The Top Five "Do's" of Art Licensing

No matter what you want to accomplish, there are certain things you can do to increase your chances of success. Some things are actions to take, others are mental attitudes.

For example, If you want a baby to learn to walk, you help them stand upright and build the muscles in their legs. If you want to learn to cook, you spend some time in the kitchen. If you want to overcome a fear, say of heights, you mentally prepare for the challenge, telling yourself you "can overcome this fear of heights".

There are some basic things you can do to increase your chances of success in licensing your art as well.

Tara's Top Five "Do's" of Art Licensing

1. Understand the basics before you invest a lot of time and energy. Don't just throw on your rose colored glasses and create. Like any business, there are steps to take, things to do on a daily, monthly and yearly basis to move you towards your goal. These things include creating art collections and being willing to make changes if requested. Figuring out what manufacturers license art and contacting them, or finding an agent to do your sales and marketing side. Being willing to meet deadlines and more.
2. Learn as much as you can about the industry. There are more resources than ever to learn about the art licensing industry. When I started in 2004, it was much more mysterious and information was harder to come by. You had to attend trade shows or art events with classes on the subject or find and hire a personal coach. While those options are good and still exist, there is a lot you can learn from the comfort of your own home. Artists are blogging about it. People are teaching about it.
3. Look at the art on products that are currently for sale in stores. What themes, styles and colors do you see? Do you think your art could work on similar products? Does your style have broad appeal? Art for licensing is more mainstream than modern or self-expression based. It needs to appeal to a wide variety of people before it will be chosen to be mass produced on products and sold in retail stores.
4. Start creating art! Without a portfolio of art to show, it is hard to get started. Unlike creating art to sell in a gallery or commission work, you need groups, or collections, of art to license, not just single images. Create sets of four images. or groups of icons, that go together with coordinating borders and patterns.
5. Keep creating art. You know the old saying, "Less is more"? Well, that doesn't apply in art licensing. The more you can create the more successful you will be. Manufacturers like choices - they like to say "no" to some art so they feel good about saying "yes" to other art. The more art you have in your portfolio the more opportunities you will have to have your art considered. It's a numbers game!
6. Be open to constructive feedback. No matter how successful an artist is in licensing, there is always room for improvement. The market changes, what manufacturers and retailers want changes, color trends change... the only thing you can count on is change. So staying open to feedback and taking it as a form of help and not criticism is key. If you can listen to manufacturers and adjust your work for the market, your chances of success in licensing as well as enjoying the process, will go way up.

Drawing Sexy Cars is Easy!

Because you are reading this, I bet you would love to draw pictures of exotic cars. You may have already tried, and found them too hard to draw well. You may have been been going at it from the wrong angle, literally! Cars like the Ferrari Enzo, the Bugatti Veyron, and almost any Lamborghini, have many details that set them apart from other cars, but they also make them harder to draw than normal automobiles.

Most people try to draw a car from the side, assuming that it will show the car in the best light. When you look at an exotic car from this angle, you have all the ducts, the fenders, the air intakes, and worst of all, the wheels! Expensive cars have expensive wheels, and they are very complicated to draw. In the time it would take you to draw the Bugatti wheels, you could probably draw a whole Mustang!

So, how to draw one of these sexy cars easily? Simple, draw it from directly in front or to the rear of the car. These do not look like other cars, they are very distinctive. You just eliminated ninety percent of the problems of rendering these beauties!

With this one change, you almost cannot screw up your sketch. You do not have to worry about proportion, or roof line, or windshield line, or any of those other worrisome details. From the front, or the back, the vehicle becomes a rectangular box, with another box on top of it. All you have to do is to decide how wide you want to draw it, then how high at the fenders, and the roof, easy!

Actually, it is even easier than that. These cars are very wide, and very low, they are essentially race cars. You do not have to make them exactly to scale, you can exaggerate to make it wider and lower as you like, you are the artist! I do not mean that you have to stretch it out, but you can. It might even look better than the real thing! The lower the angle of the car, the the fewer details to be drawn.

Look for a picture on the internet that is taken from the end of the car that you want to show, print it out, then start having fun drawing! I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do.

Rick Rucker is a pen and ink artist who lives in Southern California with his wife of over thirty years. He is a member of The Motor Press Guild, and his artwork hangs in museums and private collections. Rick has a website for his free newsletter about drawing cars. The address is: http://www.drawingcarsiseasy.com. There is a free gift for you there, just for subscribing.

A Tutorial For Pencil Drawing Shading Techniques

While learning to draw shaded pictures, there are some techniques that you need to follow and remember. Proper shading for the different objects is essential to draw reality to the images. If you are a beginner then here is a brief tutorial for you that make you familiar with the techniques of pencil drawing shading.

The blended shading: This is a popular method among the artists. It works by using graphite as the medium as it provides great results. You can use graphite to blend it easily with almost anything. You can use different types of materials to create desired effect and texture. You may use facial tissues to create shades for a flawless looking skin.

The circulism shading method: This is a much popular method of shading among the pencil artists. The idea in this technique is basically to draw small circles that intertwine and overlap among themselves. Creating a tone using this methodology can be a bit tedious but the results are certainly worth it. It helps in providing a real life skin texture to the images. You can use a light touch and a build up tone for this technique. In this, the graphite is blended in much smaller motions, in a circular manner.

The dark blacks technique: There are many artists who complain that it is too tough to get a dark back texture. It is true to some extent because, ideally graphite is not a good option for getting dark blacks. However, to create a darker tone using a graphite pencil, it is recommended that you use a SHARP 7B pencil. Press fairly hard and use the circular motion technique to get the desired effect of darker shades.

The loose Cross-Hatching: If you are an artist then you must have heard about this before. This is a quite simple yet effective method of getting an artistic look. The very fundamental idea of the crosshatching technique is to overlap the lines. This has to be repeated several times to get the desired results.

Learn from today's expert how to paint and draw step by step with the help of pictures on your core subject whether it is oil, watercolor, acrylic, fabric painting, pencil, cartoon drawing, or digital art.

Explore your creativity with these 1750 tutorials - Painting and Drawing lessons.

How to Draw Trees and Forests - An Easy Step by Step Instruction

If you want to learn how to draw a tree, begin your drawing with a basic sketch of branches, trunks (internal structure), and leaves (external structure).

When illustrating trees, the single most significant aspect is lighting. Study the direction of the light and quality of shadows in the tree you are sketching and start a fixed pattern of shading the leafy areas.

When drawing, shadowed areas will be darker and will involve heavier lines; moderately shaded areas require somewhat lighter hand; and regions left white portray highlighted leaves.

Keep in mind to use negative space (the sections between branches where there are no leaves) to aid for stressing the leafy parts. Slowly deepen the shadowed regions and adjust shading to produce the illusion of individual leaves and the realistic quality of the tree.

By means of the flat side of a pencil to create broader strokes of different darkness is another procedure used to draw trees and leaves. This method produces a less definite leaf pattern.

Put emphasis on zones by using an eraser to build areas of light. You may also desire to apply a disorganized scribble method, drawing squiggly lines of diverse thicknesses to design a less defined tree.

Keep in mind that all of these techniques rely on using shadows and light to expose the idea of clusters of leaves.

How to sketch full forests of trees

Sketching a complete woodland of trees is a little bit more complex, as you don't want to draw each tree individually, but too much evenness will also be not right for the drawing.

The problem: We may perceive trees of similar type as nearly identical but this is not the case. While alike, they are all unique and should be viewed and drawn in a way that demonstrates this.

Reviewing the direction and quality of the light and how it gives character to each tree is the starting point. Even in a crowded forest, single trees can be identified. This is the aspect that you must render into your drawing.

The easiest method to find single trees is to utilize texture. Consider that each range of tree has leaves that are different as well as mixed ways that the leaves fill up the tree (in bunches or in groups). As you draw, use different pencil strokes for each type of tree/leaf cluster to give it a distinct look.

Moreover, do not fail to keep in mind to take your light supply into your account and shade suitably. Think about the placement of the trees in your overall landscape. Trees in the foreground should contain more detail than those in the middle or background as they are more visible to the viewer.

These instructions should help you to draw trees - be it whole forests or particular trees.

But wait, using all these tips and techniques in theory won't be of much help for you. Equally important is: regular exercise! Get your pencils and paper, go out and begin to draw trees and landscapes. You will see: every picture, every drawing of a tree will bring you one step further. Soon you will be able to see and understand different forms of different trees. And your drawings will look great!

Teaching Graphic Design in a Digital Age

It is necessary to focus on how the teaching of graphic design is governed and managed in Jordan. It is known that this is a relatively new practice to Jordan and the Arab world, especially the skills of graphic design teaching, it is not like the other branches of art. It has no strengthened roots or identity, as part of the Arab culture.

This discipline had a strong relationship with printing, whilst to a certain extent this still holds true, it is now taking to be an integral parts of the design process. With the introduction of technology in the teaching of this specialization, students and teachers should be encouraged to search into their creative mind.

Teaching must create an environment that nurtures and encourages innovative thinking, visual literacy, students centered-learning and personal development. Students must be able to recognize true creativity because just knowing how to use a particular tool or a software program does not make one a designer. Art institutions should be aware of the ever-changing nature of the technology they teach with. This constant attempt to keep up to date from part of the strategic planning of the institution, however a focus on the traditional design teaching methods, principles and process should not be forgotten.

The development of Digital Art and Design education provides new production methods such as computer rendering and modeling. This increases our ability to create, to see and to express and compose a layout. We are interested in how Digital Art and Design education and physical materials can be used interchangeably as instruments in the teaching of this subject.

The development of digital methods does not deter from the importance of traditional methods of teaching; however, this should be used in conjunction with the digital approach to the study of materials and mediums. The traditional approach in particular focuses on colour, light, texture, form, shape and composition. Through the teaching of traditional methods in design we are able to challenge students to be more questioning about their use of new technologies. By encouraging students to interact with the medium as part of the creative process, it not only redefines established solutions, but also encourages development of the student's imagination. By aiding students to develop real methodology that explores the concerns and techniques of making and exploring objects is essential to the future of graphic design.

Schools and institutions have supplied generations of young graduates into the graphic industry. In the past, art education and more specifically graphic design courses created a forum in which the 'craft' was learnt. Here students were encouraged to challenge previously unchallenged ideas, whilst at the same time developing the skills they would need in the future. Graduates then finished their formal education with an apprenticeship in a design company. Young graduates would then develop specific disciplines such as typographic expert, magazines, creative and art direction. By undertaking an apprenticeship students were exposed to the commercial pressures of the industry something which a classroom can only try to simulate, this putting them in good stead for their future careers.

All the aforementioned disciplines had a distinct relationship with the craft of printing and as such more defined roles existed for the graduate. It is these established routes which distinguished graphic design as a 'craft' and aided the transition of the skills from education into industry.

In Jordan, most of the colleges and institutions do still teach as part of their study plan:

* Drawing
* Painting
* Colour theories: using practical application and mainly traditional teach methods. (Colour circles, 2D & 3D shapes and forms. Students also learn about space, background and texture.)
* Poster illustration: By actively starting and completing a design using Poster Colours or Gouache.
* Introduction to Typography and Arabic Calligraphy
* Materials and Textures (medias & Mediums): i.e. colour pencils, airbrush, Gouache, poster colour
* Graphic Art: Printing and Engraving techniques

The changes that have taken place in the industry and weakened these established routes have coincided with a large influx of graphic design graduates leaving art institutions. Many new technologies now have their place on the curriculum. During the first year of a four-year course, the students are expected to acquire a large number of core skills. These range from traditional print to an understanding of the new media. The demand put upon students to be multidisciplinary against a background of gradual overlapping of the roles of the technician, the programmer and the designer means that less time is spent developing their individual creativity. Students today often assume that the solutions to visual problems can be solved using the technology available to them, rather than through their own knowledge and skill. It has become the responsibility of the discipline tutors to encourage students to find creative skills based solutions to visual problems and to further facilitate the student's personal exploration of creativity through the process of creative thinking.

In Jordan we recognized that technology has significantly changed how students and tutors value core design principles. In teaching graphics today the computer has almost replaced the basic tools of the trade. New technology does provide simultaneous control over different components of design however, it is important to remember that computers are not designers. The biggest error made today in this profession is to use any given template on software package to complete a work. In reality a template is only a guide and it should only be used as an aid to reach the final layout, in other words, a template is a tool for sculpting the masterpiece.

Reflecting upon this we must create study plans that push students, in the early part of their degree, to explore their skills. When planning our study plans it should be remembered that many of the students who join Art and Design courses do not have strong backgrounds in the discipline.

We aim to do this because we believe that when teaching Art and Design students must be encouraged to search within themselves, within their creative minds to provide the answers and not just rely on a computer to produce the layout for them. Similarly students should learn when and how to use the appropriate software. Students should be taught visual literacy and must be able to recognize true creativity as opposed to the craze. By simply understanding how to use a given piece of software to create a layout does not make one a designer.

I have respect for technology and welcome the advances it makes in the field. There is a place for graphic design that is influenced by technology. However, I believe that fostering creativity, the design process and its principles is paramount.

The teaching of traditional tools and principles should be the driving forces in future study plans, as I personally believe that anybody who has access to a software package can call himself or herself a designer. However, I believe this is an abuse of principles and practices. Mastering software tools does not truly constitute a 'designer' in the traditional sense of the word. Software can replace the tools and make the process easier but it will never replace the creative mind and the trained hand.

Art Through the Eyes of a Child

In 1991, I came to America with my parents and my brother. I was almost 11 years old then. I was very excited about the change in my life. Flying on a plane was a great adventure to me, and going to America felt like traveling to wonderland.

We came to New York City in the evening, and the lights of the city felt magical to me. Yet, in the morning, when I saw brownstones of Brooklyn, busy streets, it all started to feel rather disappointing.

Everyday life started. Going to school, doing homework - and adjusting to new environment. In my class there were many Russian kids, so I wasn't isolated by language barrier. And yet I remember how I felt totally lost. I was very frustrated that English wasn't coming to me easily. I was always a good student, but now doing homework in English was taking me 4-5 hours. I couldn't understand what the teacher was saying in class, so I had to ask my Russian friends for help all the time.

That first year in America was one of the hardest years of my life. Outside world - school, city - felt noisy and often hostile. I hated the school building with iron fence, I hated the hot sunlit school yard without a single tree.

I couldn't understand what I was missing, but I often felt depressed. And then I found a close friend. It was one of the few books that we brought with us. A small album of art reproductions from Hermitage collection. I remember how I would sit for hours looking through its pages. I was looking at ancient Russian icons and paintings by Durer, at Leonardo and Raphael, at Rembrandt, Titian, Velazquez and Vermeer. In the end of the book, there were impressionists, Picasso, and Matisse.

I didn't know anything about art history then. Names didn't matter to me. I was just looking at the images. Some of them were funny to me, some I didn't like at all, and some I loved. I was drawn to this same book again and again. It amazed me how every time when I opened its pages, I started feeling inner peace, harmony. I loved looking at Leonardo, Titian, Velazquez. Their works were touching me deeply, and every time I was looking at them, I found that I still didn't reach the bottom.

Icons and early Christian paintings felt funny to me, because of distortions in the figures, and symbols. And the end of the book I liked the least. Paintings by Matisse, even the painting of a little girl by Renoir felt so childish in comparison to Murilo's "Boy and the Dog". That painting I adored - boy's smile and his sad eyes - I still remember them.

At that period of my life, paintings literally started to speak with me. As if some inner door with inner dimension opened inviting me to explore the meaning of life, its depth and its harmony.

Since then, there were many books and paintings in my life. They supported me in my down times, and guided me on my path. They inspired me to go deeper and deeper reaching for more treasures - treasures that lie in our soul when it's touched by beauty.