Judaica by Jessica Sneak Peeks!

I thought I'd share what I've been up to lately.

Believe it or not, I've been busy designing Hanukkah products!  Here are some "Judaica by Jessica" designs that you can expect to see in stores near you Hanukkah 2017:

Let me know your thoughts! 

         Visit Stencil Girl Products and RubberMoon Stamps to see all my designs!

If you haven't already - please connect with me here:

InLinkz.com

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

If you are entering a GIVEAWAY, please add your email address in the event I need to contact you.

To avoid SPAM, please write it like this: jessicasporndesigns (at) gmail (dot) com

Thank You!

Sneak Peek at Licensed Art in the Works

I usually blog about my mixed media life.  But occasionally, I like to give you a little glimpse into my licensing work.  This work is my main source of income and takes up most of my time.

I started my journey in 1996 as a greeting card designer for Recycled Paper Greetings.  In this digital age, people still send cards!  The last directive from RPG was for edgy cards with millennial appeal.  My 25 year old daughter gave these the thumbs up!  (The small white rectangles at the bottom of each card represent the inside copy.)

Another big part of my licensing life is Judaica work.  If you search "Jessica Sporn Judaica" you will find a lot of me on the internet and probably in a Judaica store near you.  Most of these works are on usable objects, such as seder plates, menorahs, and other ceremonial items, as well as on greeting cards.  Here's a peek at what's coming for Hanukkah and Passover 2017.

If you're interested in licensing your art, I highly recommend the "Make Art That Sells" classes with Lilla Rogers.  Joan Beiriger and J'net Smith, who have been in the licensing world for decades, keep great blogs with tons of resources.  And Art Licensing Show is a wonderful community of supportive artists with monthly challenges and resource sharing.  My very first inspiration was Kathy Davis, who was an artist with Recycled Paper Greetings when I first started with them.  She has advice for artists here.

I hope you enjoyed this little foray into my "other" art life!  All of my posts that reference licensing are here.  And of course, my Stencils and Stamps are how I've put my licensing chops to work in the mixed media world!

         Visit Stencil Girl Products and RubberMoon Stamps to see all my designs!

If you haven't already - please connect with me here:

InLinkz.com

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

Creating a Collection

Hi folks.  Many of you know that I have a toe in the licensing world with my artwork on Judaica products, greeting cards, and other surfaces.  When you're pitching your artwork for licensing, it's  important to show prospective licensors how your art will look on their products.  Although I do all of my drawing and painting on paper or canvas, I learned Photoshop to be able to make parts of my images into repeats, and "mock-up" products with my artwork.

Here are two recent instances where I did this, and also created "Sell Sheets" to show my work.

Below is a page from my art journal, where I outlined and doodled in pen and filled in with watercolor. Here's how it looked in black and white, and then painted.  

Art directors see a lot of art, so if you can lay it out on potential products, you'll have an edge.  Here's my example:

As you can see, I created a background for my design, showed it in a square, in a round, on some oven mitts, on an apron, a coffee cup, coordinating designs, and a border.  All from one art journal page!

Highly textured mixed media art is a little more challenging, but here's an example of one I just finished.  

The original, is a spread in my art journal (featuring my Hebrew Calligraphy & Hamsa Stencil  and the Peacock from January 2014 Stencil Club, as well as Mary Nasser's Compass stamp from RubberMoon and Pam Carriker's Cordelia Stamp) :  

and here's the Sell Sheet: 

  

Because I don't envision this design on as many products, I only show it in different variations, an allover pattern, and a few mock-ups.   It's important to only show your design on appropriate products - don't just place them on everything (for example, there's no reason to mock up a banana design on a coffee cup!).

Here's a great blog post about creating a Sell Sheet.  Thank you Natalie Timmons for generously sharing your experience and knowledge.  A great resource for learning Photoshop is Lynda.com.  And Phyliss Dobbs created great templates for mock ups, which you can purchase and download. 

Here's a video of me painting a face.  It's not the woman in this piece, but I hope you find it helpful anyway!  You can see other examples on my YouTube channel.    I hope you'll become a subscriber!



Thanks for stopping by. Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

If you don't already, please sign-up for my newsletter HERE, and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin and YouTube, so that you never miss a giveaway, and always get the latest Jessica Sporn Designs News!  

 

Tell All Tuesday

A lot of my work is created for licensing in the Judaica world.  I have been blessed to have a great collaborative relationship with Philip and Zippy Lax of Aviv Judaica that's been going on for over 7 years!  Yesterday, I visited their booth at the New York Gift Show #NYNOW at the Javits Center.    It was the first time I saw samples of the new Woman of Valor and Beloved line.  I was so happy with how it all turned out! Plus, my new Latke plate looked terrific, as did the new menorahs.  YAY!

I'm thrilled to be featured today on Marjie Kemper's blog.  Marjie's Tuesday's Tutorials series has grown from a year-long series she completed in June called Tuesday’s Texture.  Each Tuesday, Marjie features a different artist and link to their blog. You can see all the featured artists here and here.  

I am honored to be featured on Marjie's blog with the tutorial I created for my green lady!

Here are two very sneak peeks at my project for Festive Soul Food.  Have you signed up yet?  Class starts in just two weeks! 

Look at this amazing roster of instructors.  And the price - $32.  You can't beat us, so join us!

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

If you don't already, please sign-up for my newsletter HERE, and follow me on Facebook, Pinterest, Bloglovin and YouTube, so that you never miss a giveaway, and always get the latest Jessica Sporn Designs News!  

 

Jessica Sporn Designs Licensing News

Read to the end... there's a giveaway!

I received Aviv Judaica's 2014 catalogue today and was just overjoyed to see some of my new designs on the cover!  The inside pages made me even happier!

Need Hanukkah or bar/batmizvah or Jewish themed wedding gifts?  Aviv Judaica has what you need!     I have been working with this company for over 10 years, and they couldn't be nicer.

And if you are an Amazon Prime member, click here to see most of my Judaica products.







I also am extremely proud of the calendar I designed for Leap Year and published by Avalon. It is called "Woman Inspired," and has woman-positive designs and affirmations for every month of the year.  A percentage of the wholesale price benefits the United Way too.  Get yours today because quantities are limited!

Finally, this week I had the experience of straddeling the Judeo-Christian divide, licensing designs for Easter as well as Bar and Bat Mizvah!

You can see more of my greeting card designs at Legacy Publishing, Leanin' Tree, and The Greeting Card Collection, among others.  Without question, I have the best job in the world!

And NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY - I will giveaway a calendar to one random commenter on this post!  Let me know you have liked my Facebook page and commented on the thread on that page for an extra chance to win!  Leave your email address in your comment so I know you're interested.  I will pick someone by Wednesday, 9/24 so check back here to see if it's you!

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.

 

Parades, Doodles, Giveaways and More

It's been a long time since my last post...  Since then, we put our house on the market, escaped to our cottage in Westchester, came back to NJ to review offers and accept one, went back to Westchester and celebrated U.S. Independence Day, and came back to NJ to start finalizing the purchase of one house and the sale of this one.  Whew!

Our little community in Westchester (which our family has been a part of since my mom was 13) is made up of about 60 families.  We have an annual July 4th barbecue, as well as a parade -- in which there are no spectators - we just all march through our little village!

My dad is the traditional master of ceremonies -- that's him holding the microphone on the bottom left picture in the collage above, as our two eldest members - one of whom survived a concentration camp in WW II and the other was a fighter pilot during the war -- raised the flag.  I was part of the committee that cooked and served food to our community during our barbecue - my sister is the master chef!  That's her sitting next to me in the top left picture.

Here and there, I was able to steal a few minutes to make some art...   I had to pack up my studio when we put our house on the market, but created a small temporary space in the basement.

With limited supplies, I was able to complete an assignment to work on some Christmas designs -- always a fun thing to do in July!

 I also worked on some other whimsical designs that I hope will result in licenses soon!

Thanks for stopping by.  I don't know how often I'll be able to post over the next few weeks but I DO have a new stencil release coming soon, so I hope you'll check back in!



In the meantime, Win Dinn received her gift
from the Hamsa Stencil Giveaway and wrote a lovely blog post about it.




Namaste stencils are on the way to "Ain't No Ninny" and Jackie PN from the  giveaway in this post.  But I still haven't heard from cal8007.... If you're out there, send me your snail mail address so I can get your stencil out to you!

And, I will send 2 notecards from the Giveaway in this post from my most recent stencil release to:

I look forward to getting your snail mail addresses and will get your mail out to you!  I am also going to send some to people we know who are struggling.

Your comments make me so happy and let me know you were here. I read and treasure every comment and will happily answer any questions as soon as I can.