# How to promote drawings? Ideas?



## cc-rider (Jul 29, 2003)

I have a friend that is very talented at taking a digital photo of your pet and turning it into an amazing caricature...and just a talent, in general, at drawing cats and dogs. We've been trying to figure some way to turn that talent into an income stream. We've thought about maybe greeting cards, coloring books, children's books/illustrations, but have no idea where to find out more information. Help??!


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## Guest (Jan 27, 2010)

First thing to get started would be to go to a local printing house and make some samples on nice paper. Be sure to have the work registered with the copyright office. It used to be about twenty bucks but I don't know now. It can be done on-line. You will need this in case people use your work without your permission, especially if they are profitting more from it than you are. Then, if you start local, you can make some money designing work for shops and shows. Perhaps you could do some label design for the farm produce people here. Just a thought to get you started.


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

How long does it take to complete a drawing? And "it depends" should not be part of the answer, just an average time. :grin:


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## clovis (May 13, 2002)

I can't help with the promotion parts, but I can lend a hand if you ever take the work to print. I've been in the printing biz for years.


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## cc-rider (Jul 29, 2003)

If someone can tell me (easy for idiots) how to upload a photo here, I'll show you one that she did for me. I sent her a picture of my yorkie/poodle mix, and this is what she sent back. It looks SO amazingly like him, in a cartoonish sort of way.

Does this do it??










Nope. Sigh. http://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/4310220654/ is where it is stored.


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## cc-rider (Jul 29, 2003)

I think she said it took her 2 or 2-1/2 hours to do that one. She draws entirely on the computer with a mouse!


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## MoonRiver (Sep 2, 2007)

The 2+ hours makes this idea a little harder to pull off, or maybe not. I'm thinking you might have a pricing problem to do just one copy. I'm guessing you would have to sell them at $50+ for a single.

My first thought was art shows and craft fairs and even farmer's markets. Anyplace people show up with their pets. Have several samples on easels or hanging to get attention. Then take picture of pet with the print available within a week. Would have to get deposit or full payment at order.

What if you had a cartoon strip for different types of pets. Then you could substitute the person's pet into the strip and have something really unique to sell. 

You could also try to get people to send you a digital photo online and work from that. Create a web site with samples and a procedure for accepting digital photos.

Go to animal shelters and see if they would like a drawing of one of the animals. In return, you get to leave some smaller copies of the drawing with your marketing info on it.

Talk to zoos, petting zoos, etc about creating some drawings they can use for advertising. Either for pay or for marketing space.

Any major universities around? Draw the mascot in a unique way that would appeal to alumni that show up for football and basketball games and sell through shops close to campus. (Are mascots copyrighted?)

A dog's eye tour of the city. Drawing of dog in various settings as it tours the city (town, village).

A drawing of owl you can sell to optometrists.

Brainstorm businesses that could use a mascot. Find appropriate animal, picture, drawing, etc.


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## Guest (Jan 28, 2010)

Your friend should have many standards done that can be tweeked to match the pets unique features. This would make the shows easier, and faster.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Have her join wetcanvas.com and spend some time in the business section( including internet).

Lots of good basic art business info. Everything from pricing to printing and marketing.

Her work is great and she could easily make a business from it.

I should add she should join this yahoo group [email protected], she could licence her work as well.


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## lharvey (Jul 1, 2003)

CC.

This lady, her name is Tracy, does all her drawings in pencil.

Cookai.com

If you contact her, she is very helpful with other artists trying to get noticed.

She is constantly changing her site around but there are a couple of samples on the front page. Her work is incredible.



L


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## SFM in KY (May 11, 2002)

I definitely second the WetCanvas site. Lots of excellent information on the business section of that site.

Another place for her work might be designing website logos. The logo could go on the website and be used for business cards, etc. as well ... a very individualized logo to pull everything together. Dogs, cats, horses, cattle, goats, rabbits?

One of the first things she may want to look at is a website, possibly linked to a blog or "sales site" of some kind as well. Again, WetCanvas may give her a lot of ideas.


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## klickitat (Dec 26, 2008)

Here is an idea for what it is worth. 

Build a small counter display that can be set on the counter or hung on the wall with brochures with the same information. Then work a deal out with pet stores and farm/feed stores, farm auctions, pet groomers, 4H groups as fund raisers, giving them 10% of every sale. You could also set up at farmers markets, flea markets, adds at the local stores on their outside bulletin boards, set up at local dog shows and trials. How about a kiosk in a mall starting in October for the Christmas season, the county fair, horse shows.

I know you expressly mentioned dogs and cats, but why limit yourself and your market. 

As for a product, you could build custom books. Memory books with photos of the animal, you could have pictures of the animal and leave spaces blank at the bottom for the owner to write in, use one of any inexpensive programs to turn photos into coloring book drawings and make a child's coloring book, memorial books for people who have lost pets, promotional books for live stock (you might even find a website that has people who raise animals  ) You can find book binding supplies online to do this at home.

Just a few ideas that popped into my head.


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## PulpFaction (Jul 23, 2009)

T-Shirts are a good option too. Look at Skreened.com, you upload the image and choose your commission and set up a store front and they print on demand for you and you have your own shop and address to put on marketing materials with NO start-up. 

Here's my suggestion:

Do one or two designs of each dog breed, print them on note cards, t-shirts, coffee mugs, key chains bumper stickers, christmas ornaments, etc and start reserving a booth at every dog show in the region. As an aside, do a display with samples of custom work. There are ways to have her line drawings blown up and put on any size canvas, or on blankets, etc, or she can just offer the standard size drawing. These should be for a pretty good commission, otherwise she'll be TOO busy! People that go to dog shows buy the heck out of this stuff. (Believe me, I'm one of them.)

There are lots of pet portrait artists out there that make their entire living doing this.

Wish I had her talent!


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## Guest (Mar 12, 2010)

There is also a site that I use called deviantART that you can use to promote your drawings. They offer a printing service where you can choose what product your drawings go on. They pay a royalty for the use of the image, and handle all of the orders and shipping themselves.


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Wet Canvas is a great place to learn the ropes.

You can also sell at online shops but you will have to "Target Marget" to bring folks to your shops. 
There are millions of talented Artists out there.

If you want to sell through a POD ... 
For wear-able Use-able Art.
*Zazzle* is a great place to start.
For Fine Prints and offers the most mats and Frames... *Image Kind* 

These are just two. If you have any questions, please let me know. VBG
I can tell you what I do to bring in sales and the other quality online shops out there.


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## Nomad (Dec 19, 2002)

We now have a Skreened.com account. As soon as I figure out how to upload some drawings, we'll be in business. The drawings are all .png which I wouldn't use, but I'm not the artist. 

Nomad


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Only problem with Skreened.com, is they don't support PNG with transparent back grounds.
Even with my paintings turn up dark on darker shirts. Do not have this issue at Redbubble, Zazzle or CP.

This could prove to be a problem.


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## Nomad (Dec 19, 2002)

bergere said:


> Only problem with Skreened.com, is they don't support PNG with transparent back grounds.
> Even with my paintings turn up dark on darker shirts. Do not have this issue at Redbubble, Zazzle or CP.
> 
> This could prove to be a problem.



You might as well be speaking Greek. I just do the marketing and card printing. The artist is in charge of the drawings and I don't know anything except they are .png. I'll have to find out what she thinks and maybe try something different. Do those other places you mention operate the same way as Skreened? I'll have to look into them. Thanks.

Nomad


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Cafe Press, has excellent Sweat Shirts.

Zazzle has very nice shirts and Sweat shirts and has the most flexible program, its great to work with.

Red Bubble also offers very nice shirts.

None of them have Skreened's issues.


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## Nomad (Dec 19, 2002)

bergere said:


> Cafe Press, has excellent Sweat Shirts.
> 
> Zazzle has very nice shirts and Sweat shirts and has the most flexible program, its great to work with.
> 
> ...



Thanks, I'll check them out. Does Skreened have any problem with .jpg?

Nomad


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

jpg, halo's(has fuzzy edges), so the quality is not nearly as good as a PNG or TIFF.

But yes, I did try an jpg just to see and it has the same issues.


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## Nomad (Dec 19, 2002)

bergere said:


> jpg, halo's(has fuzzy edges), so the quality is not nearly as good as a PNG or TIFF.
> 
> But yes, I did try an jpg just to see and it has the same issues.


Then perhaps Skreened isn't the way to go after all. 

I now have a new issue. I'm trying to print the greeting cards on the glossy stock and it is a mess. Depending on the color, it seems to take forever to dry and it smears pretty easily. Any suggestions on this problem? I need to get a few dozen printed and I'm not doing too well. I like the way the colors show up better than the regular stock, but I may have to go to matte finish to be able to get the job done. I imagine using an ink jet printer doesn't help.

Nomad


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

You need special ink. HP and Epson printers sell the ink you need. Not sure about the other printer makers.

I just get my cards printed up by Zazzle. If you can buy in bulk, prices are not bad.
I have been told Redbubble cards are just as good.


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## Nomad (Dec 19, 2002)

bergere said:


> You need special ink. HP and Epson printers sell the ink you need. Not sure about the other printer makers.
> 
> I just get my cards printed up by Zazzle. If you can buy in bulk, prices are not bad.
> I have been told Redbubble cards are just as good.


We had a meeting and decided to go back to the 110 lb matte. They look so much better and the cards aren't flimsy like with the 80 lb. I get my ink on Ebay and the last time I bought 14 cartridges for about $30. I could never afford specialty ink. I may look into having the cards printed by someone else. Do you use glossy stock?

Nomad


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## bergere (May 11, 2002)

Yes, I always buy Glossy cards, unusually through Zazzle. They do turn out very nice.

Understand that, my Epson just sits collecting dust because the special inks are so spendy and they don't last very long. Cheaper for me just to order the cards.


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## VA Susan (Mar 2, 2010)

Nomad,
We printed some brochures for my husband's portraits and ordered special paper for use with an ink jet printer. They turned out pretty well, but weren't as nice as most glossy printed brochures even though the paper was semi glossy. We talked to a guy at a print shop and he said that the ink with an ink jet printer does not penetrate the paper like a laser printer, so it smears easier. He suggested laser printing on glossy paper for any future brochures we needed. 

---
My Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/laurelcreekgallery


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## PulpFaction (Jul 23, 2009)

I originally chose Skreened for my designs because they offered organic shirts and environmentally friendly inking processes. After that, I liked their user interface best and thought the store-front was more professional and the commission customization was nice, too. I've never had any issues having to save my photoshop art as a JPG, and their program automatically removes white backgrounds. I like the quality of the printing better than the others I have tried, as well. (And I tried all the ones you mentioned, except Redbubble, even though I have an account with them.)


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## Nomad (Dec 19, 2002)

VA Susan said:


> Nomad,
> We printed some brochures for my husband's portraits and ordered special paper for use with an ink jet printer. They turned out pretty well, but weren't as nice as most glossy printed brochures even though the paper was semi glossy. We talked to a guy at a print shop and he said that the ink with an ink jet printer does not penetrate the paper like a laser printer, so it smears easier. He suggested laser printing on glossy paper for any future brochures we needed.
> 
> ---
> My Etsy shop: http://www.etsy.com/shop/laurelcreekgallery


Should our business take off, I know I'll need a laser printer eventually. For now I'll have to use what I have. The cards come out pretty well on the matte, so I'm happy.

Nomad


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## Nomad (Dec 19, 2002)

PulpFaction said:


> I originally chose Skreened for my designs because they offered organic shirts and environmentally friendly inking processes. After that, I liked their user interface best and thought the store-front was more professional and the commission customization was nice, too. I've never had any issues having to save my photoshop art as a JPG, and their program automatically removes white backgrounds. I like the quality of the printing better than the others I have tried, as well. (And I tried all the ones you mentioned, except Redbubble, even though I have an account with them.)


Since I haven't tried to upload any drawings yet, I'm not sure how that removing the white background would work. What would that do to a drawing with white in it such as clouds, etc? Hopefully the shirt color wouldn't come through at those points. It would be ok on a white shirt, but not so good on one with color.

Nomad


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## Nomad (Dec 19, 2002)

bergere said:


> Only problem with Skreened.com, is they don't support PNG with transparent back grounds.
> Even with my paintings turn up dark on darker shirts. Do not have this issue at Redbubble, Zazzle or CP.
> 
> This could prove to be a problem.


I'm not sure I understand the drawing or picture upload in Skreened. Am I correct that they give a certain size the items must be? I'm not sure any of our things fit into that template. Hopefully I'm just confused and it's not too difficult.

Nomad


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