If you’ve been looking at my Instagram feed for some time you might have noticed I use a lot of botanical line drawings. (Oh, my instagram is @bettyvirago)
Each flower is hand drawn by me and scanned into my computer and to be honest, it’s taken a long time to get to the point where I can say I like my drawings.
One tutor at uni would say regularly that we should draw everyday, but it was only after university that I finally started to take that seriously.
I often hear people tell me how talented I am, but it dismisses the hard work and hours of sketching that I do.
Talent? Yes, perhaps, but also hours and hours of practice.
Some time ago I found a website called Creative Market. It’s a place where you can buy items from other creative people for use in your own work.
I’ve used it to buy watercolour brushes for photoshop and some fun procreate templates to play with. One of the best things about creative market is that there are 3 payment prices for items also called licenses.
The cheapest is the personal price or licence. This allows you to use the files for your own personal use, so if you’re just wanting images to colour in then you can pick up some great designs for less than £5.
The next licence is commercial. It allows you to use the files on a number of items for sale and one social media account.
Then the most expensive is an Extended Licence, which gives you an incredible amount of freedom with the images.
For more about the licence types click this link: https://creativemarket.com/licenses/general
If you’re a small independent designer you can purchase a range of illustrations for under £20 and have the licence to add them to your own items. Great for those who want an artstyle they can’t yet do themselves and great for the artist who is paid for their work.
It sounded like a good deal I draw far more flowers than I could use myself and I liked that as an artist I am protected with licenses.
And so, I’ve just opened a shop on creative market.
So for just over £10 you can buy a bunch of flowers in both jpg and png files for your own personal use, or for a few pounds more you can buy the licence to put the images on mugs and t-shirt and cards and sell them yourselves.
You can find the shop here: https://creativemarket.com/BettyVirago
Betty Virago 