For those of you who don't know, Lilla Rogers is an illustrator turned art agent who has licensed over $100 million worth of art. This chick knows her stuff - for sure. Having a little extra cash in my pockets (thank you face painting) I signed up for her e-course "Make Art That Sells" to gain some insight into what the licensing game is really all about.
Lilla's course is broken down into a different licensing market every week with an assignment due on Sunday. Week 1 was bolt fabric. HOLY COW, I had no idea what went into creating fabric. It was so outside my comfort zone I could not complete the assignment to the specs given. Fortunately, Lilla says that every artist is not made for every market. Thank goodness for that! However, it is not unusual for artist to cross over into different markets over time - encouraging to hear!
Week 1 assignment was to create a fabric pattern using berries and casserole dishes in a vintage theme. Something like this:
Well, my friends, that was not going to happen for me. I don't DO tiny. But, I still wanted to put SOMETHING out there; so, I fell back on a loved theme of my own - animals in hats - and created this:
And to make it match the assignment in the best way I could I went in and digitally added text and came up with this:
Needless to say, my piece did not get picked for review by Lilla herself; but, I do feel like I stayed true to myself - important, right? Part of the assignment was to teach us that sometimes you don't have a choice what you make for licensing. The client and the market dictate that in some instances.
Interesting Fact - Did you know that it is standard for an artist to make about 10 - 12 cents per yard of licensed fabric sold. That may not seem like much, but Lilla says if you do well with a client, they may produce 3 or 4 themes of your work in fabric every year with colorways and coordinates all thrown into the mix.
So, good-bye bolt fabric week. It was nice to meet you but I do not want to date you. The week 2 market is Home Decor. I'll keep you posted :)
