How I put my art onto products!
How I Put My Paintings Onto Products
I remember walking through Target one day (a few years before I started licensing my own artwork), and I found a sugar bowl with a gorgeous painted floral design. Though it was a printed product, the artist who created the design did so with traditional tools like a paintbrush and paint! I knew this was something I wanted to do with my own art. Years later, I now create designs that can be licensed onto a variety of products such as dinnerware, table linens, fabric, and stationery.
Building a Collection
This process takes a long time! Since I create a a lot of art for licensing onto products, I'm thinking about designing in collections rather than single paintings or images. For the bunnies and blooms, I came up with a color palette and theme of spring flowers to work with.
It Starts With a Good Scan
It starts with a good photo or a good scan of your artwork. I scan all of my watercolors using an Epson V600. There are other great scanners out there too. Just make sure you get one made for photos that has the ability to scan at higher resolutions. A standard resolution of 300dpi means your artwork can be printed at its original size without losing detail. However if you want to make prints double or triple the size of your original artwork, you will need to scan at 600 and 900 dpi respectively.
Digitizing Your Designs
Since 99 percent of my work is hand painted, I scan and edit everything in photoshop. I gather all of my paintings, scan everything in and then edit my designs to get rid of paper texture, background mistakes, and pencil lines!
Here's a glimpse into photoshop..
Photoshop has a great tool for creating repeating patterns. In my new workshop, "Painting to Product" (coming soon) I'll walk you through how to digitize your hand painted designs, and how to print them onto products such as greeting cards, stationery and tea towels!
Final Product
This is the best part! I designed my teal towels using a template I created in photoshop. I wanted the image to go all the way to the edge, so I made sure to account for some 'extra room' in the printing process. In the printing industry it's called creating a 'bleed' or a 0.125 inch border around your design to account for any cuts that aren't 'perfect' while still maintaining that edge to edge full coverage print.
Pottery Barn Kids
Creating art for big brands was a dream come true when my paintings made it into Pottery Barn Kids. If you are curious about how to get started licensing your designs or selling products at art fairs and markets, I'm creating a workshop that will walk you through all of these steps.
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