Passive income for Creatives: Stock Illustration
STOCK ILLUSTRATION SUCCESS
Did you know that many professional designers actually use stock assets, even if they can create them themselves? Time is such an important factor for designers. With each client they work with, if they could purchase stock assets like illustrations and photographs that they can then modify to suit their needs, it’s going to save them a lot of time and money.
If you have unused work that you either created for yourself or for a client, you can still get some use out of them! Each illustration must be reviewed and accepted, just like with stock photography, so in this post, we’re going to go through some steps to make sure everything you upload is your best work.
JPEG VS RASTER IMAGE
Before you jump in, you need to understand that there are two types of illustrations that you can sell online. The one below on the left is known as a Vector illustration or Vector art. This is created in a program like Adobe Illustrator. When someone purchases this file, they can modify it, change the colors, change the shapes, etc. It’s incredibly versatile. The image on the right below is actually a Raster image (or a JPEG). It’s basically a photo of a drawing, painting, or any other medium that you’ve done by hand to create a work of art. You can still sell them, but you’ll have to basically upload them just as you would a stock photo. So, if you need to go back and check out another one of my trainings on stock photography and keywording, click HERE. Those will be the guidelines you’ll need to follow when you’re submitting this type of illustration. It will be important to get really high-quality images or scans of your illustration so that the quality is good enough for the purchaser to use in a variety of ways.
While you can upload and sell JPEGs, Vector images are going to be much more versatile and enable the client to do much more with it. They can basically modify the entire illustration and will make the product more marketable and better suited for commercial clients. It also makes it easier for you because you only have to upload one design. You won’t have to create it in a bunch of different colors or modify it for different needs. You just have to create it once and then you can upload it and have the ability to sell it to various clients.
So, in this post, I’ll mostly be focusing on Vector illustrations and I’ll also be referring to Adobe Stock’s guidelines because they are one of the biggest platforms for Vector art like this. Other agencies will have very similar guidelines. No matter which agency you choose to submit to, make sure you read through their submission guidelines very carefully.
CONTENT
Let’s discuss the content of your illustrations and what to create. Start by doing some market research. So, take a look at what’s available on stock agency sites and ask yourself if you can match their standard. There’s no point in creating illustrations that people won’t want to buy, so you need to start thinking commercially and put yourself in the customer’s shoes. Trends are subjects that are in demand right now. You can actually make a lot of money selling trendy illustration content since more people will be searching for them and they’re not as readily available. Here is what current trends might look like:
Food and health trends (gluten-free, keto, vegan, vegetarian diets, follow food blogs to see what’s out there and what’s popular in the moment)
Environmental topics (solar energy, etc. Be looking any time you watch the news so you can spot trends early. That way you’ll be one of the firsts to have content online when things start to blow up. If you’re on Instagram, TikTok, or even Reddit, these are all great places to stay up to date on what’s going on in the world
Seasonal trends and holidays
Once you’ve chosen your subject, think about the look and feel. Get inspired by visual trends on Instagram and Pinterest. Many stock agencies will release content on visual trends at least once a year so you can scour those for ideas. You can also download my quarterly trend report to know what clients will be looking for in the upcoming season. Even though my report focuses on photography the trends also apply directly to illustration when it comes to what customers want.
Visual trends might not have a life cycle of more than 10 years. Maybe not even more than a couple of years, but they should make you more money upfront as well as in the long run compared to non-trendy content.
TECHNICAL ASPECTS OF SUBMITTING GRAPHICS
As I said before, Vectors are much easier for clients to manipulate and edit after they have downloaded them. So, instead of creating an illustration in multiple colors, the customer can modify it to fit their needs. So, you only need to upload one version but make sure your illustration is adaptable. Here are my top 5 technical tips. For more detailed information about these tech tips, check out my post all about the technical aspects of submitting graphics.
Avoid using text
All of your lines should be strokes
Patterns need to be seamless
Avoid auto-tracing as much as possible
Correct artboard size
PROCREATE
If you’re already familiar with illustration, you might already be using this app to create your work. Procreate is a Raster-based program. This means it works off of pixels instead of points like in Illustrator. This makes Procreate more like Photoshop when dealing with resolution and image quality. Any artwork you bring into Procreate will automatically become Raster-based. When it’s exported, it remains that way. So, if you have Procreate illustrations that you would like to submit as a Vector file, you will have to convert your image to a Vector file. For more specifics, check out my post about getting technical here. As I mentioned before, you can submit a JPEG or raster image as well, it’s just not as versatile as submitting a Vector image. You might consider trying both ways and seeing how they sell.
KEYWORDING AND RELEASES
You’ve worked so hard to create your artwork. Now, you need to use the right keywords to help people find it. You can review my keywording 101 post. A lot of agencies will allow you to keyword the images right on their platform, but I would suggest using some of the same tools to find the right keywords. Again, just like with photos, you need to be aware of intellectual property laws, trademarks, and having all the correct releases.
Of course you want to make sure your artwork is free of commercial logos and trademarks. You’ll need model releases for any artwork that is based on real people or if there is any way that you can tell the person’s likeness that you’ve used. For example, if you do a drawing of Brad Pitt, you would need a model release for the drawing. You can’t just sell drawings of another person without their permission. Same if you have an artwork that depicts recognizable places, buildings, or other protected private property. You might be required to fill out a property release form and have it signed by the owner of the property. So, just be aware that all the rules are basically the same here as with stock photography.
ORGANIZE YOUR FILE FOR SUBMISSION
I’ve made a little checklist below to help you create a tidy, well-organized file for submission:
Organize all your layers. Make sure that each one is unlocked and labeled really well
Check to make sure all your filled shape paths are closed
Make sure all your pattern’s fills are expanded
Make sure you’re using text very minimally. Create outlines for text that you are legally able to include.
Make sure there aren’t any pixel-based images embedded in your file
Save your file in an older version of Adobe Illustrator, as an .AI or .EPS file and make sure it is no larger than 45 megabytes
Ok, I know that was a lot of information, but I promise once you do this process a few times it becomes second nature. Use these steps to make sure every illustration you submit is your best work so you can be on your way to reaching your passive income goals!
Wanting more tangible advice and guidance for selling stock photography? Sign up for my signature course, Stock Photography Academy