Marketing Pencil Drawings and other 2D Artwork on Products
Sell Your Pencil Drawings and other 2D artwork on something besides Paper!
Have you ever wanted to have t-shirts printed with some of your artwork? Or perhaps coffee mugs or some other promotional type products?
While the mainstay of my business is my two dimensional art such as original pencil drawings, limited edition prints and note cards, I have found that putting my images on products is a great way to broaden the audience for my work.
Several years ago I set up a CafePress Store so that I could sell my horse and dog drawings on shirts, mugs, totes and other items. While the store was somewhat time-consuming to set up, I have been quite happy with the results. And in the past couple of years CafePress has made tremendous improvements to their site, making it much easier to navigate and use.
More recently I set up a Zazzle Store. Much like CafePress, Zazzle allows you to add your artwork or photographs to a variety of product items. With Zazzle however, you can give the customer more options for individual customization of the product. Let’s say you have a drawing of a Golden Retriever that you want to sell on products. Joe Smith Customer could purchase a mug with that drawing, and then add his own dog’s name to the mug to personalize it! Customization can broaden the appeal of your work considerably.
Setting up an account with Cafepress or Zazzle is easy … and free. Once you have an account, you can proceed to upload images and begin selling t-shirt, mugs and other items that you like.
It is important to know something about electronic image preparation before uploading artwork files to one of these sites. Most importantly, the file needs to be hi-resolution, which means at least 300dpi when printed at the largest reproduction size you plan to use. Effective resolution will be less if you start with a small file (say 2″ wide) later try to reproduce the image at a larger size (say 6″ wide).
I scan all of my artwork images as native Photoshop files. I then do any clean-up and/or image editing required. Once I am done, I re-save the file in jpg format, using the lowest compression (highest quality) option available. (As jpg is a “compression” format, higher compression makes for a smaller files size, but more lost image data.)
When I design graphics that utilize vector art and lots of white background area, I generally save the file in the png format. This format has slightly smoother gradients and leaves a nice, clean, white edge around the graphic.
Also, if you are using the products to help market your work, consider adding the name of your website in small letters to the bottom of every image that you upload. This way, when a t-shirt with your artwork becomes a gift to Jane Doe, she will be able to find the artist behind the creation.
Both CafePress and Zazzle have extensive help sections for beginners to the process. For more on preparing your images for reproduction on products, you may want to visit their Beginners Image Workshop.
http://help.cafepress.com/hc/s-74058960/cmd/kbresource/kb-140301031509673311/front_page!PAGETYPE?category=55
http://www.zazzle.com/sell
Sell Your Pencil Drawings on something besides Paper!
Have you ever wanted to have t-shirts printed with some of your artwork? Or perhaps coffee mugs or some other promotional type products?
While the mainstay of my business is my two dimensional art such as original pencil drawings, prints and note cards, I have found that putting my images on products is a great way to broaden the audience for my work.
Several years ago I set up a CafePress Store for my animal lover art so that I could sell my horse and dog drawings on shirts, mugs, totes and other items. While the store was somewhat time-consuming to set up, I have been quite happy with the results. And in the past couple of years CafePress has made tremendous improvements to their site, making it much easier to navigate and use.
More recently I set up a Zazzle Store with more of my horse and dog art. Much like CafePress, Zazzle allows you to add your artwork or photographs to a variety of product items. With Zazzle however, you can give the customer more options for individual customization of the product. Let’s say you have a drawing of a Doberman Pinscher that you want to sell on products. Joe Smith Customer could purchase a mug with that drawing, and then add his own dog’s name to the mug to personalize it! Customization can broaden the appeal of your work considerably.
Setting up an account with Cafepress or Zazzle is easy … and free. Once you have an account, you can proceed to upload images and begin selling t-shirt, mugs and other items that you like.
It is important to know something about electronic image preparation before uploading artwork files to one of these sites. Most importantly, the file needs to be high resolution, which means at least 300dpi when printed at the largest reproduction size you plan to use. Effective resolution will be less if you start with a small file (say 2″ wide) later try to reproduce the image at a larger size (say 6″ wide).
I scan all of my artwork images as native Photoshop files. I then do any clean-up and/or image editing required. Once I am done, I re-save the file in jpg format, using the lowest compression (highest quality) option available. (As jpg is a “compression” format, higher compression makes for a smaller files size, but more lost image data.)
When I design graphics that utilize vector art and lots of white background area, I generally save the file in the png format. This format has slightly smoother gradients and leaves a nice, clean, white edge around the graphic.
Also, if you are using the products to help market your work, consider adding the name of your website in small letters to the bottom of every image that you upload. This way, when a t-shirt with your artwork becomes a gift to Jane Doe, she will be able to find the artist behind the creation.
Both CafePress and Zazzle have extensive help sections for beginners. For more on preparing your images for reproduction on products, visit the Cafepress FAQ section or the Zazzle Getting Started page.
