3 Steps to Turn Your Illustrations Into Products
You’ve created beautiful art, but now you aren’t sure what to do with it. I’ve been there. I started watching other artists on Youtube and Instagram. I felt art envy. Then I discovered not all of them were staging their photos, meaning every time they had an illustration completed, they weren’t spend 12 hours setting up a studio to photograph their artwork. Instead, they were going online and purchasing or finding product mockups. It occurred to me I could do it too.
Product Mockups: The Basics
Product mockups are created in photoshop using various images. A graphic designer creates the Photoshop file for you to manipulate. For this project you will need a copy of Photoshop. Also, always remember to credit the creator of the product mockup file. I highly recommend purchasing product mockups on Creative Market. That is my favorite platform because they have a lot of options, styles, and types to pick from.
Go to mockupworld.co and search for a product mockup that fits your needs. It could be an iPhone case, or a pillow like above. I am using a free product mockup for the image above. Note, “free.” This means there are restrictions to the usage. Always read the terms for using free product mockups. You can also buy a collection of product mockups at Creative Market. Not all of us artists have time to stage every photo that we take. I do not use product mockups on my Instagram, but they come in handy when I need to throw a design on a product to preview how I need to change my illustration.
How to Prep the Files
I’ll show you how to make your illustrations transform into product mockups in these 3 simple steps:
Save your file as a jpeg at 300DPI
Locate a product mockup on Creative Market, or another platform
Open the file and place your artwork on the clipping mask (usually you double click the layer indicated by “Place your artwork here” and it will open a new Photoshop document). You place your artwork in that file and click save. It should update the art board. You’ll need to resize the image so it fits the canvas.
After that you have a great product samples for your portfolio. You can also take the product mockup and use these for your online store. This helps customers to visualize the product they are buying. I hope you found this information helpful! Leave a comment below if you’d like to know more about how this process works.
You’re done!