Given how sleep deprived I am this morning…

c2013 TxCowboyDancer Designs

…this design is somehow very appropriate.

Since this is only the second in this new series, here is a reminder about the format.  Each post will have three parts:

1. A large image of the new design (like the one to the right)
2. A bit of background on how the design came about (just below)
3. A few of my favorite products with the new design (just below that)

I hope you are enjoying the “back story” on the designs as I create them.

Even if you don’t visit the store and do some shopping, please hit the share and like buttons so that others can find out about my designs.  Thanks!

Background on my latest design:

I don’t remember where I first saw this cat.  I think it was either on Facebook or maybe it popped up in a Google search.  I’ve slept since then…  😉

Following the trail back to the source of the image lead me to a website called Deviant Art;  a site I had never visited before.  Wow, talk about a different part of the Interwebz!  LOL

This was the image that I first saw… I Need Coffee Original sketch by (by YTCyberPunk)

If you’ve never heard of Deviant Art, check it out.  It is a lot of fun, but a lot of, well, deviant, in a good “artistic” way.  Basically it is a place for artists and photographers to hang out and share their work, comment and critique, and take a peek at what other artists and photographers are doing.

Some of the work on the site is jaw dropping amazing.  Some of it is amusing.  Some of it, quite frankly, is awful.  Not awful in the sense of lack of inspiration or effort but in execution—sorta baby works by artists who still have “training wheels” on their paint brushes or mouses.  Mice?  Miceses?

Whatever you call more than one computer mouse.  But hey, art is in the eye of the beholder, and all of it is fun.  Think “coffee house” in Soho with local artists works on the wall, and you get the idea… only without the coffee and it is on the Internet instead of in New York… but anyhoo…

Hmmm… coffee must be on my brain this morning…  Slllllluuuuuurrrrrrrrpppppp….  Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh….

You know you are truly hooked when you are only a third of the way through your first cup of coffee and there is NO WAY the caffeine  can actually be hitting your system yet, but your body reacts physiologically to the mere promise of more caffeine hitting the blood stream soon. *SIGH*

I Need Coffee (by YTCyberPunk) Cleaned up Ink Version

But I digress..   I do that you know…

So… on the Deviant Art website, has a way for visitors to purchase a digital copy of the artwork for their personal non-commercial use like putting it on a computer desktop as the background.  Or printing it off and framing it and hanging it on the wall.

But I didn’t want the image for personal use.  I wanted to edit the design and I wanted to sell the design on products like t-shirts and coffee mugs.  So, having never done this before, I said “what the hey” and took a chance.  I emailed the artist and asked her if she’d consider selling me the commercial rights to her drawing, including the right to edit the drawing and add captions.

It turns out that the “drawing” was just a doodle she had done during class and that she’d never actually ever sold one of her works before and was very flattered that I liked her drawing.

Since we were both “babes in the woods” so to speak, we talked it through, making the contract up as we went.  We eventually agreed that she retain copyright on the original drawing and that I would have copyright on any modifications based on her drawing.

I sent her a payment and in exchange I got a cleaned up copy of the drawing from her and the commercial rights to print the modified versions on  t-shirts etc.  Coolness!  My first official bizness KNEE-go-she-Ayh-SHUN! Woot!

Storyline showing development of the design as I edited it

When I got the cleaned up “pen and ink” version, I decided that actually liked the original “messy” pencil version better.

So working with both the original “messy” file and the ink “clean” version, I took a bit of this and a bit of that and did a lot of clean up and editing of the “messy” version.

I added color to it a little at a time.  I did some MORE clean up, adjusted proportions, shortened the height of the steam, and eventually after several hours of work with a graphics program…

Tah-Dah.  I had a design I liked and that was ready to go onto products.

My favorite version is the cream colored cat.  But I am playing around with the colors and will at some point in the future have a black and white version and a grey scale version as well.  Watch for those.  🙂

Or I might change the color of the coffee cup or I might use the ink version.  Who knows.  But I’ll have to have more coffee first.  LOL

I just LOVE the expression on this cat’s face.  Especially since it is so close and contrasts so nicely with the big “smiley” face on the mug!  Woot!

My favorite products with the new design…

I had a LOT of fun coming up with captions for the bumper stickers and mugs, etc for this design.  I’m a coffee drinker and NOT a morning person AT ALL so this is a topic near and dear to my caffeinated heart. Read the rest of this entry →