License Your Artwork: Learn to Craft Compelling Groups

1. Introduction: Hi, I'm Emma and I am an illustrator and licensing designer. In this class, I'm going to take you through the process that I take when converting some of my [inaudible] cook, illustrated recipes into what I would call a small group that would be ready for my licensing portfolio. I'm going to show you the considerations and the thought process for this transition. That will include personal insights for placement graphics or prints, various patterns and also the coordinates within a small cohesive group for collection. I will be having to consider things like the palette scales, contrasts all within this small group. Although I'm going to be using examples of my food illustration, I hope that what I cover in this course this course can be applied to any subject matter from coastal to Christmas. So please join me as I hope you're going to gain a lot from this class. 2. Notes About This Class: Now before we begin, I do want to go through a few points about this class. First of all, although I will be showing examples of repeat patterns, this class is not how to create technical repeats, nor is this class about how to illustrate food. Because I also have food illustration classes here. What I'm actually trying to do is using existing food imagery to explain and outline the basic principles, gathering my ideas and concepts, and then pulling them together into a unified beam for the group so that you can still apply the methodology that you will seen me use to whatever subject matter or icons that you might have. What follows is my personal approach for making these recipes into what would be sent to potential clients or other people within the art licensing industry I already work with. I want to point out that I'm sure there are maybe other artists and designers who would use a different approach and would have different angles, and that's absolutely fine. This is just the path that I have taken. What I'm saying is not descriptive, it is just a general guide of points to be mindful of rather than strictly adhered to. I have attended quite a few art licensing trade shares with my work. The information I present here is based on the feedback that I've received from clients who view work of this nature based on their needs and every manufacturer will be different. There is no one size fits all in this industry. There are many art licensing markets out there that require food as a subject matter from winter holiday to general birthday. I felt it was a good way to outline some of the information that I wanted to share with you. However, if you do want more information about licensing in general, we will run-down a subject matter that might be so after, please refer to Ronnie Walter Skillshare class. I also want to mention here that I didn't train in surface pattern or fashion textiles. The ideas that I'm presenting to you is what I've learned over the last four and a half years through taking online classes myself and also many artists consultations with people who have been in the industry for decades and are now my mentors. The final note is my licensing for failure is not good to specifically towards a particular market like fabric for example. However, saying that, as I said before, [inaudible] its very nature, lends itself to many markets. Everything from greetings card, gift wear, kitchen textiles, party paper, and wall art. I hope by showing you some of the examples from my own portfolio, you'll be able to follow and understand some of the outlines that I want to go through with you. 3. My They Draw and Cook book & Samples: This is where it all started. These are the recipes I submitted to the website, They Draw and Cook, starting in September of 2014. Once I reached 30 recipes, they decided to put all of them in a book and print them. At the time, I had no idea I was going to go into licensing. These were created way before I had that intention. All I wanted to do at the time, was to illustrate food and to expand my illustration portfolio. But I realized afterwards that some of them could be licensed. I've picked out a few to make into small groups, which I'll show you later in this video. Not all of the recipes are suitable for licensing due to the subject matter or theme or the colors that I originally chose. In this class, I want to take three ideas and turn them from what you see in this book in that very horizontal format, and then turn them into a small group that can be put into my licensing portfolio and look really effective. I'd like to emphasize that this is the way I go about doing things, and other artists might approach it differently. Please don't be put off by the fact that I'm using an awful lot of food to put forward some of my ideas and concepts. Working out placements and repeat patterns, and coordinates will still follow similar guidelines whatever the subject matter. I wanted to show you this spread from my books with the autumn vegetables in it, and turn it on its side because it was eventually made into this chopping board by Dan Decor. Now I wanted to show you this because the interesting thing about this particular product was they decided to go with what they saw within that illustrated recipe. That is the format that it's presented in within the drawing cook illustrated recipe. However, if we look at what is in my look book that I took to blueprint, the layout is slightly different. The layout that you see there on the right is what I used for my tea towels. It's up to the manufacturer to choose how they want to use artwork. This recipe for passion fruit raspberry cupcakes which I created in February 2015. I want to show you what happened to this particular cupcake in the middle of that image. It ended up on a small group called [inaudible]. This is the placement for it, and this is the pattern that I created with other sweet treats items. Eventually, it ended up on a set of paper plates and napkins. In this instance, the vibe of the illustrated recipe was completely thrown out the window. I decided to put it into more of a decorative European setting, which I think along with all the other patisserie items, make for a much more powerful and considered group. They look so great together and obviously, I'm absolutely chuffed to pieces that they ended up on something that is related to eating food of. This last example, is where I pretty much took the icons that were in that scone recipe, and I placed them into a concept where each item has words associated with friendship, like trust and laughter. It was actually picked up by a greetings card company quite soon afterwards. You can see here that the icons pretty much stayed the same. I just added the lettering. 4. Placement Patterns & Co-ordinates: I just want to quickly go over what would comprise in a normal collection or group for me, it often has a placement graphic, a primary repeat, supporting or secondary repeats or blenders. It's relatively straight forward. It doesn't have to have all of these elements. It could literally be made out of two placements and two patterns. First of all, a placement graphic is a stand alone image which does not repeat. I often set it up as eight by 10 image at 300dpi in RGB. This image that you see, I felt would be a good foundation for the rest of the group. I always put a lot of details and icons and a lot of various different elements in this main placement because everything else hangs off this one. It also shows potential clients that you'd be giving them a lot of value because there's so much that they can pull apart and place onto the product. A placement doesn't necessarily have to have a central image. It could be a series of icons, like 12 icons that have been placed very nicely across that eight by ten page. A group as I said before, could comprise of just four patterns and nothing else or it could comprise of four placements, four patterns, and four coordinates. There really is no right or wrong answer. Now moving on to the primary repeat or the main pattern. The icons that I've used, are often associated with the placement without repeating what is in the placement because if it sold out right, then you can't use it for something else. What I'm showing you is a technical repeat. They are often half drop or brick and you don't necessarily have to show a technical repeat. There is something called an implied repeat where the icons can be arranged as in this example here, as though it is in repeat. They often do this by eye and mainly it's because I don't have time, although I do know how to do a technical repeat. And please believe that this is absolutely acceptable to a client as you saw in a previous video, this was made into a product. So when you've signed the contract and the client asks you for the layered files, please always remember to keep them in layers. You either have time to create the technical repeat then but in this particular instance, they created the seamless repeat for this product themselves. If you want to create a seamless repeat in Photoshop, please refer to my Scotia class bringing your patterns into Photoshop in order to find out how to do this. I'll provide the link in the class notes. Now, I'm going to discuss secondary repeats, coordinates or blenders if you're talking about a fabric collection. Now, these are the repeats support the rest of the group. Although they are very simple, they do still use complimentary icons that may have appeared in the background, but they still coordinate with what has happened in the placement and the patterns. The colors are often quite limited, maybe even just black or white, or just two or three colors. They are much smaller in scale than the others and as I said, in a fabric collection, the blender would be something quite straightforward, like a gingham or polka dots. I'm going to show you just a few examples from my tea towel collection starting off with Claudia Pearson. This is a great example of a placement. She has a very limited color palette with this one, but the line work is really graphic and bold. As you can see, the placement has been put on the lower half of this tea towel. It looks so effective and really stands out. This next one is by a fellow Burmese illustrator called Nila Aye. She does these lovely retro illustrations. This again, is an example of a placement. She has the icon surrounding this main central theme here, which is a mother and daughter baking and she's got a lovely pattern happening around the border. Again, a limited color palette. This next tea towel is by Tracy English. It's a lovely array of strawberries done in a distinctive collage style. It's got a mixture of large and small strawberries, which fills that space really nicely. Technically, this is a placement, although it could also be an implied repeat. You can see that it could be easily made into a pattern. This next one is mine. This is my preserve and people tea towel. Again, this is not in a technical repeat. It's more of a placement, but you can see that it could be made into a pattern very easily. As seen as pattern where it can repeat over a piece of fabric or wrapping paper over and over. This next example I'm going to show you is in a technical repeat. This is my auto vegetable tea towel. If you look at the carrots and the beet roots, you can see that I've used a half drop repeat, going down the tea towel. The way that the vegetables are placed is a strong vertical emphasis here, and this was printed digitally. The next one is also a technical repeat. It goes over the edges of the tea towel. Again, it's a half drop. You can see from the placement of the jam jars and the box of eggs where the repeat is happening. I also want to add that all my tea towels are Photoshop files, they are not factorize. I send them to print as Photoshop files and they printed digitally. 5. Example 1 - Infused oils: This is the original with a drawing [inaudible] layout that I had for herb infused oils. As you can see, the page layout is very horizontal and it isn't appropriate for licensing, which is based on a eight by 10 layout. In order to put this in my portfolio, I'm going to have to change quite a few things round. What you can see here are the bottles which I've illustrated in Photoshop and I have placed in an Illustrator file. You can see here in the links panel on the bottom right what the files are so it just helps me to organize myself when I am pulling these layouts apart so that I can inspect what we have to work with. Just to give you example, I'm going to just copy and paste the files and see what we have to play with. This is how I start off with a lot of my day drawing [inaudible] conversions. As you can see, that the bottoms of these bottles are missing. That's one of the first things that I'm going to have to look at. I'm going to copy and paste these into a new document so that we can isolate them and make some notes about what needs to be tweaked or changed in order to make it more valuable in my licensing portfolio. The story behind this is playing with the translucency of the oils against the background so that you make a thing of the olive oil and the contents within it. The herbs themselves lends itself to a kitchen or dining setting because the way I had it laid out originally is like it was on a shelf perhaps when I took it apart. These are some of my initial notes and thoughts that I put together. The great things about this set is the bottles. They are very distinctive and there's a elegance about them, the way that they've been outlined, the solid herbs contrast against the oils. Also, the lettering that I had for the recipe was very nice. However, as I mentioned before, the bottom half of each bottle was missing and I'm going to have patch this together to make the bottle complete. I do feel that very dark background is not appropriate for home walls. We're going to have to look at something that is a lot more neutral. At the moment, the olive oils, I feel that the palate of the oils are too similar. Also the content of some of the bottles, especially the chillis and perhaps spices like peppercorns and cumin, isn't in keeping with the vibe or the palette. Talking of palettes, I do think it would be great to see slightly more muted greens rather than brights. This is what I came up with. As you can see, the background is a lot softer, neutral, but it still shows up the white line of the bottles. You can read that well, I have placed the bottles right in the middle of that eight by ten, but they are not on the same horizontal. I have added the bottoms of the bottles now, so it looks so much better. I found the original line artwork so I was able to do that quite easily. I limited the oils to three shades and all the hubs have now been treated with the same mint green texture to add to that unity rather than make one of them glare too much. You can also see that I've added some hand lettering. Again, it is a personal opinion that hand lettering adds value to your artwork. Overall, I feel this is a lot more harmonious. If you look at this, a potential buyer would be gaining eight different bottles, the herbs inside them and the lettering. There's quite a lot of value inside that one placement piece. It's working together really well and probably best suited to home wears although there's probably lots of other applications. We're going to take a look at the rest of this group. This is the pattern that is supporting the placement piece. It is example of an implied repeat. Also, the icons are running off the board. This is not being set up properly to repeat technically, but I still think it's effective way to display what I'm presenting. I've used the silhouettes of the same bottles for I filled it with texture. It is a different treatment. I've mentioned about not repeating the same images, but because the treatment is different, I think this is acceptable. The line work of the olives bricks is a really lovely contrast against the harder edges of the bottle because there are a lot more organic, and the background color picks up on the lettering in the placement in this pattern, there are at least seven different bottles with various elements within it, like the olives or the hand lettering. Again, I do feel there's quite lot foes perspective client to work with. Here's another pattern that I created from the original herb line work. It's in a toss pattern and it contrasts against the regions setup of the bottles. Again, it has that organic feel. This is a seamless technical repeat. The line work is also textured, so its ties in nicely with the other texture elements within the placement. The other person that I just showed you, these herbs are white against the soft green, which gives just enough contrast. Again, ties in nicely with the palette. There are at least eight different herb drawings within this repeat, as they're all layers. If a client didn't like this arrangement, I could quite easily make a different pattern for them. Here I've used hand lettering again, in this coordinate to add a different dimension. I do find manufacturers favor hand lettering. The icons and lettering are arranged with a horizontal emphasis to contrast with some of the other pattern work and it is much smaller in scale. The hand lettering and the icons may look like they've been used before but they are slightly different because they were created at the same time. This simple layout contrasts against the vertical bottles. Overall, I do think there's a really nice balance of shapes, slightly different directions, the palette contrast, and also there's a change of scale. If a manufacturer were interested in this, they could ask you to design a few more fillers or coordinates and they have provisions so they wouldn't expect you to filter huge collection if they wanted me to build extra placement or a pattern to go with the pieces you're seeing now, I absolutely would do it. 6. Example 2 - Fruit Popsicles: We're going to start off with these fruit filled popsicles, which I created for a drawn cook in January 2015. I wanted to create something that look refreshing and the fruit suspended within each frozen fruity lowly was so fun to illustrate. You've got the lemons and the apples and the raspberries and strawberries. You can see in the background that I've used a series of starburst motifs to give the feeling of the rays of the sun and it's really warm and hot and sunny. It just contrasts nicely with the lollies which are in the foreground, and also the colors that I've used it adds to that feeling of warmth. The first thing I did was to drag the popsicles into a brand new document so that I could inspect them a little bit more thoroughly to see which ones were working, which may need a bit more attention. Because this is going to be my placement print, and I want to get this aspect right. First of all, starting with the two lemon halves in the popsicle on the far left, I don't think that's a very good read. It's just a little bit too clouded over. I think the lime slice in the next one has to go because there isn't going to be any line greens in this palette. The lubri popsicle I feel is not in keeping with the palette at all. I'm actually going to remove this one completely. The popsicle with the apple and strawberry is great as it is, so I'll leave that alone. Moving on to the other popsicles, the orange slices is fine, but I will tweak the color slightly to suit the palette better. The popsicle that's called the lemon and the cucumber in again, I don't think the cucumber is going to work, and it's a little bit of a difficult read. I'm going to change that for another lemon slice and again are all removed the cucumber from the popsicle on the far right. One of the things that I really wanted to introduce with these placement that I'm going to work on was more fruit slices placed in an around the popsicles, just to emphasize that this is one of the major themes within this group that I'm working on. Now, we have the original and the placement version that I've worked up. You can see that I have adjusted the color slightly so that they all sit better within the palette that I chose. The cucumbers have been replaced with lemons, and I did scatter some fruit around the popsicles as the fruit were in their own files. I was able to simply remove them and scattered them about. Also the line work that you see, I found the original file, so I was able to incorporate that and it adds a lovely contrast to the very colorful or obstacles against the mall linear graphic line work. That's great for me. Finally, I'd like to say that I felt within this piece, I was giving the potential client a lot of value because they have access to seven lollies and six different types of fruit along with that line work. I also want to add that a manufacturer may not necessarily keep this layout if it was licensed to potentially sold out right, they can move things around and have their own version of this on their product. Moving on to the pattern that I created to go with the placement, I use the same popsicle shapes to create this set, although I'm always mindful not to repeat the same icons, I thought that the shapes were varied enough with the stripes incorporated in it so that they don't look too alike. The popsicles aren't sitting on a rigid horizontal plane. There is movement there, which is quite nice. Although I've made these popsicles less elaborate than the placement, there is still details within the stripes and I hope there's enough interests there to hold your gaze. The starburst pattern was brought back into this because again, it adds movement and interest and contrast and the small amount of lettering, I thought added another dynamic as well. I tried to add lettering whenever I can because it gives that extra bit of value to a potential buyer. This is the first-order coordinate patterns that I created for this group. It's a tossed all over repeat, It is technical. I did think that the irregularity contrast, again it's the rather angular formation of the popsicles, It's much more organic. I also felt that some of these lemon slices, the way I've incorporated them looks like little rays of sunshine and the bright yellow again emphasizes that theme and contrasts against the placement graphic. Second coordinating button for this group is an implied repeat wanted the stripe at this angle because it echoes the cool hand lettering of the main pattern. It is really simple, but it adds a really effective and found dynamic that contrasts with the other pieces. As a group seamed together like this, I feel we still retains the sense of fun and the sum of I that we originally saw in the illustrated recipe. I feel the coordinates support the main pattern and the placement. It's quite a cohesive group, nothing is jarring, nothing looks too out of place. This is just my opinion, and I'm hoping that manufacturers of melamine or paper napkins or even stationery, would be interested in a group like this. 7. Example 3 - Plum Jam: I first created this plum jam in June of 2015. The idea behind it was to evoke vintage feel, old fashioned kitchen through the use of the age paper and the hand lettering and also the really cute decorative jam labels. The season obviously had an important part of play. It's early autumn where there's a glut of plum harvest so they have to made into jam in order to preserve them. First of all, I think that reef that surrounds the scales and the plant is incredibly decorative and very pretty so I must make something of that. As you may have guessed, I do have a thing for hand lettering, that's why I've included that poem by Keats. The limited color palette with just that touch of green really sets off that plum autumn look, it could be made into a placement really easily. The only thing that I'm concerned with is the plums are not quite enough in themselves to sell this piece. I could make it into more of an Orchard themed placement. The other aspects that I'm worried about is the aged paper. It may be okay for an illustrated recipe but I do you think it's just a little bit too dark for licensing. Maybe something lighter. Moving on to what was on the other side of that double-page spread, those jam jars, so decorative, they were such a joy to draw. That's something that I just really enjoy. Also noticed the cute tea spoons above the banner. I'm definitely sure I could do something with those. I think those jam jars, even though you can see them in a row, they can so easily be made into some sort of a pattern. I'm going to find the original line drawings for these and see what I can do with them. This is the placement that I created with the original plans and the scales. What you can see immediately is the extra fruit I've added. There's some apples and pears. Noticeable is some line work of the same through. This adds more interest and contrast and in general, I think this adds a lot more value because not only are they getting the plums they are also getting the extra fruit, that lovely reef has been mirrored so that it frames that entire central composition. It helps to draw your eye inwards. This placement still retains the vintage five and the essence of that original recipe, including that poem which is one of my favorites. I've added a few new jam jars because I found the original line work files. I was able to also add the fruit outlines to make up another set of jars. They are technically a placement, but it would almost be seen as an implied repeat. There's an extra red shade that I have added to the palette just to give it a bit more contrast and for variety, background has been kept neutral. There's enough happening within the jam jars. The line work is the interest here. I didn't want to distract from that. Remember those little spoons above the banner? I did find the original line files for those, I was able to make them into these technical repeat. It is quite a rigid pattern with a vertical emphasis, but it contrasts nicely with somewhat the organic nature of the rounded fruit and it also in some way echoes the jam jars. I didn't want to spoil the line works too. I place doing shapes in different colors behind the outlines. Just so that the decorative nature showed up a lot more. The dark background helped to contrast this and also is different to the main placement, the colors I picked out echo the colors that we found in those jam jars. This is a really simple but effective coordinate pattern for this jam jar group, I picked out the little decorative elements that was just above the banner and also a branch that was on the reef. It has quite a horizontal emphasis, which contrasts against the vertical linear aspect of the spoons. This is the darkest background because I wanted it to contrast against the others in this group. Overall, I am so pleased with this little group. It started out as plum jam or jelly but I've been able to transfer it into a general jelly vibe. Jam jars in themselves have decorative elements. There are some little plum drawings on there, but I don't think it really matters because the pallet of the greens in the pair echoes in the scale and also in the leaves of some of those jam jar. I think they compare and contrast really well. The whole thing seems quite bounce to me. Line work, the way I go about it is done with a dip pen and I've used dip pen throughout the entire project so that ties things together really nicely. From the perspective of value I think there's an awful lot happening there. There's all the different fruit as well as various spoons. I think there must be at least seven or eight different spoons there and there are eight different jam jar. I think there's a lot to be happy about there. 8. Checklist & Class Project: Now I'd like to go over again our checklist of considerations for your little group or collection. First of all, I do think it's worth considering a few neutrals and at least one color that pops within your set. Next, try to remember to include large, medium, and small icons so that there is enough interest happening and a balance as well. Next, I think it's worth considering changing out the directions of each of the placement coordinates and patterns. Maybe have one that's got a horizontal emphasis or a vertical emphasis or one that's an all label tossed repeat, so that there is enough happening to sustain further interest. Could the interest also be sustained through adding elements like texture, hard and soft shapes, and also a little bit of hand lettering? Lastly, have you presented enough within your icons? Is there a lot of detail, a lot of work, and a lot of commitment has gone into your placements and your patterns so that a client can see how much effort you've put into it? That way, they would be more inclined to part with their budget and purchase your art. Now for your class project, if you have done a TDAC illustrated recipe, you could try pulling it apart and making the various icons or elements that you've got into a placement or a pattern, or you can take an existing design and rework it following some of the considerations that I've just outlined. I cannot wait to see what you do. I'm really excited to see your thought process. Please write a little bit about that and post it in the class. 9. Final Thoughts: I really hope that this class has given you a little bit more insight into what might go into a licensing portfolio. Obviously, the examples that I've showed you are very food biased, but you can absolutely use some of the points to remember for any subject matter. Anything from Easter to general birthday. One thing I do want to mention is I always look at reference on the market. It's something that I do on a very regular basis. I often go to large home wears or fashion stores to look at what they've got on display and see if I can find palettes that they're using or some of the themes or trends that maybe emerging. This gives a really good indication of what is going to be moving forward. Themes and trends that are coming down from a fashion filters into the home wears, which will eventually filter down into gift and stationery and greetings cards. I often take a few photographs while I'm out and about on my phone just to remind me. In the early days it did take me quite a while to understand how the trends, palettes, and general themes we're working. But I think I've now learned that we're looking at the overall vibe or a theme that is cropping out in a lot of shops. I eventually learned to look at the overall theme that I was seeing rather than little bits and pieces. It's just a general feeling or a vibe that I'm getting from high-end fashion and home wear stall because again, it trickles down into the more mainstream markets. Like I said, it will take time. It's taken me four and a half years to get to this stage, and I've picked up so many tips and tricks along the way. My portfolio absolutely is not a finished article, it is a work in progress and I hope you'll view your work as such. I wish you a very amazing day and I hope each and every one of you will stay amazing. You have got so much potential to achieve amazing artwork. Please do watch the bonus video if you want a little sneak peek of the logbook and associates that I took to blueprint New York in May 2018. 10. Bonus Video: Now as a bonus, I want to quickly show you my lit book that I [inaudible] brief this year in 2018. This starts off with Christmas work available for licensing going onto Easter and Halloween and then it goes on to the food section which you've seen some of already. These are actually the cell sheets that I took they're printed on A3 paper and this collection with the tea cups, I'm going to show you the coordinates here. I'm going to show you the pattern, two patterns that I had with it, the tea cups and the tea candies and then moving on to the little tea tags. As you can see, the colors are quite similar and some people don't always print out every pattern or placement onto separate sheets like that, in this instance, I thought I wanted to. In this example with the olive oil, you can see the placement there on the right and also the pattern appears with its coordinate on the left there. That's the way I have decided to present that collection. There is no hard and fast rules. It is just how you want to put forward your artwork. These were actually from spring flower pattern that I submitted to one of their competitions. I pulled out the various icons and I made them into these placements. At the time, there was no pattern associated with it. I just took them as two placement prints. These chili peppers were created for personal project and they were not intended to go into licensing portfolio, but they do attract a lot of illustration clients as well. I decided to put them into a fiesta theme with the pinatas and it did come with coordinates, but I just didn't print them in time. There was no placement that went with this. It was just tropical fruit, the pineapple, dragon fruit, papaya, and the little flowers in the background. This was the coordinated pattern that I created. I picked out the colors from the main carton and then just made this simplified pineapple. That was really good for party paper.