New Card Designs

I have been designing cards (Christmas and birthday presents) over the past month and now that they have all been opened and properly ooed and awed at I can now share them with you.

The first set contains some of my favorite scenes from CSU-Channel Islands.

Next are some of my favorite scenes from around University Glen.

The following are fountains from around CI, U-Glen and San Diego.

And just in time for Christmas 2011 here are two sets of Christmas Cards.

All five sets as well as the individual cards found in all the sets above are available for purchase at http://curtistaylor.biz/zencart/ .

In the next few days all the images used in these new cards will be available as prints (8.25” x 8.25” image size) and as downloads.

Licensing Agents

It has been a busy month! I have been to an illustrators meeting, updated the SoCal region of SCBWI website umpteen times, and updated my website. Instead of writing or drawing any new stories I have been busy writing and illustrating my family’s holiday card designing and producing 20 new greeting cards (available in January) and my blog quietly reached 1400 hits. Last but not least I queried no less than 25 licensing agents.

Licensing agents sell the temporary rights of use to your artwork. The companies that purchase the rights can then use the artwork on t-shirts, napkins, greeting cards, etc. The artist is then paid a royalty minus a commission for the agent. I found a list of agents here:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Art-Licensing-Agencies---List-of-Over-60-US-Agencies&id=4727909

That list contains quite a diverse collection of agencies and you will find agents who are looking for anything from cute and cuddly to nature photography. You are sure to find your niche and the good news is that it doesn’t take more than a minute or two before you know if your artwork will fit “what they are looking for”. Most of the firms on that list have online submission forms which make the query or submission process very easy. A quick Google search and you can find the agent’s website and their submission guidelines are usually easy to find. Generally all they want is contact information and a website.

Happy Hunting . . . Holidays.

They Draw and Cook

Back on November 28th, I talked about a few things I was doing to get my name out there, AKA marketing. Well, the results are back in for two of those efforts. And while I would have preferred different outcomes (being picked for the book or a finalist for The Food Network contest) I am thankful for the exposure these contests provided. Below you can see my Russian Tea Cake recipe but I encourage you to visit They Draw and Cook and look through their recipe collection. There are some really yummy concoctions ranging from drinks to dips to candy crunchy things.

You can see my Spam Musubi recipe here. It will be posted on They Draw and Cook sometime in January and I will let you know when that happens.

Thanks again to They Draw and Cook for giving artists this opportunity to reach such a big audience.

Holiday Card Design

Last week I talked about getting my name out there and I Talked about a holiday card design that I submitted to Kate Harper’s blog. Well the submissions are up and you can view all the great card designs at http://kateharperblog.blogspot.com/2010/12/editor-picks-christmas-cards-with-new.html. You will see my penguin card about 25 cards down the page. That holiday card and others can be ordered from my store.

While I was resting a bit from a week of “marketing” a rejection or two I decided to get knee deep in my family's Holiday letter.  Lately I have been in charge of illustrating the Taylor Holiday letter.  This year my theme is nesting dolls and here is a sneak peak at ME as a nesting doll.

Can you guess what I have been interested in over the last year? BTW that will be my new profile (the face anyway) probably until the next holiday letter.

Bummers!

The recipe I submitted to They Draw and Cook wasn’t picked for their compilation cook book. I am rolling with the punches today and trying to remember there must be a silver lining here somewhere.

One could say “Hey you had fun designing that recipe.” I did.

Or “You had your 30 seconds in front of an art director for a publishing company.” I did, give or take 5 seconds.

Maybe even “When the recipe is posted in January it will get viewed by a much larger audience than I can reach now” Most certainly.

I would probably sigh and nod and say something like “Yea, your right. Also, I have a holiday recipe that will be posted sometime this month that was fun to design and it will have 30 seconds in front of an art director and it will be viewed by a much larger audience. But I think the best part of this rejection is that I get to share the recipe with you today.”

No go out and enjoy a Hawaiian treat. It really is good!