matter. The work wasn't good enough. Lesson learned that I want to only submit work that I feel is my best work. Now, if they do not choose me I won't feel like I screwed up, I will know in my heart it just wasn't the right fit for them, right now.

Getting back on the horse

I have been busy. Which is a good thing as a freelancer. But...the downside is I haven't been promoting my licensing. That means no new deals.

I need to get back on the horse.

Today I finished a new piece and on Thursday I meet with a friend who is a genius marketing gal. I am hoping to rope her into the licensing scheme and see if together we can launch a new and improved 'design house'. I think that putting two people together may be more successful than one person (with a family) juggling freelance and licensing. Let's face it, it is hard enough being mom, then putting on the self-employed hat to scrounge up consistent work to pay bills, then work on promoting licensing art.

No more tomorrow. Today. I hereby promise to the universe that I will get my butt back in gear and keep pushing through on licensing my art. Even if I am busy with paying work....

how halloween is like art licensing

Every year I work really hard to make fun costumes for my kids. Some years I start in August because the ideas are so grandiose that it requires months to execute. This year was an easier year for me but none the less it reminds me a lot of the process of art licensing.

When I embark on my costume making, the first thing I do is come up with a concept. Which is what I do for licensing. What art will I make? Of course my kids are involved in what they want to be, but essentially we spend time deciding what will be the most fun. As an artist to license art I think more about what has a broad appeal, and what is a fun concept that I feel I can do a good job exploring visually.

Second step is devising a plan. For costume making I create detailed sketches and take measurements of my kids to ensure I create something that is wearable. As an artist creating artwork for licensing, I sketch my ideas and start to create a library of icons and images that will be good to play with in a multiple of compositions. I consider color palettes and whether the art is seasonal or everyday. But essentially both share the careful consideration of usefulness. Be it to wear to show.

Third execution. Costume making is easy, figure out the pieces and start creating. Art licensing is similar. Take all those sketches and pieces and begin creating.

The final step is bask in the awesomeness of the finished piece. Ok, maybe not, but once the work is complete both will be set out to the world. While the costume will go door to door and will receive a reward at each knock, art for licensing will require knocking on many doors, but only select ones open to reward.

Often I send out my samples, I call back and get no response. I am not alone. Many of us artists create, submit, follow-up and wait. But can you think of anything else you would rather do? I cannot. And honestly when the right door opens and gives me that king sized candy bar, there is no better feeling in the world.

keeping up

The submissions have been emailed and mailed. The mock-ups are done. Now, keeping up with all the other details. What now?

First things first. Update my site. I know that it is easy to build your website then forget about it. But alas, the beauty of the web is that it is malleable. Websites should be current, and fresh. And although I know this, I often put web updates low on my priority list. But taking the time to go in, put up a few new pictures and post news is a great thing.

Second, taking the time to go visit other blogs pertinent to your industry and write comments. It may not seem like much but it really is a good thing, keeps you current, and lets Google know you are an active participant in your industry. So it may seem like it is nonsense, but spending an hour a week researching, and making comments really does help your business.

Lastly, follow-up emails. All those submissions I sent last week, well it is time to send a little note and make sure they were received. Remind people of my name and generally just be present, perhaps my name will shuffle up through the clutter of other submissions.

These three things aren't all that painful, really. But they often go undone. I have two of three completed, now to send those follow-up emails!

next steps

I am still riding the high of getting my sample prints but I realize this is just one of many steps required to actually make it as a licensed artist.

Now what?

In the week since I received my sample fabric I have been pouring over websites of manufacturers looking for other places the pattern might sell. Then, I painstakingly applied the design to many products, for example; napkins, trivets, tea towels, and gift bags. Once the art was all in place I created a nicely branded pdf and began the submission process all over again. Now if I didn't enjoy my family, I would've done this months ago, but I actually like having a life, so find myself just now taking this next step. Two packages in the mail, and three email submissions later, I realize I need to make more work, and find more places to submit.

It really is a cycle. A cycle of creating art, mocking it up, researching markets, submitting and promoting. I pretty much suck at the promoting part, so my next big commitment is to make this a higher priority.

final product

Wow. I started on licensing my art nearly two years ago. I started because I had a lot of time on my hands with the economic downturn. Of course it doesn't require time alone. I happen to be an artist with a ton of art, and a few concrete skills in the real world of design. Put that together and here I am, learning a new industry as fast as I can.

The bad news is, it isn't easy. And just because I have art and the know how to make it into a mock-up to send to a manufacturer doesn't mean instant success. As I have learned at the school of hard knocks, success in life takes a good dose of luck and timing too. Much to my chagrin. Seems some folks have more of that combination than others. I tend to fall towards the mid to low end of the spectrum.

The good news is that persistence pays. I have submitted no less than 30 designs to one company in particular. They in turn show them to their clients and finally, someone bit. Being new to the process, I didn't realize wholly that it would take nearly 5 months for the check to arrive with my sample product. The gears grind slowly in this industry. Much slower than the world of graphic design where everything seems to be due tomorrow and printed or posted within the week.

So here I am, contemplating how to celebrate my first real world success story. Granted it is one product. But it is too glorious yards of the most beautiful fabric I have ever seen. Why, because it is my fabric, my art, my name in the selvage. And that very fabric is going to be seen in stores this month.

Yippee.

Sold!

Woo Hoo! Well it happened. I sold my very first royalty based textile print. Yea! Technically I started working on creating a portfolio for licensed art barely a year ago. I have worked tirelessly at night, on weekends and when the paying work didn't pay. Today after many submissions I got my official Yes.

A huge thank you to Robert Kaufman Co. for giving me a break. In 6 to 9 months my wine glasses print will be in Joann's stores. Aww I see a picture perfect moment of me with my fabric in the store.

Forgive my ramble but I am a happy girl today. Champagne is due.

sketches and sickness

Ok so I had high hopes to post new sketches and more about process. But alas sickness struck. First the flu last week, and that has now morphed into pneumonia. Oh goodie! Instead of posting sketches I want to talk about something that occurred to me during my sofa hiatus.

I have been doing illustration and design for clients for years. Not the licensing art, but for hire, draw this image for me type of work. With the slow down of the economy this work has slacked which opened the door for me to create work for licensing. I have enjoyed the large body of work created and the small fruits it has bore already. However, I find I am at a crossroads.

Since the other work slowed down, and the licensing is just picking up, I find both are at the same spot as far as need. I either have to dump time and energy back into promoting the 'Bread and Butter' work of the past, OR dump time and energy into the licensing work of the future. Both require promotion and follow-up. All my old word of mouth, steam ship promotions of past for the regular work has slowed down since everyone cut back their budgets. Now that I see a glimmer on the horizon of work picking up, I either have to start putting myself back in front of those people, or I lose them. By the same token, my fledgling licensing work needs the same love.

What to do? Can I do both? Can I promote both or do I need to choose. Licensing or Bread and Butter? I enjoy licensing, but I enjoy the immediacy of a payday from Bread and Butter clients. With my amazing luck of having pneumonia, I see that I can ponder this from my sofa for a few days.

royalties

Last year when the economy really took a nose dive (for me it was last January), I decided to start working on new art for licensing. I had been to Surtex twice before as an observer and knew a bit about licensing. Not much mind you, there is so much to learn. But I knew in essence what it was and the basics of what I needed to do. So I started working, sketching, writing down matrices of what I wanted to draw, categories and ideas. My sketchbook started to fill up with new work until finally I found it was time to actualize the work into finished pieces.

February was the month I spent painting and creating patterns, and repeats. I took all the time I would have spent on design work for customers (who vanished with their budgets) and took all the sketches to final art. I can't tell you how many hours I spent, but it was all of February, day and yes into the night.

March came and I decided enough images were done to put together promos and start submitting to manufacturers. I researched and compiled and started sending. Nothing happened. So I kept drawing, and painting, researching and occasionally sending. I responded to a small Craig's List ad and end up creating 4 patterns for Sock It To Me Socks.

Fast forward to July. I got an email from one of the manufacturers. They liked what I sent and wanted to look at more. I sent more. They presented all my work and said they loved it, got great responses, sent me a contract. I wondered if this was it, the big break. But no, learned that you still sit and wait for orders. Not a bad thing, just a thing requiring patience.

August, draw, paint, mock-up, send. That was September through December too. I did submit a few things during that time, including some art to Sassy Switches. Yippee they liked what they saw and I signed a contract. Now, sit and wait.

Fast forward again to February. Surprise surprise at the mailbox, I got my first royalty check! Sassy Switches just sent me my first $41.65 in royalties. To you it may not be much, but to me it is an exciting and rewarding moment in time. The beginning of something new, of a new path, another angle, another means to earn a living as an artist.

It has been a little over a year since I lost my old clients and I am still making new art and submitting. Getting good feedback, interested parties, and in general positive movement forward. Each day I find there is a lot more to learn, I have so much art yet to finish, to mock-up and submit. But it is a good day. I am a lucky girl.

Transition to Art Licensing

I have spent the last 20 years doing illustration. As many of you know, the way of an illustrator is wrought with rejection letters (or 'not now' letters), door knocking, mailers, ads in big books of art, portfolio sites and an agent or two. That has been my life as an illustrator, but that was the path of an editorial or advertising illustrator. Not the path of Art Licensing. As I am in the thick of a new direction artistically, I find myself learning all over again, learning what works, what doesn't, and what is expected.

The largest difference I have found with Art Licensing is that as an artist I have more in common with writers than I do editorial or advertising illustrators. When you make the transition to licensing you will find that you spend a LOT of time making art. Making and mocking up. Making and mocking up. And NOT getting paid for this time. This is a foreign concept to me. As a freelance illustrator all these years, I have gotten jobs, and created the work for the client. We go through sketch stage, revisions, final artwork, and voila, done. But with Art Licensing, get ready to work tirelessly, and then spend hours, days researching and sending your babies out into the world and hope one of them lands in the right hands, at the right time.

Do not get me wrong this isn't a bad thing, just different. I find that even as I migrate over to licensing, I am reorganizing the way I do art, and becoming more methodical in the art I make. I now spend time trend watching, identifying markets for my work, researching the visuals that I will put my spin onto, and then creating art. Once the art is created I have to put it on a product that I think the art is a good fit. I have spreadsheets of manufacturers, contact names, and I record what they make, and if I send anything I detail responses, what my follow-up is.

Now, my art is 'the product'. I manage the art similar to a small business person manages their creation. I have to find people to sell it to, just like any other manufacturer. So in many ways, my client and I share a lot in common. Art Licensing is very much so both 'business' and 'art'.

cold weather and a sketchbook

Oh how I love it when we get our annual snow storm. Here in Portland we are lucky to get one a year. I have all sorts of detailed theories on what temperature and humidity conditions need to exist prior to the official call for snow flurries that will guarantee snow for more than an afternoon. Of course none of my theories are backed by science but that doesn't stop me from spouting them to anyone who will  listen. 

Since we in the NW are icebound, in the freezer for the week, I find that a hot cup of joe and my sketchbook on the sofa is a great combo. I am finding that the creative juices are flowing with all sorts of licensing doodles. Now that I have my handy chart created that details what work is in need of production, I just have to start producing! First out of the gate are some fun Christmas Tree images. I am anxious to post my sketches, but I will lead with this fun flickr picture, it sums up the spirit of Christmas trees that I want to create.  

forums....

Ok, so I am digitally capable. Give me Photoshop, Illustrator, yes even Flash and I can handle it. I can make things, I can even talk you through a technical issue on the phone, without being near my computer! Yes, I have some skills. I started on Photoshop when it was version 3.0. And yes there really was a Photoshop 3.0! It was an exciting time in history, Photoshop got layers in 3.0. This post really isn't about my ability in Photoshop though. What I wanted to talk about is that I have been such the loner artist. Toiling away in my office/studio. Sketchpads by the dozens in the bookshelf always at the ready. I have a website obviously, am on Linkedin, do this blog, but alas I have never joined any professional forums. That all changed tonight. I am officially on an artist forum. I had never really thought about connecting with fellow illustrators that way. I don't know why I haven't thought of it. Makes perfect sense. I think as artists, especially those of us who have had the good fortune to work our trade full time, it is easy to become reclusive, save for the client contacts. It is easy to forget to talk to other artists. We get into our art, into our inspiration, our muses and our loves and don't think about connecting with other artists. I also think it is in our nature to be distrustful of other artists. We have to have such a healthy dose of ego, to put up with all the rejection, that we see other artists as threats. Even if that feeling is subconscious. We need to exert our dominance, to feel special and unique. It makes sense, we spend our lives trying to express our own voice, the last thing we want is to meet someone else who may be better than us, or God forbid more unique! Whether we want to admit it or not, we artists are insanely competitive. We have to be. Not that we can't be nice and supportive, but there is an inkling of competition always within most of us. I think it is our nature. 

I am putting aside my inflated sense of art self and publicly acknowledging that there are gazillions of other artists who are better than me, and do a better job of managing their careers. And to you I say 'Hell Yes' and hope that I can shut up and take notes and hopefully make some new friends that give me pause (and learn a thing or two).