For all the talk these past few years about harnessing the power of social media to promote your business, your products or your art, when it comes down to it, many people don’t know much about social media at all.  Of those who do, many if not most don’t understand how they can use social media to make themselves and their businesses and products better known and in the process, increase their income. Networking Can Work For You! Very briefly, the term “social media” means the use of a group of internet-based social-networking sites that allow fast and easy communication between people. It’s become a hot topic because of the enormous growth of two personal social media sites – Facebook and Twitter – and one site organized primarily for business – LinkedIn. Each of these three sites (and they are just a few of the many communities that have sprouted online) allows you to connect with existing friends, make new friends, and better yet for all of us in the field of art licensing, they allow us to connect with artists, photographers, designers and with key people in companies that thrive on access to compelling art, photography and design.  In other words, artists, licensing agencies, and prospective licensees. Necessarily tied in to these social networking communities are a vast number of internet sites, search engines, bookmarking sites, bulletin boards, blogs and other internet features that encourage communication among like-minded individuals. Your Way to Free Advertising Thus we now have a way to advertise and promote art and art-related products that costs virtually nothing and yet can reach out into an extensive and expansive group of prospective clients, customers, and licensees.  But free advertising is only worthwhile if it’s effective, and a basic knowledge of how to use social media to promote your artwork is essential to making it all work. Use a Basic Portfolio Site as Your Media Destination My own system of utilizing social media to create new licenses for my artists is to have an extensive art portfolio site as the hub to which all promotion via social media is oriented. To give you a real example of such a site, visit Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing. I strongly recommend that every artist who wants to promote his or her work have an art portfolio site online.  There’s no faster, easier or better way for any artist to show their work than to have a site which allows a visitor to see what they have created and to be able to contact the artist or even better, to purchase original work, prints or other products with the art then and there using their credit card or Paypal. Free Templates and the Value of Blogs There are lots of relatively easy ways to develop such sites, and they’re often either free or inexpensive.  Many site providers have a range of templates available at no charge for site development, so you don’t have to learn a whole new language in order to create a lovely site that promotes your artwork. Many artists have also created blogs which they use to discuss what they’re doing, how they’re doing it, show the process they use in creating art, and thereby gain a group of dedicated readers and followers who are essentially highly-qualified prospects for future purchases of their art. I would recommend that you look at starting with Blogger, a wonderful blog creation site made available for free by Google. Once you learn more about blogging, you might want to try one of the other services available; many artists use Wordpress or Typepad and find them easy and effective.  Having a blog allows you to write about and show examples of your art.  They’re wonderful for self-promotion.  Even better, all the blog sites that I’ve come across allow you to update your blog live online, without having to add to it in a complicated program offline and then upload it to the internet.  One of my artists uses his blog to show how he develops a piece of art, from start to finish, in a very effective presentation that takes you through the process of creation of the work. How to Use Facebook for More Free Publicity Once your art portfolio site is established, join Facebook, which has an astonishing 800 million subscribers worldwide.  Most people use Facebook as a way to connect with friends but an increasing number of people are using it to promote their businesses and products.  If you want to focus your usage on business, then create a page on Facebook just for your business and direct people there.  Use either your main personal page or your art business page to interest and involve people in your work, and get in touch with other artists, clients, associates, customers, and potential and active licensees, always directing them to your art portfolio site where they can see all that you currently have available for sale or license. Twitter? LinkedIn? Why Not? Similarly, you’ll want to join Twitter and use that platform to send out small messages directing people to new postings on your Facebook page or your blog, or directly to your site.  It’s easy to search on Twitter for people of similar interests, and it’s remarkable how quickly the number of Twitter followers will grow. Another good source of professional contacts is LinkedIn, which is used by many artists to connect with companies that need compelling artwork for their products. I’ve discovered that each of these five components – main art portfolio site, art business blog, Facebook business page, Twitter, and LinkedIn – tends to support my overall effort to promote the works of my artists and thereby bring in new licenses for their art. Publicizing New Art One of my approaches to using social media for free publicity is to debut a new art collection on my art portfolio site, put an image or two from that collection with a promotional description on Facebook, send out tweets about the new collection to my followers on Twitter and occasionally I’ll even discuss it on my blog or put a notice about it on LinkedIn as well.  I do love free publicity. I’m not alone.  Lots of artists and a ton of companies that depend on compelling new art for their products are now using social media.  For example, Michael R. Woodward, the president of Out of the Blue Licensing, has “found social media to be increasingly important in reaching potential and active licensees for our creative group of artists and photographers,” for his art licensing agency.  “Major corporations use these platforms to increase their business, and I’d strongly recommend that artists expand in social media and also look at using video email marketing to present their work to prospective clients.” Another associate who works in brand and character licensing has focused on using LinkedIn as a way to locate and cultivate potential new licensees around the world.  He regularly invites individuals to connect with him on LinkedIn, goes through their list of contacts for prospects, and also reads the discussions in the many groups that are related to his field, finding even more interesting and potential prospects in the process.  And, of course, other people do the same with him.  And thus social interaction grows, and with it, the viability of our business of art licensing. Social media is a revolution in advertising and promotion, so don’t let it pass you by. - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing. A version of this article first appeared and was featured in the Spring 2012 issue of Art Buyer, the British art licensing publication that's distributed worldwide.

    I know this title sounds like a John Grisham mystery, and while runaway licenses do have elements of mystery in them they're anything but fiction. Unfortunately, they do exist, and they can be difficult to deal with, very difficult to control, but not always that difficult to extricate oneself from with some persistence. Here's What It Is     A "runaway license", very simply, is a license that has somehow spun out of control.    The basic premise of a license is simple: the owner or representative of the owner of art grants a manufacturer or publisher the freedom (license) to use his or her art on commercial products.     There are all kinds of art licenses, probably as many as there are lawyers who can write them. They can be easy to read or painful to read. Some are so dense that even attorneys and licensing agents have a hard time getting through them. Others are so simple, so skimpy, that they leave out a lot of important provisions that should always be in every art license.     Some of the basic provisions that should be in every license include the length of time that the license will run and the rights of the parties to the license.     A license should state, either in itself or in an addendum attached to it, which pieces of art are to be used, and on what types of products.     The license should allow one party to terminate it if the other party breaks it by violating any of its important terms. And there should be simple ways in which an artist can determine whether the licensee (the company that has licensed the art from the artist) is following the terms of the license. It's all very simple, or at least it should be.     But if it's that simple, how can a license go out of control? There are several ways this can happen, and they can all lead to unwanted, and occasionally nasty, results. A Doleful Tale     I recall hearing from an artist a few years ago about one such license. She came to me for help and she told me a doleful tale. You see, she had started a business relationship with a really nice fellow a few years before.     If I recall the details correctly, the fellow produced and sold home decor products like trays, mugs, coasters, that sort of thing. He had a small company and everyone in it seemed very nice - at first. Perhaps most importantly to the artist, they all seemed to love her art. So she signed an agreement, or license, with them that allowed them to use her art on several different types of products.     The company liked her art so much that they decided on their own to expand their use of her art to other products that weren't listed in the agreement. She didn't find out about that until a friend told her she'd seen them in a store.     Before long, the company was devoting several pages of its catalog to a whole range of products with her art. The products were lovely, or at least they looked pretty good in the catalog. So what was the problem?     Well, as she explained it, they had never gotten her permission to use her art on all these products. She didn't know what they were doing, she wasn't sure what the products really looked like as she'd never received any samples, and she didn't know what they'd do next.     Wasn't she being paid well for all this usage, I asked? She replied that she had called them several times about royalties but could never seem to get through to the right person.     She did receive some money at the beginning of the relationship, about a thousand dollars, and she was very happy with that payment, but that was two years ago and she hadn't received anything since. Yet more and more products were being created and sold, with her art.     Well, I asked, did the agreement have some sort of termination date, or length of time that the license would run, or perhaps a statement about what she could do if they violated the terms of the agreement? She wasn't sure if it did or not but she assured me that it was a brief, straightforward license.     Where was it, I asked? Could she send it to me, or read me a bit of it, or answer some specific questions about it? It's always helpful to know what you've signed your name to! Well, she wasn't quite sure where it was; it was with her papers somewhere and she hadn't seen it for awhile, but no matter, she was sure that the company had the best of intentions.     She just wasn't sure what they were doing with her art, and she would like to get some money from the company. It would also be nice to get a sample or two of the products that they had made with her art on them. Could I help her? Ouch!     That was back when I did consulting work on an occasional basis, time permitting, but this was such a mess that she didn't need an agent to sort it out.     What she really needed was a good copyright attorney.     She was dealing with a runaway license and didn't know it. Worse, although she had an idea that something wasn't quite the way it was supposed to be, she had so little certainty in the process of licensing that she lacked the confidence to call them up and demand accountability. She felt, as they say, "used, abused, and refused." What had she done wrong?     Without seeing the license it was hard for me to know exactly, but several errors were obvious. First, she had apparently not understood the license that she had signed at the beginning of the relationship.     Perhaps she had gone ahead on verbal assurances from these very nice people and never bothered to read it. Or perhaps it was just too difficult to read. Then once it was signed, instead of putting it in a safety deposit box or some other safe location, she put it somewhere else and then forgot where it was so she couldn't refer back to it.     She wasn't familiar with the process of licensing so she didn't know what her rights were, or weren't. She didn't know what to expect. Was it normal that companies could do what they wanted with art, or was this unusual, she asked?     And while it gave her a good deal of pleasure to know that her art was being used on so many pretty products and that so many people appreciated it, as time wore on she felt that she had been forgotten, and even though her irritation increased, she lacked the willingness to face a confrontation with them. What if she were wrong?     She was embarrassed to ask questions or to be too persistent. What if she appeared stupid or unprofessional? What if they decided she was a problem and didn't want to use her art anymore? Then that might hurt her career or get her into trouble or even worse, she might wind up in court.     She couldn't tell, she didn't know, she was confused, so she was immobilized.     Then the story got even worse. She told me that she had heard that the company that used her art was being sold. She didn't know if her art was going to be used by the new owners, perhaps under a new or different company name. Would they put her art on other products? Would she lose her ownership of her art entirely? Again, she just didn't know and she was afraid to ask. Been There, Done That     What a mess! But I've heard similar stories from other artists, and I've had a few runaway licenses myself. One was with a small company whose owner was always "in the warehouse," "out for the day", "in a meeting", "at a show" - anywhere but near a phone where I could speak with her.     Imagine our surprise when the artist and I discovered that our licensee was reproducing dozens of pieces of art for her product labels, without even telling us much less asking for our prior approval.     Samples? Royalty checks? Royalty reports? Straightforward communication? Forget it! This lady was out of control, her company seemed out of control, her record-keeping was apparently nonexistent or abysmal. We had a runaway license on our hands.     In another recent instance with a much larger company, I discovered to my dismay that the company had gone ahead and put my artist's work on unauthorized products which were in direct competition with the products of a brand new licensee. They had acted as though they - and not the artist - controlled the use of the art, and they had done whatever they wanted with it.     In the meanwhile I had assured the new licensee in good faith that there were no products in existence or under license with any other company that would directly compete with his. Then I found out that I had been blindsided by a runaway license.     If I hadn't handled it smoothly, if my new licensee hadn't been so understanding, he could have brought me to court for negotiating in bad faith or for fraudulent representations. Needless to say, this wasn't a situation I enjoyed being in. I was upset, my artist was upset, the company that had run away with my artist's work and overextended themselves, taking orders for unauthorized products that put us in a major conflict between licensees, was upset and it all could have ended very badly. But this time I was lucky. What Did I Do Wrong?     Just like the artist who didn't follow up closely enough with those ever-so-nice people who loved her art, I didn't follow up closely enough with this one licensee.     I had cut them some slack because it was a financially successful license. I had no idea that they were considering producing products that might conflict with the new license that I was negotiating.     I "assumed" that the licensee would come to me for approval of new product categories, were that to be the case. After all, that's a key provision of our license with them. But I was blindsided when the license went runaway, and by that time it was all damage control. As they say, "assumption is the mother of all screw-up's."     Years ago I had a boss who told me sternly never to do anything out of desperation. I must admit that when a good deal of income is on the table, a sense of desperation can enter the picture. I want and need the income, my artist wants and needs the income, we all want and need the income. The more income that's in the balance, the more the sense of desperation. And it's always so much easier, it seems, to avoid confrontation, to go along, to be passive, to go on hoping that things will work out as they continue to spiral downwards.     Believe me, when you have to start thinking and acting like that, I assure you that "things" probably won't work out.  And when they don't work out, it may be time to bail out. - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.

This Interview with Lance Klass, President of Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing, was conducted by Alex Colombo and published in his The Moon From My Attic art blog: I've been working on my first licensing collection. So far I managed to not throw away anything...however, some concepts didn't work that well after I placed them on mock-ups or templates of real products. Creating art for licensing is actually a different type of design work and I am starting to adjust my ideas to fit. It's a learning process like any other design field I have done professionally. For another, more experienced view on this challenge of creating art for effective licensing we can read up this very informative interview with Lance J. Klass, the founder and president of Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing. And although it's not even close to Christmas yet, I want to also share a licensed image by Porterfield's artist Janet Stever. © Janet Stever The Moon from My Attic: How long have you been doing art licensing?  I’ve been licensing artwork since 1985. I established Porterfield’s in 1994 as a collectibles company, with a smaller emphasis on art licensing. As the limited-edition collectibles industry went into decline, we focused increasingly on building a solid ‘stable’ of artists oriented toward the creation of art that could be licensed onto a very wide variety of commercial, retail products here and abroad. TMFMA: What would you say is/are the exciting factor/s in art licensing? The purpose of our company is to provide manufacturers and producers of retail products with artwork that will increase their sales. When we’re able to do that, it’s very exciting. Personally, I get excited when I come upon an artist whose work has great potential, or when an existing Porterfield’s artist sends in artwork that’s beautiful, compelling, and on-market. I love it when a brand-new licensee comes in the door, when we’re able to license artwork to a really good company, when we’re successful at retail and especially when that’s reflected in high quarterly royalties.  And I love it when we receive samples of beautiful products which carry artwork licensed from Porterfield’s artists, and when I hear from those artists that they’re really happy with those products. It can be extremely gratifying for an artist to have his or her work reproduced on excellent-quality products, to see these products in stores and to hear from friends that they saw the products and loved them.  What could be better for a creative person than to have a very positive impact with their work? TMFMA: What's your view of art licensing exhibits such as Surtex?  I think Surtex is terrific, and I’ve written an article on just how terrific I think it is, and why I have that viewpoint, on my blog at http://www.art-licensing.biz.  For my money, there’s no other show in or around our field of art licensing that comes close to having the exposure, impact, viability and return on investment provided by Surtex. TMFMA: Do you advise new artists to exhibit at Surtex or other art licensing shows to start off their career? And how many shows should they be part of to begin with? I wouldn’t waste a nickel on other shows, at least not if you’re starting out.  If you’re very successful monetarily and have established yourself as a brand, then yes, try some of the other shows.  But if you’re not at or near the top of the market, then Surtex is the place to be.  As with any show, you want to visit it and walk it thoroughly before investing in exhibiting. So the first step would be to go to Surtex, speak to artists, licensors, agents, licensees, and learn as much as you can. TMFMA: Please give us your analysis of Surtex 2011 and its market. Surtex 2011 was a powerful and extremely successful show.  After all, it’s the largest art licensing show in the world. This year the number of exhibitors increased 23% over last year, and about 6,000 people attended.  That’s six thousand qualified visitors, among them creative, marketing and/or licensing directors and staff at companies that must bring in compelling new artwork for their products.  You can’t ask for more from a licensing show. TMFMA: At Surtex an artist can both sell and seek art license opportunities. How does one decide what to sell and what to license? It all depends on what you do, on your orientation as an artist and/or company.  If you create surface textile patterns or repeat designs for fabric, rugs, quilting and bolt fabrics and are prepared to sell your art outright, then you should be in that part of the show that focuses on SURface TEXtiles.  You’ll show your work to companies that buy designs outright, along with total copyright rights.  If you sell designs outright, you should also check out PrintSource, a show that’s designed specifically for artists, designers, and design studios that sell concept patterns outright to individuals primarily in the fabric and apparel industries. If, however, you don’t want to sell all rights to your images and want to be able to license designs again and again, then you belong in the extensive art licensing section of the show.  That’s where I and my associates in the art licensing industry show the works of our artists. TMFMA: In your view, what was of major interest to manufacturers this year? What were they looking for?   Bright, bold, uplifting, colorful, enchanting, inspirational and/or compelling artwork that will immediately catch the eye of a consumer who is a bit more reluctant to spend money because of financial uncertainty.  I was discussing with associates just the other day how art – really good art – is the best antidepressant. Good commercial art will not only sell products, it will do so by conveying a sense of beauty, calm, pleasure or escape to the viewer who feels a bit better just looking at the artwork and wants to bring that art, and the product it’s on, into their lives. TMFMA: Based on your Surtex experience this year and your knowledge of art licensing, what do you think the main trends are for 2011-2012? I try to avoid guessing at trends.  I much prefer studying the market, talking with licensees, seeing what’s selling and what licensees are looking for.  They’re the ones who guess for their companies, and I try to provide them with what they’re seeking. Actual physical data beats trend forecasting every time. TMFMA: What advice would you give other artists that are considering the art licensing field and that want to exhibit in a show like Surtex? Be as good an artist as you can. Study the market. Go into every large mall in your area as well as every big-box store, and look at every type of product that carries art. Study and learn. See what works. Look at composition, subject matter, color, saturation, format. Don’t paint for yourself, paint for women over 30 who purchase 85% of the consumer goods in America, buying products for their spouses, their children, their homes and themselves.  Then develop an extensive portfolio of such works. A few of this and a few of that won’t get you anywhere. Learn from experience what works, and then do lots more of it. Learn Photoshop, if only because you’ll need to manipulate digital files of your art. If you’re interested in painting dry on Photoshop, study it and work hard at it.  If you paint wet, develop your photography skills or else find a good, inexpensive photographer to shoot your work.  Or if you paint small, learn to scan your own images.  You may even want to finish them digitally.  My feeling is that if Leonardo were alive today, he not only would be working on Photoshop, he probably would have invented it. TMFMA: Any other useful info that you'd like to share about art licensing and Surtex? Don’t expect to make a whole lot of money the first year and a half, simply because most companies license artwork way in advance of product release dates. Because of the sampling, marketing, production, shipping and billing cycles, expect royalties from your licenses to begin either 13 or 16 months out from initial date of license.  But if you work hard, study the market, paint for the target consumer, cultivate licensees and work harder and smarter, you’ll do well given time. Read my blog on The Business of Art Licensing and the articles that I’ve posted on our main Porterfield’s site as well as the blogs of other artists and agents. Learn as much as you can. Oh, and be sure to register your copyrighted work with the U.S. Copyright Office at the Library of Congress for that extra level of protection. - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.

About a year ago, AdaPia d'Errico created a blog on Tumblr, the free and easy-to-use blog site, to promote the artistic works of her sister, Camilla, a talented Canadian artist, illustrator and cartoonist.  As the blog developed, AdaPia began to diverge from solely promoting the art of her sister and of other bold and creative artists, to writing insightful and intelligent pieces on the business of art licensing.  I came across AdaPia's work recently when I began a Tumblr blog oriented toward promoting art and artists. A search on "art licensing" brought her to my attention, and as I read through her postings on the how's and why's and how-to's of art licensing, I became increasingly impressed by this young lady's perception and insight into the great game of art licensing in which many of us find ourselves. In her own words, AdaPia is a "foodie, wine and chocolate connoisseur, fashion fiend, traveller. I help artists and creatives get into the 'brand mindset' to successfully promote and brand themselves, their art and their characters. "I am the behind-the-scenes source of all things 'Camilla d'Errico.'  My life is shaped by what and who I encounter, and my journey is an endless adventure of growth and exploration." Important Advice for Artists Recent articles on her site have included advice on social media sites and setting your strategy, how to design an artist's portfolio website, overcoming shyness in networking, how to identify and use social assets to promote your work, partnering with and promoting your licensees, and a host of others relevant topics for artists on the business of art licensing. In-between these articles are postings on the artistic creations of her sister Camilla, and links and other postings relating to artwork that she personally likes and admires.  It's all good, and definitely worth a visit. - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.

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An artist was shown a calendar that had been put together by individuals at a local church. It contained works of art from a variety of artists, with no attribution of authorship of the works or copyright notifications. Such a discovery raises the question of what one should do when confronted with obvious copyright infringement. What would you do if you found your artwork copied without your permission by someone on the internet or on retail products? Here are some suggestions. [More]

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Before putting your toe in the big hot tub of art licensing, it helps to know some of the basics you'll need to create and present artwork that has a better chance of gaining notice - and licenses! Here's a basic guide to some of the essentials you'll need, now published by ArtBistro. [More]

LIMA's free daily SmartBrief is an easy way to stay in touch with major events in the licensing industry as well as gain free access to key articles that can help you expand your presence in the field. [More]

You may find this hard to believe, but most of the artwork that’s sent to me for review could have been painted by anyone.  If the art hadn’t come in a package or attached to an email from a particular artist, I wouldn’t have a clue who the artist was who created the images that I’m looking at.  Strange?  Actually, it’s extremely common.  Never Forget To Sign Your Artwork You see, many artists just plain forget to sign their works.  Sometimes they’re in a big rush to get the work finished and send it out.  Other times artists are reluctant to sign work that they plan to present to manufacturers for commercial use.  I’ve been to lots of art shows, and even there, I find lots of paintings that have no name on them.  Don't Be Shy It’s almost as if the artist doesn’t want to have his or her name intrude on an image that will become part of the buyer’s home décor.  Or that if an image is going to appear on a product, then having their name in the image will lessen the appeal of the final product.  Let’s throw those ideas out the window right now. Build Your Brand If you want to make your name known in art licensing so that manufacturers and consumers recognize your work by name and know who to come to for more, then it’s time to learn how and where to sign your work. Some well-known artists like Mary Engelbreit and Debbie Mumm have very cute and engaging hand-painted logo’s that they’ll use on each image.  Their names are clear, colors are bright, and everything fits in a small rectangle that’s attractive and adds to the presentation.  Graphic Logo Versus Simple Signature You can try this route if you like and if you’re able to create a pretty piece of graphic art, but it isn’t necessary and most successfully-licensed artists don’t do it.  A simple signature is sufficient. Your first step is a mental one.   Are you sufficiently satisfied with your work to put your name on it?  If you are, then don’t be shy.  Put your name on the image so that everyone will see it and know who painted it. How The Art Gets Handled Unless you happen to be extremely lucky, the image that you license to a manufacturer will undoubtedly be cropped to exactly the outer dimensions that the manufacturer uses for its products.  If a manufacturer plans to use the same piece of art on three or four completely different products, then you can expect your artwork to be cropped in three of four different ways so it can fit on those products. Artists who sign their name in teeny little letters in the lower corner of each image are far more likely to have their names cropped out of the final art that appears on the licensed product.  Make Your Name Easy To Read So let’s make that unlikely.  Purchase a Sharpie fine-point pen and use that to sign your artwork.  Be sure to put your signature in a place where your name just can’t be cropped out without seriously hurting the image. The trick is to print your name as you want to be known – for example, you can be Betty Jones or B. Jones, whichever you prefer – and write it along a line inside the image itself.  Pretty blatant?  Well, not really.  If your signature is clear, readable, black and small, it won’t distract from the artwork and everyone who sees it will know who painted it.  Name Recognition Is Essential to Getting Ahead That can make the difference in continued success through name recognition down the road, and help build a following for your art and bring you more licenses.  After all, if people don’t know who painted that image, they won’t know whose work to ask for.  And that won’t help you get ahead. So be sure to sign every image that you create.  It’s the first step in building the name recognition that will help you on the road to success in art licensing.  More hints are on our site - always worth checking out! - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.

Bypass the pitfalls of mailed art submissions to potential licensees, by using your email and simple, low-resolution art attachments to the right people at the right companies. [More]

This is the first posting on a blog site that I'm starting in order to continue a project that I began many  years ago.  Abuse of Artists Was Rampant Back then, I came upon instance after instance of abuses of artists at the hands of unscrupulous companies, and so I began to realize how little most artists know about the business of art.  It isn't taught in most art schools and BFA programs.  It should be, but it isn't, and the result for artists, whether they studied art formally or never had a lesson in their lives, was that they just didn't have any understanding of their rights as artists or how to market their artwork successfully and avoid the traps that some companies lay for the unsuspecting, the unknowing, the naive, the ill-informed and uninformed. Outrageous Abuses That Can Be Avoided Some of the abuses were simply outrageous.  I learned of artists signing away all rights to their artwork for next to nothing.  Losing the right to reproduce their own artistic creations.  Finding themselves in unusually-restrictive and exclusive contracts which made it impossible legally to license their artwork anywhere else, to work for anyone else, and to make an income in any other artistic endeavor, all because they were wrapped up in an abusive contractual relationship that seemed to have no exit, and allowed them no way out. The Do's and Don't's of Art Licensing So I began to write articles on the Do's and Don't's of Art Licensing, telling artists about some of these abuses and how to avoid them. I recommend that every artist who wants to learn his or her way in art licensing, read this and every article about the business of art licensing on this blog and on our main Porterfield's Fine Art Licensing site. I wrote about the basics of commercial art, about what companies are seeking for their products, and about how to create a contractual relationship with a licensee, in which both sides win.  I published a number of these articles in places like The Artist's and Graphic Design Market, the Art Calendar, and several licensing publications here and abroad.  Then as Porterfield's really began to take off as a licensing agency, my writing slowed down and I published less and less for artists, and about our industry.  The More You Know, The Farther You Can Go!  Now that the market seems to have stabilized and now that Porterfield's is stable as well, I'm in the mood to begin writing about art and art licensing and commercial art and the business of art once again.  Hence this blog.  We'll see where it takes us! I want to use this blog to continue to write pieces on art licensing, but I also want to use it to showcase terrific new artwork by Porterfield's artists.  That gives it a dual purpose - to help artists along in this business, as well as helping out companies that depend upon a stable source of compelling new art for their products.  After all, one end of the equation is for companies to find the art they need so that they can create ever more beautiful and compelling products, to increase their sales, bottom line and profitability, grow their companies, and come back for even more.  We'll see how it goes - I'm optimistic! - - - -  (c) Lance J. Klass.  All Rights Reserved.  This article may not be reproduced with the expressed written permission of the author.  For information about copying all or part of this article, contact the author at art@porterfieldsfineart.com. Be sure to check out our main site at www.porterfieldsfineart.com.   Follow and "Like" us on Facebook and join with us on Twitter for timely tweets on the subject of art and art licensing.  You may also wish to check out our Art and Licensing News site at www.artlicensing.org for daily updates of the latest in news and articles about art and art licensing.