Wow...Where has this week gone? It is THURSDAY already! That means the weekend is almost here. When I look back on this week I feel I’ve been both productive and creative and that makes me feel good. While I didn’t spend a ton of time in the studio creating new original art, I have worked hard on coming up with some new designs that I have uploaded online to RedBubble.com and my new print on demand love, Cafe Press. I've created a number of new Etsy Shop listings and updated my EBay site.
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| RedBubble.com logo |
Yesterday, I just happened to log in to Cafe Press (I guess almost 2 years ago I created an account and uploaded 4 images but I had forgotten) and I was completely amazed to learn that I had sales and I have a whole $10.18 in my Cafe Press account. What would happen if I uploaded my really cute designs? So, I think I will give this site a chance also. I love how Cafe Press automatically matches your image to their products. RedBubble is a bit more time consuming to add a new images because you have to manually adjust your images to their products. I can spend up to 15 minutes fixing all the shirts, cups, clocks and duvet covers to make my image look good. With Cafe Press you just have to add a title, description and keywords and that is it. Super easy! So let that Cafe Press royalty checks start rolling in.
One other difference between the two print on demand sites is that RedBubble pays you the royalties right away even if it is only pennies, while CafePress pays out when you reach a certain dollar level of royalties. The least amount you can select is $25 but as you can see I am almost half way there now.
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| Amazon.com logo |
Also, as of yesterday I began uploading coffee mug designs to my new seller account on Amazon.com. Now that is a bit more complicated. I had to even buy 1000 UPC codes on EBay to actually get my first listing to upload. I’m not sure they are actually sellable yet. As of my last check last night the 5 cups were still showing unavailable. Today, I will try to figure that out. Maybe it seems to you I am spreading myself a bit thin over all these sites, but I am determined that by 2019 I will start making a regular passive income from my art designs and I just don’t think you can expect that without spreading your work around to more than one major internet commerce site.
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| Simple Drawing |
So let me talk about my newest design for a moment. I had so much fun coming up with this fun piece. The design goes from an idea in my head (I know scary right?) to a simple pencil drawing in my sketchbook. Here is the scan I did from the sketch. So far I have outlined the drawing in a fine pen line but with my next drawing I’m just going to try it with pencil or lighten the lines in Photoshop.
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| Original Artwork with Color |
After I have the image scanned, I print it out on art paper. In this case, I used watercolor paper but sometimes I like to use my Strathmore Bristol paper if the medium is going to be color pencil or pen and ink. I then add the color and all the pen and ink detail. At this point, I have created an orginal artwork that I can matte and sell but I’m not done. The really fun part is yet to come. I return the piece to the scanner and scan my image again. This gives me the ability to print our prints to sell or to use to create greeting cards and magnets to sell at festivals and galleries.
The scanned image is valuable because I can then pull it back into Photoshop and use elements of it to create brand new digital compositions. I can add text to create funny posters and cards. Really the sky is the limit. This little mouse has all kinds of future potential.
Here is some of the examples of designs I created using this little mouse in a hole idea and the my Etsy Shop link that will take you to some of the products.
Julie Townsend Studio-Etsy Shop
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| Birthday Card 1 |
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| Birthday Card 2 |
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| Mockup I created of the poster |
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| 8 x 10 poster on my Etsy Shop |
Then I decided to use some royalty free digital images to have some fun with the same mouse and cheese design. I created this image for a "CHEESY MUG" and then even added a "CHEESY GIFT" variation for be printed on other types of merchandise. I think it is eye catching and humorous and I'm hoping to have many sales in the future from it. Only time will tell and I will keep you all informed as to this journey I am on and the lessons I am learning.
Cheesy Mug Listing on Etsy
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