What is Art Licensing?

My journey into art licensing began when a large greeting card company contacted me to create some hand painted designs. At the time, I was working in the medical field and selling my art as a side gig. I had several print collections I sold on Etsy and shipped all over the world. I was thrilled, but I had no idea how to navigate this new world of creating art for products like greeting cards and stationery. Yet, I was intrigued and determined to fully pursue this new avenue in my art career and income stream. After designing several greeting card collections, I started imagining other ways I could see my artwork on products. I'd walk into stores like Target and Home Goods and see beautiful designs on dinnerware, curtains, pillows, and the list goes on.

Here is a photo of my pink floral greeting cards at Target.

And here are some greeting cards I made for Hallmark! Most of my work started out with animal themed watercolor paintings, which made for some really sweet greeting cards. 

Pottery Barn Kids! I was so excited when Pottery Barn Kids selected my two designs 'Space Adventure' and 'Planetary Adventure' to be included in the assortment of large scale art prints for their Baby& Kids collection.

Expanding My Licensing Collections

After the birth of our son, I started to rethink my career goals. At the time, I wanted to be more flexible with my work schedule so that I could be there for our family. He was our little miracle, and came into the world a bit too early, so he needed to spend some time in the NICU. I felt the need to be home with him in while he was so tiny. During this time, I reduced my hours in the lab. And in my art career, I focused more on art licensing projects rather than commissions and packaging and shipping out fine art print orders (which were time consuming.) As the licensing side of my art business grew, I began to think about working with an art licensing agent. When our other little miracle was born two years later, we were thrilled, and at this time I decided working with an agent would be best for me.

Working with an agent has helped me get my artwork into many other retailers and product categories. They do all of the behind the scenes stuff like contracts, keeping track of all of the collections, exhibiting at trade shows, and marketing. I now have several licensing contracts in various product categories like fabric, stationery, dinnerware, and of course wall decor.

Here is an example of my Autumn Sunflower collection on linens and tableware.

Are you curious to learn more about art licensing? Here are a few common questions I get from fellow artists curious about the industry.

Q. How does art licensing work?

A. Art licensing is essentially 'renting out' your artwork for a given time frame in a specific product category and in return the artist retains a percentage or royalty from the sale of products. There is always a contract involve that stipulates the terms, and if you work with an agent you will split the earnings with them. Each artist/agent relationship differs and this percentage differs too. Typically the artist retains the rights to the artwork, and can license it in several product categories such as fabric, and then license the same art in another category such as dinnerware or stationery. This is the beauty of licensing. However, the timeframe from when the art gets contracted by a company to when the goods are actually manufactured, and sold in stores is several months and sometimes years away.

Q. Can I digitize my hand painted watercolor illustrations for products?

A. Yes! I use a high resolution scanner and then I edit my designs in Adobe Photoshop. I even create repeating patterns in photoshop! (I have a class coming soon on this!)

Q. How would an absolute beginner get started in art licensing?

A. While this answer varies for every artist, I'd suggest  submitting some of your designs into Minted Design Challenges. This is how my work got into Pottery Barn Kids. It can be a great way to get a feel for what is trending in certain product categories, and can serve as a portfolio of your past work. Spoonflower and RedBubble are other sites where you can upload your designs and see how they look on various products. Once you have a few cohesive design collections in your portfolio, I'd suggest reaching out to some companies that your work might align with. For example, much of my work in the beginning involved baby and kids themed designs and some floral elements. So I contacted baby clothing companies, and some reached out to me. I created several collections for various baby clothing companies, which was super fun! What you focus on will grow, so I find it helpful to create designs with a similar feel or style. This helps companies to envision how your work might fit onto their products.

Q. Is it better to work with and agent or try to license your work on your own? 

A. This answer varies depending on the artist. For me, I prefer to have an agent do all the 'behind the scenes business stuff' at this point in my life so that I can focus more of my time on art and teaching painting classes. The agent -artist relationship is important so it's always good to interview other artists within the agency to hear their experience and to see if it might be a good fit for you.

If you have any questions, don't hesitate to reach out to me! I'd love to hear form you :-) I wish you all the best in your art journey.