Enduring Image

"Looking for a Good Book"  12" x 12" acrylic

by Greg Newbold

If you work long enough in this business you will invariably create images that seem to transcend time and keep selling long after their inception. This is one of those images for me. It originally was conceived when I was given one of those "dream jobs". You know, the one where the art director calls and says "we need a cover for our catalog and here is the theme - take time for a good book - do whatever you want, just make it cool". I painted this image as a cover for book distributor Brodart. It ran on the cover and was later licensed as a poster for the same client.

As a Publisher's Weekly cover

With rare exception, I retain all subsequent copyrights for my work so that I can potentially resell them to other clients. Rarely does a client need, or even want, to secure all copyrights, so I always make sure my contracts only list the specific rights being licensed. Consequently, this piece has been picked up and used for probably a dozen different applications, including the cover of Publisher's Weekly, and seems to keep on chugging.

Scott Foresman Reading textbook adaptation

I even adapted it for use on a textbook cover by adding a wraparound piece of art along with a new toucan rider spot which was then Photoshopped together. Most recently (I got my copy last week) it appears on a library card for a branch of the San Bernardino County, California library system where it will also be blown up to mural size and be permanently affixed to the wall of the children's section.

Wow- my own library card!

I have also used it on a business card and since I have about a thousand of them, I still give it out from time to time. That may have been one reason why it keeps hanging around. The piece made it into the Spectrum annual and hung in the first Spectrum retrospective several years back at the Society of Illustrators. The moral of the story is keep your copyrights- you never know when someone might want to use your painting again.