How I begin a watercolor collection for licensing
Jun 03, 2023
Do you make sketches before you paint or do you dive right in? It depends on the day, but when I am planning on making a collection for art licensing, I find it helpful to do some color sketches first. I have a look at trending colors for the season I am working in, and then I start mixing up colors on my palette. I make sure to take notes as I sketch (so I can remember how I mixed the colors, since I have hoarded quite a few tubes of paint over the years :-)
In this example, I am working on a summer floral collection that includes daisies (which are trending florals right now) and wildflowers.
Here's the sketch..
And here's the final painting using the same colors and style. Making a sketch helps me loosen up my hand, and it helps me to visualize the composition and how the flowers will work together.
I thought it would be fun to use a primary color palette with vintage faded vibes. So I mixed up this nice coral red with (winsor red and naples yellow). The daisies were a mixture of white gouache, cobalt blue, and vandyke brown. For the black eyed Susan’s I used Naples yellow, winsor red and yellow ochre. I typically like to keep a limited palette to keep things cohesive, so my greens also include some of those same colors like yellow ochre, cobalt blue and vandyke brown in the mix of sap green.
I hope this helps as you build your collections of artwork. As I continue to build on this collection, I will add more floral paintings. Typically four main pieces, and then several coordinating repeat patterns using the same colors and florals throughout. When you are building a collection for art licensing, it's helpful to visualize it onto various products like dinnerware, fabric, linens and ceramics.
Here's an example of a past collection I did called 'Sunflower Meadow', which is currently being licensed onto a variety of products.
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