Michael Woodward ran one of the first art licensing companies in the world, in Europe, where he licensed over $600 million in retail products over 22 years.

When Michael speaks, everyone listens. If you are wondering if your work is right to license or not, this is one presentation you just can’tmiss.

Michael has represented artists, illustrators and photographers and worked with high profile manufactures and publishers, including Athena International (posters, prints, greetings cards); Hallmark (greetings cards); American Greetings; Nestle; Scandecor (posters); Verkerke (posters and cards) among dozens of other international companies.

As an artist advocate, Michael also organized and run major art exhibitions, including one at the Allerton “gothic” Castle in the UK (featured on BBC TV), and one attended by Elton John, who subsequently commissioned the artist. Michael’s book, Licensing Art 101, is regarded as “the handbook” on art licensing for artists entering this lucrative industry. He has a vast experience in many aspects of licensing from character merchandise and animation to fine art publishing in limited gallery editions as well as mass marketing via high street retailers.

This audio file is taken from a seminar recorded Oct 2003 at The Marketing Bootcamp in Santa Fe for over two hundred artists that I had the joy of attending. This is the audio track from the video. I hope it gives you some insight into publishing your own work and some of the pitfalls you can avoid.

Click here to listen to the seminar link

After sketching the desired image for Lovey Dovey in my sketchbook, I re-drew my line work onto the watercolor paper. This picture shows the watercolor/embroidery process at stage 2. You can see the sketch lines on the Arches paper and the palette is mixed and ready to go. The color is washed on to the paper in steps until the desired depths and forms are developed. Stage 3 is embroidering the art and the final step is to scan and edit the finished piece so it is ready in a digital format for reproduction.

This week I sent out a mailing of 700 postcards to announce my first international trade show exhibition in the License & Design section of the Craft & Hobby Association’s Winter 2008 trade show. It would have been a little easier, but the post office mailed me 700 GUM backed stamps instead of sticker backed stamps! I didn’t even know that they still made this old fashioned format, but it made for a pretty exhibit to see that many stamps in a Ball jar since I didn’t have time to wait for them to mail me corrected pieces. Nancy Stahl’s painterly Florida Panther,created for the United States Postal service, made for a “Ball of Stahl.” I especially love the contrast to my own feline friend “Lady Gwuinivere” AKA “Gwinny” and not a very productive studio mate, but a load of entertainment. Needless to say they mailing still got out on time with a little help from a giant sponge!

Something to Cherish™ is listed as a Craft and Hobby Association (CHA) exhibitor in the Winter 2008 issue of Total Art Licensing. Something to Cherish™ will be exhibiting in booth 3096 in the License and Design section at CHA’s Winter 2008 show in Anaheim, CA.

Total Art Licensing is published in May and January and has a readership made up of manufacturers and retailers around the world. It covers key art licensing-related trade events such as Surtex, Licensing Show and the International Spring Fair. To find out how you can subscribe digitally to Total Licensing magazines, go to: totallicensing.com