@irina I store mine in Stiffy Bags keeps it safe, padded and protected from dust. Plus a couple of soft and hard portfolio cases.

@hannahmccaffery If you read ImagineFX magazine, in the last issue on Character Design there's an artist profile on Venessa Lemen about the whole process of her shape-shifting mark making. It's well good. Worth checking out. You can get ImagineFX mag on Readly app (magazine version of netflix).

@hannahmccaffery Yes nice one. That got me thinking and good for a little art viewing break. My top 5 including my favorite works by them:
1 Frank Miller - 300 and Sin City
2 Malika Favre - A Bigger Splash and everything else she makes
3 Bryan Talbot - The Adventures of Luther Arkwright
4 Dave McKean - The Sandman (covers)
5 Vanessa Lemen - recently discovered her dreamy epic art on instagram.

@adrian-k I think the first one is the best because the cheeky mouse is interacting with your title. If your details are on the back have you tried one version with just an image, without any text on the front? After all a business card is like a mini postcard.

@darian I think an agreement over a contract is always based on what each party understands to be the truth (according to their laws), hence the simpler the language, the harder it is to contest anywhere in the world. But where I have faced problems is when a contract is breached, you have to consider in the contract which country the court case takes place.

@darian Good to get some knowledge on how stuff works. Also might be an idea to give them a call. Speaking to someone in person can give you an indication if they're someone you think you can trust.

@darian It's basically so the lawyers can register it with the copyright office as it's really complicated and expensive to do single claim cases as an individual. So they do it in batches to save on legal fees. Most people/publications/websites settle out of court so those ones are faster and sometimes it can take a couple of years. Especially as some cases can take place in another country. It's a bit of a nightmare. Vice stole an exclusive photo of my friend's for a documentary, I saw it and told him. So his agent sent them a bill and managed to get £2K out of Vice before going to court. So it can be worth the effort.

If the company doesn't even have a website yet I would avoid them for now. At least wait until they have their website up. They shouldn't really need to own the copyright unless they are buying the image outright. It doesn't make sense legally. If your work is original then its yours and its only a legal problem when you start using copyright or trademarked images in your work. Like Mickey Mouse mashups or like Shepard Fairey stealing an Obama photo and making art out of it. Then you need to get permission or risk getting taken to court. Most of the time you just get a (DMCA) take down notice. So it doesn't make sense with original work for print on demand products.

If you join an illustration association they will help you with legal contracts. Copyright law is a minefield.

@darian I have experience of this when taking people to court over stolen photographs. We hand over the copyright to our lawyers until the court case then they hand it back after the case. I've never handed it over for someone else to use in designs. We had it worded by our agent to say they would return copyright to us, in a clause. Here they say they will only take the image down from their site and not associated with the company, sounds too vague. They don't write they hand you the copyright back only that you can make a request. Ask them to add something like this in a clause "...in return we will hand legal ownership back to you the contributor/designer" Otherwise its in legal limbo. It's much simpler and clearer then.

@irina Just to add that 50 mm - 85 mm is the best focal range for me, as it achieves sharpness across the whole image. Also less lens distortion - move yourself rather than zooming in and out to get square edges. Although photoshop does a pretty good job of fixing distortion, less post-production the better I say. I try to have it a f11 (smaller aperture) and always use a circular polariser, to stop any glare or reflective surfaces making life difficult. Paint gets shiny. I autofocus then turn off the autofocus once its set pin sharp. And if you have no lights, sunlight diffused behind a cloud is class. You can't beat that big bulb in the sky.

@irina for your water colours, have you tried using a DSLR camera on a tripod, two lights and a good sharp lens (in RAW format)? I've never used a scanner for art, only negatives so I can't compare. But RAW files hold all the data so you wouldn't lose any of the colour or the textures. I use a Canon 5D IV and 24-105 mm lens at 100-200 ISO with a shutter cable release so there isn't any noise or movement. In the UK we have a share hire company called fatllama so you can rent out kit at reasonable prices, off other artists/photographers.

@Cjones Another good way to share files is to setup a wetransfer plus account and just post all the different formats in a folder on there - no size is too big. Then send your client a link. It's also a nice touch because you can have your illustrations as a backdrop, while they wait to download!