THE INSPIRATION PLACE PODCAST
Lilla Rogers:
I want to reassure everybody that there’s plenty, plenty, plenty of work out there, but your work has to be really strong.
You don’t want to copy someone because you’ll always be inferior to the copy. You want to be your own voice. That, necessarily, is unique.
Speaker 2:
It’s the Inspiration Place Podcast with artist Miriam Schulman. Welcome to the Inspiration Place Podcast, an art world inside a podcast for artists by artists, where, each week, we go behind the scenes to uncover the perspiration and inspiration behind the arts.
Now, your host, Miriam Schulman.
Miriam Schulman:
Well, hey there. This is Miriam Schulman, your curator of inspiration and host of the Inspiration Place Podcast. You’re listening to episode number 181, and I’m so grateful that you’re here.
Today, I did a bit of a roundup episode. I am trying to prerecord as many interviews, solos, content, roundups, all the things as possible. If you’ve been a fan all along, and you’ve listened to every episode, you may have heard me say that I’m packing up my home in the ‘burbs, which is where I normally broadcast this podcast, and I’m moving. So, I’m not sure if my podcast equipment is going to go into storage or how quickly I’ll be able to set it up and what the best setup is going to be.
I know that there’s going to be a period of time that’s a bit of a question mark, so I’m trying to make sure I batch as many episodes as I can. Which, by the way, that’s a technique that I share with my Artist Incubator clients called batching. Of course, it takes the name from you make a batch of cookies or you make a batch of cupcakes. The whole idea is that you don’t make cupcakes one at a time. You don’t mix together a teaspoon of flour and a teaspoon of egg and bake that, and then when that comes out, mix up a little frosting, frost it, and then make another cupcake a week later.
It’s much more efficient to make a big batch of cupcakes and put that into the oven, bake them all at once, and then frost the whole batch at a time. Same thing is true in my work, and same thing is true in your work. You can create a bunch of artwork and wait till that collection is done before you photograph all your artwork. So, you batch that photographing and you batch posting it and you batch all those things.
I practice what I preach all the time, so that is why I’m batching up podcasts. If you heard me use the term batch, that’s what I am talking about.
Like I was saying before, I don’t know where I’ll be for a while. There will be about six weeks where I don’t know when this house is going to close, when my thing will be in storage. We may have to stay at the country house for a while. Even though the internet is amazing out there, because it is a farmhouse and we live on top of a hill, we do lose power when the wind blows. It happens quite a bit.
So, make sure that I get all the content for you so that you never notice a thing, and you’ll get me every single Tuesday.
By the way, if you love the show, I would love for you to leave me a honest review wherever you listen to your show. It does help other people find the episode. If you have happy things to say, why don’t you send me a direct message over on Instagram? I want to make sure that we connect over there. My handle there is @schulmanart, and it is spelled S-C-H-U-L-M-A-N-A-R-T. I would love to connect with you.
All right, let’s get into today’s show.
Now, there are many forms of commercial art. A lot of times, it’s referred to under the umbrella of art licensing. Although, technically, not all commercial art is sold that way, meaning sometimes artists are paid outright for creating art for a brand or product or a manufacturer. Other times, they’re paid a royalty or a licensing fee, and that’s where the word art licensing comes from. But, often, we refer to all the different ways people are paid to as the art licensing.
Know that during this episode, we’re not going to distinguish. We’re just going to refer to everything, whether it’s illustrating or art for hire, any of those things, as art licensing.
For this episode, I’ve rounded up the best bits of advice from experts in the field. You’re going to hear from agents and artists who create art. You’ll see their art featured on all kinds of products that you love, everything from greeting cards to bedding to illustrating children’s books to fabric. I hear from so many artists that they want to learn how to break into that world.
A lot of the advice you hear are snippets I’ve pulled from podcasts going all the way back from the first dozen or so I’ve done, and since we’re up to 180, I know many of you either may not have listened to it or it’s been a while since you listened to it.
I have clips from all those expert episodes as well as a coaching that Ronnie Walter did for us inside the Artist Incubator. Inside the Artist Incubator, I’ll often invite guest experts to do a special training just for the coach and clients in there. We’re going to hear from Ronnie first.
How do you know if you’re right for art licensing and art licensing is right for you?
Ronnie Walter:
It is not right for everyone. We’ll start there.
Part of it is, when you’re licensing your art, you are making a step into a more of a commercial arena. You are talking to people that have customers, that have retail customers, that are eventually going to buy your work. They have to have a connection in that marketplace, and the customers, the retailers, need to have a connection to that style of art, how that’s going to be received by their own customers.
There’s a long tail there between you saying, “Hm, I think I’d like to explore art licensing,” and getting it down the line to people saying, “Yes, this is right for our customers, both our retailer customers” and then the retailers saying, “Yes, that’s right for my customer that walks into my store.”
Sometimes those don’t translate. That doesn’t always make it all the way down that road.
The other thing is you might not want to license your work because it doesn’t feel right to you. You don’t want your work onto products that you either don’t buy or don’t buy into. So, you have to make decisions along the way of where you want to land in this more commercial area. You kind of take a step away from fine art and into more of a commercial marketplace, and sometimes people don’t fit.
They just like, “I don’t want my stuff on puzzles or coffee mugs” or name a product that has art on it. Sometimes, and I find this when I coach artists, is they come to me and sometimes, by the time we have a conversation and we unpack some things, they don’t want to do it. They’re like, “Yeah, that doesn’t really suit me and my work.”
Sometimes it’s you and sometimes it’s them. Sometimes it’s not right for licensing right now. Your artwork might be amazing and fabulous and be perfect for the commercial market, but the people you are talking to are not ready for it, whether it’s timing, they’re doing Christmas, you’re doing florals, that kind of thing. There’s a timing thing. Or they love, love, love it, and they can’t sell it internally.
There’s any number of reasons why they might say no to you when you want to go down that road.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. So, the next question or the next thing that I wanted to talk about is the three different pathways. Let’s talk about pathway number one.
Ronnie Walter:
Pathway number one is what I call a generalist illustrator. When we think about art licensing, we often think about very common products that have art on them that repeat all the time. Things like paper tableware and the entire social expression industry. That’s paper tableware, mylar balloons, greeting cards, all of the cute stuff, gift bags, gift wrap, all of those things that are always requiring new and fresh artwork each season.
There are lots of artists, primarily illustrators and surface pattern designers that just serve up portfolios that just do that job. They refresh their portfolios all the time, they come up with new collections all of the time, they primarily work in collections. They are just serving those markets that repeat all the time.
Some people are perfect for this kind of work. This is where I started my licensing. When I first started licensing, scrap booking was on this really upward trajectory, and they needed an enormous amount of illustration, stickers and background papers and sayings and rubber stamps and all of this. So there was this glut of product that needed illustration on it, and that’s when I started licensing my work, which, by the way, was a wonderful time to start licensing.
People that do that really well, they kind of go straight down that licensing road that we think of when we think about art licensing. They do all the cute stuff, they do traditional, there’s a range of styles, but they are on the kind of products that repeat all the time.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. We’re going to move on to pathway number two, but before I do that, I just want to make sure everyone knows that one of the best examples of pathway one is Tara Reed.
Ronnie Walter:
Okay. Pathway number two I call the conceptual artist. The conceptual artist is, basically, they come up with concepts. It’s more about the concept, and the art is the driver for the concept.
For instance, that might be faith based, it might be a point of view, it might be you have a very specific audience you’re going after. Humor is a good example of a concept, faith-based artwork and concepts.
Then, you’re not going to be a whole… oh, I’m not going to be doing a snowman around this thing. I am this. You either buy the concept or you don’t.
Now, there are people, and I started to morph more into the concept side of things, but there’s an artist named Lori Siebert who is very good at this. She does… it’s kind of like serial monogamy. I mean, you do sort of serial concepts. She’s a very good illustrator, for one thing, but she will come up with, “This is a story about a friendship.” Then, the wording that is delivered with the artwork will be around friendship, it’ll have deeper meaning, and you might buy it. You don’t love the artwork, but you buy the concept.
When you are going from the concept side… and some people have one, singular concept. My whole concept… not mine, I’m just saying a person could have a concept around empowering women or, let’s say, tween girls. That is their singular focus. Their artwork delivers that message, the messaging within the artwork is all about empowering tween girls. So, they are going to go towards products and manufacturers that do things specifically for that audience.
Again, those kind of licensees are either going to buy into the concept, they’ll go, “Yes, we get this. Yes, we love the artwork. No, we do not.”
I love being in the yes or no category. When you’re a generalist illustrator, you are in a sea of many people. We have 150 snowmen to choose from, and you’re one of a 150 snowmen that are showing up. Concept is you’re definitely in the “yes, this is us,” “no, this is not,” or “this is not us right now.”
Another agent, we always quote Marty Siegelbaum from MHS Licensing who always says, “My second favorite answer is no. Maybe is nowhere, still.”
When you are a concept artist, and you are coming up with, “This is my concept, this is my point of view, this is my thing,” the visuals deliver that, then you’re in the yes or no. You’re, “Yup. No.” Cool, I’m good with that.
Some people come from that.
Miriam Schulman:
okay, so now let’s move on to pathway number three.
Ronnie Walter:
I feel like Carol Merrill. Behind door number three is, again, dating myself. Okay. Whatever.
Pathway number three is what I would call the art brand. The art brand is particularly fine artists that do a singular style, and they have a singular look, and they are known for that look.
Again, you’re in the yes or no category. Yay on that. It’s just a matter of finding the partners that you can work with.
They are, again, going to look at your artwork and say, “This totally resonates with our vision, our customer base. Yes, we would like to work with you.” It’s your artwork. You are not manipulating it much.
Say you’re a painter. Yeah, they’re going to expect good photography of your artwork. They’re going to expect color corrected files from you, as far as the production goes. But they’re not going to expect that, all of a sudden, you’re going to make this flower bigger or that one smaller or shift color because it’s your vision, it’s your art. They want to license you as the artist.
When I say an art brand, I also mean somebody that lives their art. This is who I am, this is who I’m not. Don’t ask me to be this. This is my artwork. It either resonates with you, or it does not.
A couple people, one example is Drew Brophy who is a surfer artist. He’s a surfer, he does surf art. That’s what he does, and he has a lot of licenses.
There’s a woman that sort of bridges a little bit but has a singular look named Kelly Rae Roberts. She does sort of a folk art style. It’s very singularly understandable, it’s one style, it’s her, that’s what she is.
Even Mary Engelbreit, who is sort of the queen of licensing over the many years, has a very singular style. You either take it or leave it. You’re an art brand.
Miriam Schulman:
One thing that holds many artists back is the idea that the market is already saturated. Now, listen, my friend. That is a scarcity mindset, that thought that there just are too many artists out there.
That’s why I loved what my guest who is an agent, Lilla Rogers, had to say.
Lilla Rogers:
For all the artists out there listening, when another artists succeeds, that’s great for you, it’s great for them because the more energy is in our community for all of us, it just adds excitement, energy, and all that. For example, if there’s something great on Netflix, it’s not, “Well, I’m just going to watch that one thing and that’s it. I’m done.” You’re going to watch tons and tons.
Now there’s so much content creation, it’s an amazing time for creatives. What that’s done is, of course, there’s Hulu and Amazon is getting into it and Disney and all these content creators. It’s good for everybody.
Miriam Schulman:
That’s like if you like Chinese food, there’s not going to be only one Chinese restaurant in New York City. There’s hundreds.
Lilla Rogers:
Right.
Miriam Schulman:
Then, there’s Mexican food, there’s Chinese food, there’s French food. We all have different flavors.
Lilla Rogers:
Yes.
Miriam Schulman:
Somebody wrote in a question to ask you about how saturated the art licensing market is. Do you feel that we’ve reached that point yet or there’s still room?
Lilla Rogers:
I’m always looking for something new and exciting and a vision and a style that I love. I’m the liaison for my clients, the companies, the book publishers, the manufacturers who are looking for something new. The consumer, people, always want something beautiful or visually arresting that will never end.
Miriam Schulman:
People are always looking for fresh ideas. It’s kind of like saying the music industry is saturated. We don’t have room for another rockstar.
Lilla Rogers:
Exactly. Do you say, “Oh, I have enough music on my phone, so I’m never going to take another music, download another…”
Miriam Schulman:
Right. Or fashion.
Lilla Rogers:
No, tell my closet that. Or books.
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, yeah. You’re a big reader, right?
Lilla Rogers:
Oh, yeah. It’s terrible.
Miriam Schulman:
My husband keeps saying, “There’s another package from Amazon on the porch.”
Lilla Rogers:
I know. It’s too easy. I want to say that, actually, it’s never been a better time for creatives. Here’s why.
Things, artificial intelligence, AI, they can do so much. When my mother had a business, she had so many people… what her advertising people did now can be done so quickly and in design, for example. Then, so much can be offshored to other people, which isn’t necessarily a good thing, but that’s what happens.
What does that leave? It leaves creatives. Artificial creatives or robots can never do what creatives do. They cannot write books and music and make pictures. Look what’s happening, again, in Netflix and all that, in the content creation industries. It’s crazy, it’s a great time.
I want to reassure everybody that there’s plenty, plenty, plenty of work out there, but your work has to be really strong. You don’t want to copy someone because you’ll always be inferior to the copy. You want to be your own voice, and that, necessarily, is unique. When you follow your passions and your obsessions, you will create your own, unique style and just really work your ass off to get really, really good.
Miriam Schulman:
For many of the guests, I was very interested in how artists develop their portfolios and how they come up with fresh ideas. That’s why you’re going to hear first from Jennifer Orkin Lewis. She definitely developed a huge portfolio for herself by creating a daily sketchbook practice, and she’s a very popular illustrator.
What do you do when you get stuck for an idea?
Jennifer Orkin Lewis:
Today I feel like painting fruit or whatever the thing is. Sometimes I get mixed up or just busy, there’s too much going on, and I say, “I’m going to paint a fruit. No, I’m going to paint people. No, I’m going to paint a Buddha. No. Whatever.”
I’ll go on and on and on, and nothing feels like the thing I want to paint. That’s when it goes further into the day. I just wait until the thing comes that says, “All right, that feels like I could do it today.”
I have to say, I don’t like every single thing I paint. A lot of them are mistakes or messy, but it’s very satisfying to just have done it.
Miriam Schulman:
Do you share everything that you paint on Instagram or not?
Jennifer Orkin Lewis:
I pretty much share everything that I do as a sketchbook page that I intend to do as that. I don’t share everything I do. But, when I sit down to do my sketchbook, whatever it looks like, I share it. I don’t just rip it out or say, “I’m late there.”
Miriam Schulman:
Oh, goodness. Let’s say you decide you’re going to paint fruit. How’s that process look for you? Do you go into your kitchen and get an apple? What do you do? Do you draw from your imagination?
Jennifer Orkin Lewis:
I usually will either get something real, if I have it, or otherwise I’ll look on Google. But I don’t just look at one thing and copy that thing. I’ll look at a million squash and say, “All right, this is what they look like, these are the different shapes, these are the colors they can be,” and then I just go from there.
I like to have a sense of the real thing, so that I’m not just completely making it up.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. I know that sometimes your pages look more like patterns, and sometimes they look more like a painting. So, how do you decide which direction you’re going to go with that?
Jennifer Orkin Lewis:
It’s all that mood. It’s just how I feel I want to do it that day. Patterns come naturally for me because I was a textile designer for so long. Even if I say I’m going to do cats, I tend to do a whole lot of cats all over the page.
Sometimes I’ll look at my own cat, I’m painting her, and then she’s in a seat. Or I’m doing my selfie, and there I am in the landscape. Or today I’ve painted from a vintage photograph. I have piles of them, and I was just going through and something attracted me with a whole bunch of people, and I picked a few of them out and painted them around a table. Because then it’s more of a-
Miriam Schulman:
I wish I could get rid of Instagram and Facebook.
Jennifer Orkin Lewis:
I know, it’s a double-edged sword, right?
Miriam Schulman:
Totally.
Jennifer Orkin Lewis:
It’s 100% like a diary, almost. It’s just what do I feel like today. I can’t really describe what that is or how I do that. It’s just the thing that comes out.
I try not to make my sketchbook pages. I don’t worry about am I going to sell this or is it commercial enough or is it on trend or anything like that. I just paint it.
Because I like doing flowers so much, and I like painting animals, they end up being commercial-ish sometimes. And I can sell them. But, I don’t do it like, “oh my god, I heard that llamas are really big right now. I’m going to do a llama because then I’ll be able to sell it to this greeting card company.”
I don’t do it. I don’t do that. It wouldn’t make me happy.
Miriam Schulman:
Well, sloths are bigger than llamas.
Jennifer Orkin Lewis:
Sloths are bigger. Whatever, yeah. And I do paint them, but it might be one day that I feel like painting a sloth, so then I’ll do it.
Miriam Schulman:
Now that you’ve heard from Jennifer, I want you to listen to Gary Levine. He’s the owner of Roaring Brook which is an agency. He shared with me how his agency works with artists.
Gary Levine:
One is that we work with the artist. We engage in dialogue, and we give them direction, and we talk about what we would like to see developed in terms of the themes and colors and designs.
On the other side of it, we do get input and requests for designs that are from the manufacturers. In fact, oftentimes, those would be directives from the retailers themselves.
So, if an artist would like to submit designs to us, really what they’re imagining and what they’re creating and what’s in their head, we welcome that. There is a lot that’s sold from that.
At the same hand, the other side of it is that we’ll get input specifically for certain projects. We would then pose to the artist and have them create based on those specs.
Miriam Schulman:
Then, how far in advance are manufacturers designing collections? Six months, a year? I was told Christmas is a full year in advance that they are planning their holiday collections. Is that true?
Gary Levine:
Yes. Christmas is probably one of the most planned programs for any retailer. That’s an excellent example of a very significant lead time. In fact, it’s even a little longer than a year.
But, to understand, that’s in the stores late September, early October. So, you have to work backwards and imagine, then, this is July. Then, the manufacturers need to put their samples together incorporating the designs. They, then, have their meetings, their trade shows, and so on. Buyers are really making their decisions probably more in the January timeframe. They might be putting their buys to bed for the following Christmas season. That’s a rough time frame.
Miriam Schulman:
Where would you say the balance is in terms of the taste maker? Do you feel like that’s more you or the retailer? Who gets the most influence in what ends up being a trend in the store?
Gary Levine:
Retailers like to drive a lot of that. They prepare trend reports, they’re quite often vocal about what they view as what they want. They give that directive.
On the other hand, I spend a lot of time out at trade shows, “shopping,” with quotes on that. For example, last week, I was at the Atlanta Gift Show. Besides meeting with my clients, I was looking at what the buyers were looking at in the showrooms. What were the trends? What are we seeing? Colors, designs. What are the metals that are showing? What are the fabrics that are on the products?
I came back with pages and pages of notes that, then, I share with my artists. We have that dialogue in an art review session. They, then, will decide with us what they would like to create based on the trends that we saw. Again, it really works from different angles.
For the same matter, the other day I had an artist come to me and say, “Hey, I was just out shopping at the store. I saw there was cotton ball and farmhouse. It was everywhere. Do you want me to create something?”
They have ideas, too, of what they’re seeing. Or they might be walking with me at a trade show. They have their ideas as well. Again, there is no one place where the trend comes from.
Miriam Schulman:
This brings me to another question that I hear from people a lot. They want to know if, as an agent, when you’re presented with a portfolio, is it a good thing or a bad thing if an artist works in multiple styles?
Gary Levine:
It actually, ultimately, can be a very good thing that they work in multiple styles. The asterisk or the footnote, if you will, is that, if they’re working in multiple styles at the onset, and they’re just throwing spaghetti on the wall, so to speak, that can be very frustrating.
I have found that I actually am… it’s really right down the middle, that I’ve been interested in an artist who has a very specific hand and a very specific look and not multiple styles. Then, I’ve also been drawn to artists who have multiple looks. Really, from there, we get into a conversation, and we try to focus the multiple look artist to focus on one look and kind of run with that.
Similarly, I take in the artists with one look, and we run with that, and we’ve had placement, and it works. Then, surprisingly, we discover, including the artist, that there’s a new style that’s born. They may have been experimenting, they may have taken your class, they might have… something. There’s another part of them that, in the process of working and doing this kind of work, they discover that, “Wow, okay. I’ve only worked with acrylics. I’m going to try pen and ink now. This is a new thing for me. Wow, this is fun.”
Now, suddenly, that one-hand artist now is onto something else. Again, there’s really no one right path. It often does help to really focus on one look, and then really move onto the next one.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. What turns you off when viewing someone’s portfolio?
Gary Levine:
I would say a turn off is when there’s political art or art that’s just so abstract. I don’t mean… We like abstract, but I’m saying so abstract to what the core Roaring Brook business is that there’s almost a lack of connection, really, at all. Oh, I thought I’d show you this, and it’s like, “Oh my gosh.” It’s dark and scary.
Miriam Schulman:
You would never put it on a napkin.
Gary Levine:
Not on a napkin.
Miriam Schulman:
I was lucky enough to speak with one of Gary’s most popular artists, Tara Reed. You might remember hearing Ronnie Walter mention her back in our first little clip.
Here is what Tara had to say about what it’s like to work with her agent.
Tara Reed:
It really depends. Sometimes it a little bit of each. I would say my portfolio is built more on what I want to build into it than my agent telling me. But at the same time, I recently just sent my agent a list and said, “Hey, here’s trends that I saw and heard about,” because he’s getting ready to go to the Atlanta Gift Show in July.
So, I said, “If any of these jump out at you as something you definitely want me to have done for that show, let me know,” because then he’ll help me prioritize what I’m doing first, second, or third if I don’t have a real strong feeling about it.
Sometimes he’ll give ideas, but that’s also tricky, too, with an agent because he represents so many artists. Some agents send the same trends to everybody, so they might have 30 artists, and they’ll say, “Here’s the trends we’re looking for.” They send out this mass call out.
Well, then you get a bunch of people doing the same thing, and one agent to be showing it. It’s kind of weird.
Miriam Schulman:
Like you’re kind of competing against the other artists.
Tara Reed:
Right, right, because they don’t need 15 tropical bird collection options. It would become so overwhelming for the client that they might not choose anything. Right?
Miriam Schulman:
Right.
Tara Reed:
So, my agent… I mean, I’ll speak for him. This is my theory. I feel like he kind of follows what we’re doing, and then if they were to come to me and say, “Hey, can you do this?” It’s because they know it’s really in my wheelhouse of what I’ve done.
So, I’ve done a few collections-
Miriam Schulman:
All right, back up because people who are listening, they don’t understand what a whole collection is. So, when you say you have 35 collections, how many pieces of art are in each collection? This is like, “I was going to St. Ives.” Yeah.
Tara Reed:
Okay. So, here’s the basic of art licensing. In art licensing, you need to create art in collections so that a company…
If you think about shopping, and I always like to use dishes as an example. You think about, “I’m going to go buy some Christmas dishes.” You wouldn’t buy something that had the same exact design on every single thing.
There’s always four salad plates. They always have a different design of them. The dinner plate is usually a coordinating pattern or a coordinating design that’ll look good, one on top of the other. The mugs might have the same four designs from the plates.
A collection is, at minimum, four images that coordinate, that just totally go together.
I usually start in squares, then I’ll do some rectangles. I might put things in circles. You have to be really flexible with your art to be able to format it to different shapes, again, thinking about the kinds of products. Is it going to go on a round plate? Is it going to go on a rectangular table cloth? Is it going to go on a mug that is curved?
You have to be very flexible and be able to do a lot with your art digitally, even if you paint. I hand paint everything, but got mad Photoshop skills because I have to.
So, four images minimum, maybe some more. Then, I always do a few supporting patterns. For Christmas, it might be a plaid, it might be a snowflake toss, it might be a stripe, it might be all three, so that the manufacturers really have a variety of things to make with so they can make something interesting so people want to buy more than one piece.
Miriam Schulman:
Now, what if you don’t have an agent yet? What the heck do you send them to get their attention? What do you put in your portfolio? That’s what I asked our next expert artist, Lori Siebert. Again, she’s also somebody that Ronnie pointed out as one of the leaders in this field.
Okay, so if an artist listening wants to get started, let’s assume they know they need a portfolio to send to an agent, what do you suggest belongs in that portfolio?
Lori Siebert:
So, in there is every day, holiday, coastal, baby, kitchen… well, kitchen is kind of included under every day.
In every day, the themes, you’re doing art that is evergreen and they can put it on product at any time of year. It can be inspirational, florals, quotes, things like that, things about home or family. Those are everyday themes.
Holiday, the biggest holiday of all in art licensing is Christmas. So, anything that’s Christmas themed, they’re always looking for typically botanicals, snowmen, Santas, all of the themes that are tried and true and happen every year.
When you just go into a store and look around, you’ll see what those themes are. Those are themes to put your twist on and put into your portfolio.
Miriam Schulman:
Okay. I have a question about that. The way you’re saying it, we don’t have to have all of those themes, right? We can pick maybe one, two, or three that were special? I’m sure there are artists who, maybe, they’re the Christmas artist or they’re the-
Lori Siebert:
Exactly.
Miriam Schulman:
… cute cat artist. Okay.
Lori Siebert:
Yeah. I’m really glad you said that because, yeah. You should pick and concentrate on the themes that really speak to you. If you do inspirational and that’s what you love, or you do florals, do a lot of that because that’s who you are. That’s authentic, that will make you happy when you’re creating that art.
Miriam Schulman:
All right, my friend. Let me caution you. I know there’s so much to learn about art licensing, but don’t wait til you have everything perfect just to get started. Whether we’re talking with art licensing or selling your art or any of those things, you’ve got to start putting one foot in front of the other if you want to move forward.
That’s why I love what Ronnie Walter had to say.
Ronnie Walter:
One thing I noted, art licensing looks very complex, but you do not have to know everything to do something. Once you get the basics down, there’s so much of it that it’s just really practical information. Once you know it, you know it.
But, it’s you moving your work forward, you understanding that, in order to get something, you have to put yourself out there.
Miriam Schulman:
All right, my friend. We’ve linked up all the full episodes in the show notes for each of these guests. If you want to listen to them, head on over to schulmanart.com/181, and you can start binge listening to all of these wonderful, expert guests.
Don’t forget also to come say hi to me over on Instagram. I would love to connect with you because, next week, we have on the one and only Italina Kirknis. She’s been a guest on the podcast before to chat about social media. Trust me, you’re not going to want to miss it.
Connect with me over on Instagram. I’m @schulmanart, S-C-H-U-L-M-A-N-A-R-T. Just send me a DM, let me know what you thought about this show. Also, if you don’t want to miss the episode next week, make sure you hit the subscribe or the plus sign or the follow button. Whatever app you happen to be using, they all call it something differently. iTunes, they’ve made it this little, tiny plus sign. I don’t know why they did that, but it’s in the upper-right corner to hit the plus sign.
If you’re feeling extra generous, leave me an honest review. Doesn’t matter if you leave a good one or bad one, all of them help other people decide whether or not to listen.
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All right, my friend. Thanks so much for being with me here today. I’ll see you the same time, same place next week. Stay inspired.
Speaker 2:
Thank you for listening to the Inspiration Place Podcast. Connect with us on Facebook at Facebook.com/schulmanart, on Instagram at @schulmanart, and, of course, at schulmanart.com.
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