Sorry for the short notice, but you can write until March 24  – and I hope YOU will!! At last the government WANTS to hear from actual artists instead of only big businesses.  This is again about copyright issues. Some businesses want to use our work without our permission (or payment) – this has been called the Orphan Works Bill.

Most of us artists want to protect our copyrights to make sure that we can protect our work.  I know I want to protect my colorful, vibrant paintings!!  Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner for the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership has put together this information.  Mark Simon is an Artist Adovcate and he passed along this information also.  Thank you to them!  Please read below for details.  Thank you! ~ Diane

Summary of issue: Over 85 organizations opposed the last Orphan Works bills, representing over half a million creators. Illustrators, photographers, fine artists, songwriters, musicians, and countless licensing firms all believe this bill will harm their small businesses.

WRITE TODAY – details below!

Hello fellow artists,
Below is great info on a White House initiative to find out more about copyright protection for artists and small businesses.

The deadline to hear from artists is <WED MARCH 24>, SO DON’T DELAY. Email them now. Info is below.

Artist Advocate,
Mark Simon

FROM THE ILLUSTRATORS’ PARTNERSHIP

White House Seeks Artists’ Comments to Improve Copyright Protection

3.18.10

New Copyright Czar begins Joint Strategic Plan to Protect Intellectual Property
Victoria Espinel is the first U.S. Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator (IPEC), also known as the Copyright Czar. Congress created IPEC by an Act of Congress. Ms. Espinel serves within theExecutive Office of the President to coordinate with all the federal agencies that fight the infringement of intellectual property.

Ms. Espinel and her team are specifically tasked with formulating and implementing a Joint Strategic Plan to help protect the ingenuity and creativity of Americans by improving the U.S. Government’s protection of the rights of intellectual property owners.

Your input is requested.
The White House is inviting your public input and participation to shape an effective intellectual property enforcement strategy. Please respond with your written submissions regarding the costs to you, your business and the U.S. economy resulting from infringement of your intellectual property rights, both direct and indirect.

This will be a 2-part process.
The first is to gather public recommendations by March 24. IPEC will then gather your input on the formulated plan.

Please be precise.
Include your name, city, state, and what type of artist you are. Explain why copyright is critical to you as a commercial artist, how infringement affects you, and what the U.S. government can do to better protect the rights of American artists. If your submission is about your economic loss due to infringement of your copyrights you must clearly identify the methodology used to calculate your losses or otherwise validate your infringement and enforcement costs.

Your submission will be publicly posted.
For this reason, please do not include in your comments information of a confidential nature, such as sensitive personal information or proprietary information.

Confidential disclosures.
If you have confidential business information that would support your recommendation or that you believe would help the Government formulate an effective enforcement strategy, please let them know by contacting:

Thomas L. Stoll
Office of the Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator
(202) 395-1808

Deadline: Submissions must be received by Wednesday, March 24, 2010, at 5 p.m. EST.
Address: All submissions should be sent electronically via intellectualproperty@omb.eop.gov

Additional Background Reading:
White House Blog
Federal Register Notice Request

- Brad Holland and Cynthia Turner for the Board of the Illustrators’ Partnership

______________________________________________________________

For news and information, and an archive of these messages:
Illustrators’ Partnership Orphan Works Blog: http://ipaorphanworks.blogspot.com/

Over 85 organizations opposed the last Orphan Works bills, representing over half a million creators. Illustrators, photographers, fine artists, songwriters, musicians, and countless licensing firms all believe this bill will harm their small businesses.

Technorati Tags: Orphan Works, colorful vibrant painting, Diane Clancy, Illustrators’ Partnership, Mark Simon, copyright

I am making progress … I hope tomorrow I will be able to start moving on licensing again. Licensing is when someone or some company wants to use your images on their things – whether a yoga CD for someone’s class or Hallmark on their cards or place mats for your table and everything in between. Since many of my paintings are popular, I would very much like to license my work so lots of people can enjoy them. 

Cyan Portal, Digital © Diane Clancy

With licensing the artist gets some amount of money each time her image is used. Once that is set up, it becomes passive income – like royalties from a book.  I am sure you can see why I like this idea. I can feel the internal changes happening that mean I can getting ready to tackle licensing.  I am realizing that I am worried I will get rejected .. well, we know for sure there will likely be more than a few of those unless I hit the heart of the target right off!

With all this commotion about the Orphan Works Act, I also have been discouraged to move along on the licensing … people were saying that places wouldn’t have to do licensing any more.  But at this point I am convinced that reputatable places will stay be paying. So now it is just about time to get started … and to bill once again the place that I did work for in January that still has not paid me.  Thanks for coming by!!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: licensing

This is another design I would like license is this toy design – I think this design would be great for kids – mainly girls.  I am working to clear some space to work on licensing things .. but it is going slowly.  I am still low energy from being sick for 2 months … so I have to be kind to myself instead of berating myself.

Toys V, Digital © Diane Clancy

I am going to put some of my original work on my Etsy Shop …  I have joined a team where you have to have at least 2 items in my shop that are the original art (as opposed to digital, prints or reproductions).  Since I am wanting to license my work, I have been keeping most of my originals.  Many licensing companies want to work from the originals – so that is why I have been keeping them – at least partly why.   So I am wanting to find some of my work that I can sell that I don’t want to license.

My question … on the bottom left of this page, there is a pastel called “Harem” … do you find this offensive or do you like it or are you neutral?  I have one that is no where on the web, that I may post here tomorrow or put it on the site with a link.  Both paintings (pastel paintings) are of men … so they would not really be part of what I would be licensing.  But my work is mostly uplifting (in my opinion) and I want to see your reactions .. I want to make sure I am not shooting myself in the foot. Thank you so much for taking the time!!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: licensing

Here is a design to help you celebrate spring (or fall in the southern hemisphere) … It is one of the images I would like to license somewhere for paper or cards.  I am keeping it short today .. we seem to be alternatively between long and short – I see a pattern.  I would love to hear about you!!

Flowers XIV, Digital © Diane Clancy

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: licensing

We have another glorious day in Paradise here! (Amazing how perspectives change, isn’t it?) I was able to walk 4 houses up the street and again not feel too tired. I have definitely turned the corner. Now if I just didn’t have 2 months worth of things that I have not kept up with. It is time for my own reassessment of how I should use time. Given this wonderful blogosphere and the incredible connections and enormous amounts of information, I can’t do it all. As I get better, I need to make decisions. I truly want to license my work and to have that happen, I need to do it!!! Also I have several requests about my work over the last couple of weeks (I don’t know if they are serious, and I need to check them out). Time to get moving again!! One thing I have done, is figure out treasuries and network at Etsy. I could do that without exhausting myself. I am like a little kid – I want it all!!

Gold Leaf III, Digital © Diane Clancy

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: license, Etsy

Today is World Peace Day! Here is the link to learn more about this great day on the winter/summer solstice. This is to encourage each of us to spend some time today in prayer and meditation for world peace. A great idea to my mind!!!

Plum Sky, Digital © Diane Clancy

In this journey of printing cards to get to licensing my artwork, I have now chosen Modern Postcard as my printer. If you want to see more of this odyssey, it is in the last several posts. The size of the cards was a decision I needed to make. They had a very reasonable price for cards that are 4.25 x 6.” Their prices (at that time anyway) were very high for 5 x 7″ cards. There are printing concerns regarding the initial paper size each printer uses. For Modern Postcard, they waste a lot of paper with the 5 x 7″ size card. So that made my decision about the size!

Given that I like control and input in how I do things, I wanted to make the file up myself and not use one of their templates. I bet you can guess that I spent some real time choosing the font that I used. A font (especially a decorative font) is another representation of oneself to the world. I eventually chose the Parisian font. It is delicate and elegant … and I love it and it makes my heart sing! And I think it looks great with my work. You can see this font on the images I created lately with words as part of the painting. That is Parisian.

Now for the images. Of course, printing each painting on a card is expensive (at least to me). “They” suggest printing cards in series. I had a buyer already who was kind enough to take a risk on my work and he had already agreed to buy some cards. I was not the first local artist he had done this for either. He outs his values into action!! Dick McLeester of VisionWorks is a great person and sells progressive and uplifting magnets, books, cards and bumper stickers. You may want to check him out.

I decided to choose 6 images that are some of my most distinctive and unusual paintings. You can see what I chose here … and these cards are still for sale. I prepped the images and got the sizes correct and make sure the dpi was right. And I put it all together into a file in a graphic design program for each painting. I used Quark then but now I would use InDesign. You can also do this by uploading your image into their templates …

So I took a deep breath and went to the next step. One can print (or at least back then) in steps of 500. I decided to take a leap of faith and print 1000 of each of the 6 images. So I put them all on a disk and sent them off. Nowadays one would just upload them. Now we will wait to get them back from the printer!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: World Peace Day, cards, licensing, Modern Postcard, size of the cards, templates, font, Parisian, Dick McLeester, Quark, InDesign, leap of faith

Recently, I have been posting about cards and licensing … you many want to read some of these recent posts. So, I have all my samples of cards from 8 printers with researched information from 12 of them. Modern Postcard is the printer that most local artists use so I need to either confirm them or beat them by some other printer.

Green Seas, Digital © Diane Clancy

The variety of samples is amazing! By the way, I still have all these samples … it seems if I am asking someone to send me their product, I should respect it and keep it in case the situation arises where that is the kind of printing I need.

Some samples priced themselves off the map immediately. And most of those printers were clearly more oriented toward corporate business. I began to see the wisdom of the local artists who had chosen a printer with a specialization in artists. So that narrowed the field down greatly!!

Another other big factor was the type of paper used and the printing method. One very nice place had wavy-ish paper and soft color printing. If I were a watercolorist, I might well have gone with them. The paper was also lighter, meaning not as heavy a stock.

So, I had to think a lot about how I wanted my artwork to represented to the world – because that’s what cards are. Little pieces of my art. My painting are vibrant, colorful and full of power and energy. It became clear that I wanted my fine art cards to have a lot of punch!! That is how I see my paintings as they enter the world … so the cards have to back that up.

Now you may be saying how silly I was to not just go with Modern Postcard. After all, many others I know have just chosen them based on my research. But that is sort of the point. Many of my friends know if I chose them, and our needs are similar, then they could just trust my research.

But this whole process for me was part of taking myself seriously as a business woman and artist. It was important for my owning my own business. But the decision was made!! Modern Postcard quality was very good and the price was good enough. (I don’t need the best necessarily – just very good).

So this story will continue to unfold.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: cards, licensing, samples, research, Modern Postcard, watercolorist, vibrant, fine art cards, business woman

This is a continuation of the post Cards and Licensing. To recap, I want to license my artwork to make it accessible and to create an income stream. So I need to show a track record of people wanting to buy my paintings. So, what to do? It seemed to me that cards were probably the best way to sell my images in an affordable way on my way to licensing.

Chi Chi in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy

By now, some of you have realized that I am fairly persistent and committed in this process of building my career as an artist. So, if I am going to print cards, then first I have to research cards. How else does someone of my personality start a project? Remember a couple of years ago the card market was quite different than it is now.

I looked through all the art magazines that I had – Art Business News and several other ones. I copied down all the places that advertised printing cards. I also looked in my computer magazines – Mac World and others. I now was armed with lots of places to research.

Being still on dial-up internet connection, I mainly used the phone to start. I started a list for each place (12 in all I believe) and started keeping track of names, numbers and the details of price and what they offered. I got samples from probably 8 places … do you begin to see I am serious about all this?

I also starting noticing where other local artists had their promotional postcards printed. Modern Postcard won hands down!! Given that many local artists swore by Modern Postcards, my focus became a little different. I needed to see that it was as good as any of the others … not necessarily the best.

Next will be a continuation of my process of deciding … Of course, I would love to hear about you!!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: accessible, income stream, track record, cards, affordable, licensing, career, research, local artists, Modern Postcard

I want to pass along the Nice Matters Award that I received. I am passing it along to Neda Doany at Papiers Collés Blog. Neda is a fantastic artist and an incredible writer. She also writes very thought provoking posts and is insightful and inspiring. But Neda also treats everyone well and with respect … and that is why I am giving her this well-deserved award. I do believe she has a few other awards (like Thoughtful Blogger) that she has not put up yet.

Nice Matters Award

When I first started thinking about how to get my paintings out into the Universe (without parting with the originals), not surprisingly I thought about cards. I still want to get my work licensed for two big reasons. #1 is I think that is an important way that my work can be enjoyed by many in an affordable way – many people like my artwork and licensing is a way that can be very accessible.

Mother Watching All, Oil © Diane Clancy

#2 is that licensing is a way that (potentially) I can kept receiving income from work that I have already created. It could be an important income stream for me as an artist. With licensing, I could get residual income for a long time. Now there is not necessarily much money from each item sold (the percentage is usually fairly low), but sell a lot and it adds up.

I actually did quite a lot of research several years ago … and I know this field (like most of them) are constantly changing. But one of the things I did find out was they like to photograph the original painting themselves. I had been saving my originals to have them available for licensing … so it made me feel really good about that choice. I had been listening to my intuition and I kept hearing to keep most of the originals .. I am glad I followed the guidance.

Since I want to license my work, it is helpful to show I have a track record of people’s liking and purchasing my images. That is how I came to cards. More tomorrow or the day after.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Neda Doany, cards, licensing, income stream, intuition, guidance

You guys have pushed me over the edge to do different things and this is coming out … who IS this person? Although I am concerned that I may need to change my slogan and whole business plan and orientation, actually I am pretty excited about these last several digital paintings I have done. I am having mucho fun playing!  Are these uplifting at all?

Bad Day at the Office, Digital © Diane Clancy

Who knows – these may be the images that some licensing company want to produce. That would be an irony – no? Sigh … “they” say that you are supposed to choose a style and stick with it to succeed. But I like to do different things – even if it means I am not as financially successful. Maybe posthumously my daughter will get rich from my work – that’s good enough. Or maybe they will all go in the trash heap!

Needed to work today on paperwork – you know the offline kind – physical paper and pen – remember the old days? Also, trying to get things finalized for the AWE (Artist Window Exhibit) that is happening this week and formalized for the next and hopefully periodic AWE’s that will be coming up. It has all been fun – and a lot of work!

Tomorrow I am hoping to make a decision about whether to set up a pro shop at CafePress. I so prefer to keep things low-budget .. but sometimes I think one just has to spring for things. I think this might be one of those times. I will let you know.

Thank you for stopping by and/or reading … hope your summer (winter in the southern hemisphere) is going extremely well!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: digital paintings, licensing, AWE, CafePress

This acrylic painting is the companion piece to “Fire and Air” in yesterday’s post. I have a friend who, when he was 10, used to always say, “This painting is 3D.” At that time those “Magic Eye” or 3D images were very popular. You relax your eyes and look that picture and a 3D vision pops right out at you.

Water and Earth, Acrylic © Diane Clancy

Sometimes (often?) children can see what we can’t see … I always wondered … because each time he insisted it was 3D! But I was never quite sure what he saw – I think it was just the image itself for him was 3D.

Looking at it online, of course, is not like looking at the original … but sometimes I almost see what he means … even looking at this online version. As I go and check how this post looks as I am writing it, again I am struck by the 3D quality. For me, it has something to do with the light (I think) in the middle of the painting. The more I look at it, the more 3D it looks to me. Does anyone else “see” the 3D?

The painting Fire and Air doesn’t have the same quality of light in the center … when I look at it after looking at this Earth and Water, I can see a faint 3D quality if I have soft eyes … but not as striking as this one. I have 2 other canvases stretched and prepped to paint 2 more of this series. These are horizontal mirrors and I think the other 2 would be vertical mirrors to these two – though that is not set in stone yet.

I am not sure whether I should paint them. On one hand it would give me a set of 4 which could be good for licensing, but I am somewhat anxious about trying to recreate the “feeling” of these two paintings. For me, it is part of what I grapple with as an artist ~ how to move between letting my muse move me versus having my mind direct me more. I know a balance is needed and I am not always sure how to be on target with that balance.

Sounds like life again, doesn’t it? I guess in many ways life is painting and painting is life. For me, they certainly are not all that separate. By this time, I am again struck how 3D this particular painting looks to me ~ thank you for those eyes of that child!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: acrylic, Magic Eye, 3D, licensing, balance

My enhanced animal images are pretty unique from what I gather. These unusual digital paintings are among my most universally popular images. Often when people see their “own” animal companion, they immediately stop and buy a card – and often all the cards with that particular animal. I have had requests to put people’s own animal companion into a field of flowers. This special series is admired by many.

Freckles in Butterflies, Digital © Diane Clancy

Continuing with the idea of licensing (from yesterday’s post), I think it makes the most sense to start with the Enhanced Animal Images. There is no question which paintings belong in the collection. Many companies want a group of at least four images so they can create sets of products – like four place mats.

I have plenty of these paintings using a variety of cats and dogs (and even a doe and bear cub). There are a butterfly theme and three flower themes. These images might be marketable to more companies than, say, the Goddess series. All in all, this might be a good place to start.

The Goddess paintings are near and dear to my heart – so perhaps starting with other paintings make sense while I develop the ability to take the inevitable “no thank yous” that will come as I am finding my niches.

This is feeling concrete and productive – thank you!

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: enhanced animal images, digital painting, animal, licensing, Goddess

The last few days I have been talking about my balance between the creative process and marketing. The two most important pieces of all this are – my creating because I love making art and – my collectors (this means you) acquiring my art. I need to remember that all the other parts of the processes are focused on these two goals – creating and collecting.

Bottlescape II, Pastel © Diane Clancy

Besides my site, I now have two online stores Etsy and ArtFlock. I think I will probably start an eBay store too, but I haven’t done that yet. I am still checking out to see if it makes sense. (Comments are welcome – please share your experience with me and others who read this blog.)

The next big step for me to take is licensing my work to various companies who would like to use my images on their products. I have a friend with experience who was going to help me sort through which places would be most appropriate for me, but unfortunately life has sent her some twists and turns that make her temporarily unavailable.

I have quite a long list of companies who look for artists in order to license artists’ work. I have also done a lot of looking on the web researching different licensing companies. The licensing process has actually changed greatly over the last several years. In some ways it is a little simpler now.

It is getting toward time to figure out which ones to target. You can see that the place interested in “Bottlescape II” and “Flowers IV” (yesterday’s image) may well be different. But they are not the companies who are going to want my Goddess series. This is the stuff I have to sort out.

It feels more concrete and manageable telling you about it and allowing you to share in this process. Thank you for being part of my progression.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: balance, creative process, marketing, collector, Etsy, ArtFlock, eBay, licensing, Goddess

Today Neda emailed me saying, “I love the whimsical and poetic quality of your work. A true inspiration!” (This is the first we knew of each other!) What a smile that put on my face. That is exactly how I would like to be seen. I am not sure how Neda found my blog (or site), but I appreciate her taking the time to let me know that my work touched her!

Animals I, Digital © Diane Clancy

Today was also a productive day for me for the business! I am now able to accept visa and other credit cards through PayPal. That has been on my list of things to do for a long time. It took me quite a while to read all the fine print and make sure I chose the right type of account and that I understand all fees.

I also got my Etsy shop set up today! If you want to visit Diane’s Etsy Shop to check it out, please feel free! I listed only a few items to start to get in the rhythm. Again, it took me a long time to read all the fine print to make sure I understood what I was getting into. I need to “talk” with the guy at ArtFlock to get some advice before I post my first items there.

I am so excited because I have been wanting my work online for sale besides at my website for a long time! I can also put in a PayPal shopping cart and people can buy from my site with PayPal. I hadn’t realized that selling through PayPal on your site was totally secure.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: Etsy, ArtFlock, PayPal, animal

I am sure that all these animals are journeying somewhere important. Clearly, there is a specific place they are going – even though the path is winding … do you know where they are traveling?

Animals III, Digital © Diane Clancy

This is a digital painting that  will be very good for licensing. I think these animals are incredibly fun and fanciful. The curves of the animals follow the curves of the paths they are following. Unlike much of my work, the colors are a little muted. Again,  these designs would be great cards and wrapping paper.

I am so hopeful that this weekend I can make some progress at getting my work more widely available at Etsy and ArtFlock. I am so excited – I think this is the right timing for me – and hopefully for the market! A new, important step for me.

~ Diane Clancy

Technorati Tags: animals, digital painting, licensing, color, wrapping paper, Etsy, ArtFlock