What is a SURFACE DESIGN ARTIST and how can I become one?

For a long time now, I've been wanting to adapt my artwork with the goal of creating a portfolio of collections that will lend themselves to a commercial licensing application.  Design is everywhere and there are products just crying for me to fill them with my Farmhouse Whimsy style.  Well, at least that is what I'm telling myself.  I'm going to blog about my journey into the world of surface design.

There is art surrounding you everywhere and you may not even realize it because we are so accustom to thinking that, for it to be art, it has to be confined to the surface of a canvas or paper.  Far from it. 

As I sit here, at my desk and look around me I find examples of surface art design everywhere.  My address book, the little box I put my notes in, my bill box, the clock on the wall and my drawer full of thank you cards and stationary are just a few examples I see immediately. 

An artist created all those designs.  Without artists, the world that surrounds us would be boring and naked.  Naked and boring are not good!  I feel it is my lofty calling and ministry to bring more color and smiles into this world. 

Raven and Roses Coffee Mug

My first step is to learn to adapt my art into collections that are both cohesive and complimentary.  To do this I need to just spend time with my sketchbook and just go crazy drawing things I LOVE.  Then I need to improve my Photoshop skills and possible even learn Adobe Illustrator.  That is the road ahead of me and I plan on blogging about my experiences in the journey. 

"Raven and Roses" art print

So here is an example of me playing with a concept for a collection.  I drew this "Raven and Roses" piece this week as part of a logo design job I got.  It is a farm in Georgia that grows both roses and lavender.  So I thought I would try to use the color pencil sketches to create a pattern.  I added some simple pen an ink flowers that I had done last month and combined them to create a repeating pattern.  I LOVE the contrast that pen and ink gives when added to a bright color and I think the raven lends well to that because his plumage is so full of violet and indigo blue.  I think this would be a great fall pattern.  Now I just need to come up with maybe 5 more corresponding designs that go naturally with this pattern.

I hope you decided to follow my blog and this journey.  I will do my best to make it both informative and enjoyable.  I know that is a tall order but I'm rolling up my sleeves and I'm ready to get creating!




Just in the event that you would be interested in purchasing a print of my "RAVEN AND ROSES PRINT"   or my new RAVEN AND ROSES COFFEE MUG I decided I would make it easy on you and give you the links to both of listings on my Etsy Shop.

Art Licensing in a Tiny Nutty Shell

Art Licensing 101 presented by Jodi Pedri- I'm on the front row.

Last week I had the great pleasure of attending a mix between an informal presentation given by artist Jodi Pedri of Working Girls Designs about her experiences in the field of art licensing.  Let me first say that I met Jodi maybe a year and a half ago when she dropped into the @Arthouselv gallery one afternoon when I just happened to be there.  The meeting might have been chance and lasted only a short time but it was like she was speaking straight to my goals list.  I immediately found her on Facebook and sent her a friends request because I just felt she might be an excellent  resource and an inspiration to me down the road.


If you check out Jodi's work and read her bio you will realize that she is very successful as a licensed artist.  Here are my big take aways from the evening.
   

Button that is now on my website Home Page

Most important is your portfolio. This portfolio should be easy to locate on your website home page. I made this button and I now have to right on my home page of my website.  Of course I'm still working on the portfolio page and have it currently "UNDER CONSTRUCTION" right now.

Get your work copyrighted.  This can be done periodically in collections.  She copyrights her work quarterly and includes all her drawings as a collection for the one price of around $55 at the  Copyright.gov website.  Intellectual property is automatically protected but manufacturers require that the images be officially copyrighted before they will issue a contract.
 
Building a contact list is extremely important.  Jodi suggests that as you walk through a department store that you pick up products that you are drawn to and flip it over to find the name of the manufacturer.  Make a note and then try to call them and get the contact information for their Art Director.  Build an email/phone list so that you can start sending out your newsletter to the appropriate individuals keeping them informed of your new projects and artwork.

Jodi also confirmed what I already knew that learning a program like Photoshop was key.  Even if you are 100% producing standard artwork using traditional mediums you will need to be able to resize and clean up the images.  She passed around some of her change orders that she gets from the manufacturers and the ability to have your artwork in layers only makes sense.  This gives you the ability to move elements of the design around as well as remove or add images.  Using Photoshop and keeping your artwork in layers is a must.  I'm starting to think differently when I sit down in the studio.  Rather than full compositions, I'm doing more of drawing separate elements that I can then bring together.  Here is an example where I took two existing sketches that I drew sometime ago and embellished them with autumn themed elements to create a completely different composition.


Create mockup images of your artwork on products that you are trying to target.  For example, a paper manufacturer would need to see your images on gift bags, party plates or napkins rather than on a piece of wall art.  It helps those in the decision making capacity to quickly see how well your images will work for their application.  Here is one mockup I put together to showcase my fine art.  It goes perfect with my Giraffe piece because of the stuffed elephant in the chair.   I want to create a mockup that has more of a country flavor because so much of my work is country influenced.

Mockup to showcase my artwork

Banner I created this week for my Etsy Shop using my artwork and Photoshop.  

Social Media Sign to add as a photo to each of my Etsy Listings

You Take the Cake...and the Pies and the Cookies Too

"You Take the Cake" sticker collection now available on my ETSY Store

WHAT A WEEK!  I have spent a number of hours working on small projects in Photoshop and I couldn't be more pleased with this fact.  In one week I have learned SO MUCH!  With determination, using YouTube and a "Photoshop for Dummies" book I was able to break down that thick wall of fear and self doubt that I had built up over the years.  And to think that just a month ago I felt that I really needed to my kids to teach me this stuff.

To me, learning to navigate in Photoshop is going to be a real game changer when it comes to taking my art to the next level, especially when it comes to getting my art licensed.  Raising my computer skills is a must and has been a long time goal.  A while back I listed 5 goals on a large white board in my studio and learning Photoshop was number 1 on the list.   I'm going to be able to check that goal off my list here real soon.

For a long while now I have wanted to use my original artwork to make small items such as greeting cards, magnets and stickers that sell easily and bring in a steady stream of monthly income.  Yes, selling an original painting for $200-$500 is much more exciting than selling a $5 greeting card with that same image, but if I sell 100 of those greeting cards in a month.... Well, you can do the math.

I also see making this merchandise myself as stepping stone to getting my images possibly picked up and used by an art licensing company.  In my mind, if I have just smallest level of personal success this will serve as a segway into the world of art licensing.  By the way, I think art licensing is number 3 on that aforementioned whiteboard list.

If you are interested in downloading this particular sticker collection, then please check out my Etsy Store.  The cost is $3 for the download and then you can print as many of the stickers as you want as long as they are just for your personal use.

JulieTownsendStudio Etsy Store-You Take the Cake Stickers

Gardening

Here is an example of the original artwork still in my sketchbook before I scanned the images.  I did realize that it would have made things a bit easier if I had spaced each image farther apart so that I had no need to erase portions of overlapping images.

Cupcakes and Baking 

Here is a close up of several of the finished cupcake designs that I came up with.  They are all fun and bright and were so much fun to design. For the sketches I used my Prismacolor Pencils, my Tombow markers and black ink.  I outlined each image with a white border which I think results in a sticker on a sticker look.  At this time, I'm really liking how that looks.  It gives the image a "Pop" effect.

These finished images will work great on not only stickers but as meme's, greeting cards and magnets.

Fonts are extremely important to the overall design when you want to include a cute message.  Two fonts that I fell in love with this week, during my many hours of working on Photoshop projects are Catchup and KG Summersunshine.  I will certainly be adding both to my list of favorite fonts that I keep in my creative journal.  I keep the list because I have difficulty remember all those silly names and would have to waste too much time scrolling up and down the list of hundreds of fonts trying to remember their names.  I'm getting old so you have to cut me a break.



Catchup is already on my default font list on my computer but I guess I have failed to really see it.  It is fun and yet not too difficult to read.  I love how it looks on my most recent sticker sheet.

 The next font I used this week was one I actually downloaded from the website "Dafont.com".  My first font download by the way.  I was looking for a block font that I could really doctor up in Photoshop and this one turned out to be perfect.   This eye catching block font is called

Kg summersunshine  If you would like to download it yourself than here is the link at Dafont.com.  Here is the example of the flyer I made for a co-op gallery that I belong to in the heart of the Las Vegas Arts District.