845-887-3156 debra@debracortese.com

The Business of Art Licensing – A Workshop For Artists

If you’re an artist in the Miami area and would like to know more about the business of licensing your art, you may be interested in a workshop that I’ll be presenting in Coconut Grove and on Miami Beach titled: The Business of Art Licensing – A Workshop For Artists.

Sweet Sprouts -garden art by Debra Cortese

A bit of background information:

In 2009, I facilitated the highly successful 8 week  ‘Art Marketing Salon‘ based on the book, “I’d Rather Be In The Studio.” by art business coach, Alyson B. Stanfield.  Over two dozen people (artists, curators, and agents) participated in the Art Salons which culminated with an outstanding Summer Salon Art Exhibit and Fashion Show on June 6, 2009 at the Windisch-Hunt Fine Art Gallery in Coconut Grove, FL.

As the Art Marketing Salon was coming to an end, we briefly touched on the subject of art licensing and about half of the artists said they would be interested in learning more about this topic. Since this is a subject dear to my heart and work, I made a verbal commitment to the group and myself to develop an art licensing workshop. After months and months of reading, researching, and networking, I realized one workshop would not even come close to covering the subject. So now, 14 months later, I’m putting the final touches on the first three workshops which will begin later this month starting with the introductory session: The Business of Art Licensing – A Workshop For Artists. I’m offering the introductory session at $15 per person because I want artists to have enough information to decide if art licensing is something they want to pursue. The progressive sessions will explore key topics more thoroughly with specific research and creative assignments to help each artist move forward and create a portfolio of work specifically geared to the business of licensing art on a variety of consumer products.

The material I’ll be presenting is based on my personal experience and a good portion is based on the work of artist Tara Reed and her Art Licensing Info business. I’ve been following Tara for over 2 years and highly recommend that any artist interested in learning more about licensing your art follow her blog and listen in on her free, Ask Calls where she conducts live interviews with many of the top selling licensed artists in the country.

Tara Reed Paul Brent

Tara Reed interview with artist Paul Brent

She’s interviewed Paul Brent, Mary Engelbreit, Jill Seale, Suzanne Cruise, many others and many more are coming up.  In addition, Tara has been creating and licensing her own whimiscal art for over six years and regularly attends the Surtex and Art Licensing Expo trade shows where the majority of art licensing connections and contracts are made every year.

If you’re an artist in the Miami area and would like to know more about the business of licensing your art, here is the link to full details on “The Business of Art Licensing – A Workshop For Artists” which will be presented in two locations, one on Miami Beach and another in Coconut Grove, Florida.

If you are not able to attend the workshops and want access to some of the most informative and useful information available on how to get started in art licensing, I highly recommend Tara’s eBook, “How to Get Started in Art Licensing”.

NOTE: I may earn a commission on products that you purchase from following a link that I recommend and I only recommend products or services that I personally use and believe in. This is another way for an independent artist/entrepreneur to earn money and continue doing the kinds of work you love. It’s also a good topic for another workshop 😉

Favorite books, programs, and resources.

I’ve been updating my blog for several hours today and although you can’t tell from this post, most of the work has been adding my favorite resources to the sidebar on the right side of this blog ->

I read voraciously, every day and no matter how tired I am at night, I am not content until I read at least a paragraph before falling off to sleep. Usually have a minimum of 3 books going at once. The material is mostly self help, improvement, how to, tech stuff. I’m addicted to learning – about plants, nature, environment, animals, design, art and business, SEO, meditations, spirituality, health, exercise, etc. I do love reading fantasy and am a fan of anything that involves imagination, magical creatures and happy endings. 

So, with this in mind, I started to inquire about becoming an affiliate for the books, programs and products that I recommend. Now, when I share information about a book that Hay House publishes, and it’s one you are interested in buying, I’ll be earning a small percentage as an affiliate. You pay the same price and I get paid for sharing things that I enjoy. I’ve spent a lot of time over the past few weeks working on setting up the affiliate accounts, so I’m in this for the long term. I’ll let you know how it successful it is as we go along.

In the meantime, enjoy a free do-it-yourself TAROT Reading, signup for free “Thoughts from the Universe” – daily positive, witty writings from Mike Dooley.

If you’re shopping for school supplies, Amazon has great sales on Back-to-School essentials, and college specific supplies. You can even order the latest KINDLE reader at Amazon and I’ll get an affiliate credit. Same price and you’ll be helping an artist support her family 😉

I’ll be adding more to this section as I continue to learn more about my favorite subjects. If you have a product or program that fits any of my topics, or if you have any suggestions, comments or questions, please share in the comments section and hopefully, we can all help each other on many levels.

Have a great day and enjoy the magic of nature!!!

Art Licensing information

I’ve been learning with artist, Tara Reed and she has partnered with Paul Brent. Today, I’m working on updating and improving my art for licensing web pages and listening to Tara’s interview with Paul Brent.

It’s a free online audio file and every time I listen, I get another piece of information that is moving me forward. I’ll be contacting a very special referral next week and my web pages must be in tip top shape for this! SAMPLE FLOWERS AND TREES ART PAGE HERE

Listen & Learn to license your art at AskPaulBrent.com

Learn more about coaching with artist, Paul Brent

Art and Design Licensing info for artists


Wrapped up the Miami Art Marketing Salon last month with an exceptional group of over 20 Miami artists and, as promised to them and myself, I am now returning to my longtime goal of licensing my art and designs.
As I work on this, I’m also documenting resources and experiences so that I can share with fellow artists in the fall. Still not sure how this will come together, but know it will happen!

To begin, I’m in the final stage of getting my images together, appropriately sized, and online on a new section of my website: AFL Art for Licensing by Debra Cortese. Still a lot of tweaking to do, but the basics are in place. I’m definitely interested in creating custom art and design because that is what stimulates my creativity the most, plus, I believe this is the ideal combination for creating work that sells products for the manufacturer (or licensee). As the artist, I’m called the licensor.

I have many years of experience in graphic design, advertising and marketing from my running my own agency in Northern Vermont, but the licensing field has its own structure and while my experience is definitely an advantage, I still need to learn all I can from artists that are already licensing their work.
Tara Reed and Paul Brent are two that I am most impressed with. In addition to licensing her own work, Tara offers many resources on her blog and website that I highly recommend. Her writing is clear, concise and very attuned to artists.

I’ll be writing on this at least once a week and if you have any questions, please post in the comments section. AND…I’d love to hear from other artists about your experiences licensing art!

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