Kayjo Designs (Tattoo Designs On T-shirts)

Another Kayjo Update

2011-06-23T12:14:00.000-07:00

It has already been nearly a month since my last update. Time flies! Okay, within the past few weeks, I have been working on the sidelines; plotting, waiting, and researching. I have made the blog into my domain and this is only temporary. I'm still working on the content for my actual site. This blog will be just that -a blog that will be linked to the site and shop...and the site will link to here and everywhere else. There will be all sorts of things going on.

Kayjo Designs Domain

2011-05-26T18:10:00.000-07:00

OK ~ I haven't updated in a while so I figure I better do so. I haven't worked on any new "tattoo" -like designs lately since I've been working a lot at my *other* job; I know..I'm very sad about that but the bills have to be paid! Art is my very first "passion" in life and I have to sadly put it on hold.

I recently bought a domain name just a few days ago and I can hopefully work on that and get it up and running. The purpose of this domain is to build my brand and make it more "solid". (Everything from tweaking the designs on GIMP to marketing on the internet takes so much more work than actually drawing the designs!)

I did do a little bit of tweaking on my CafePress Shop; took some products off some of them since the entire design doesn't fit on everything. The changes aren't very noticeable since there aren't any new designs (boo!). The shop is still gaining momentum and I believe I have even more *awesome* work to come out yet. Stay Tuned!

My Squidoo Lense

2011-05-14T13:04:00.000-07:00

Well, I just finished a lense on Squidoo to help with promotion. I put a lot of information on about dragons and koi fish and why they're popular. Koi Fish and dragons are my 2 favorite things to illustrate, paint, draw, whatever, and put them on products; t shirts for the most part.The Squidoo Lense also links to my CafePress shop; just like this blog links to it.

You'll know you're at the right place when you see "Kayjo Designs" -it's all relevant so you don't get too lost. You can always link back.

To sum it up, if you want to go see the squidoo lense for yourself, click here.

And i you want to link to directly to my shop, click here.

Enjoy!

Splashin' Koi Fish Tshirts, mugs and more

2011-05-10T20:49:00.000-07:00

I recently added yet another design to my CafePress shop. It's a pretty cool addition to my other tattoo-like designs on t shirts.

It's called the "Splashin' Koi Fish" and I added some text to it for fun; "Drinkin' Like a Fish". This was done with some artist pens instead of paint. I kind of like how this one turned out better than my first koi fish I posted on this blog because of the shinier texture effect on the scales.

The Kayjo Butterfly Now Available at CafePress

2011-05-03T13:16:00.000-07:00

Butterflies aren't typically something I put a lot of time into; but I finally got around to it and I liked how it turned out. I put this tattoo-like design on many products and took a few screen shots of it on my CP shop. (CP is short for CafePress, I'm getting lazy...haha) Everything is categorized by design so each one has various products under each design. They're not all T shirts, I've also got it on mugs and thermoses and IPod "things"; basically anything that allows enough space for the entire design to fit on.

1) Original Image

My Red Star Dragon

2011-04-30T22:37:00.000-07:00

I did it yet again...another similar tattoo-like design to my green dragon; only I made it red and a little more "scary". I've already got this image on number products at my CafePress Shop. It's under the Red Star Dragon design. I thought it would be kind of cool to put a star in the background because it's less boring than letting it sit by itself. The Red Star Dragon has no significant or "evil" meaning behind it.

I've got Red dragon mugs, thermoses, hoodies, thongs, buttons and so much more.Here are a few screen shots from my shop. Check it out for yourself!

The Kayjo Mummy

2011-04-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

You know, she was quite the dish back in the day. I haven't really named her so I'll just call her Kayjo. I'm not very creative in that department. My mummy was first sketched with pencil and then painted in with acrylic paint. Final step is outlining with the black pen after the paint dries..then scan! I haven't yet added this to My CafePress Shop, but I do plan on it sometime soon. It might take a couple more weeks.

Behold!...

I Ordered One of my own T-shirts

2011-04-18T00:25:00.000-07:00

Before I start promoting products, I have to try it out for myself. I ordered a Cap Sleeve T-shirt with the koi fish design from my CafePress shop over a week ago and it just arrived Friday, April 15th. I was pretty excited about being able to wear my own artwork. (I know, I'm a geek). I waited just over a week for it and the anticipation was "killing" me.

The quality of these shirts are pretty darn good. I'm about to order a shirt with the Kayjo Dragon on it. Browsing through the products I have the dragon on, it looks good on either white or black apparel. Oh yeah, if you haven't checked out my store, please go take a look! I've got quite a bit more designs to come to it'll constantly be updated as long as I still have my hands. I put a couple links in this article and there's also a widget at the top right that links you right there.

Kayjo Dragon Tweaking

2011-04-17T18:35:00.000-07:00

I did some tweaking with the Kayjo Dragon and kind of liked what happened. I decided to place this one in my shop and added a simple shape for the background and called it the Sun Dragon.

Here's what I did:

Stuff I wish I knew Years Ago...The Work Involved!

2011-04-17T16:11:00.000-07:00

Here it is -all the work I put into every little image. Practice makes perfect! Below, I have a very summarized description of what I do to prepare my work for a T-shirt/ T-shirt designs that I upload to my CafePress shop.

You see my tattoo-like designs all over the blog? Those are the very rough drawings/paintings I do. The starting point. Those paintings alone can take up to 6 hours to finish. Also taking a break between times just to scan step-by-step images to see the rough drafts of what I do. If I knew how or had the means, I would just record myself doing everything and do a time lapse to wrap it up in 5 minutes!

The professionals are probably cringing at my methods haha. Ahh well, who needs rules?

Anyway, the reason I use acrylic paint is because it dries really fast -especially on specified Acrylic Paper. After I scan the images and save it as a jpg, I'll open it up with GIMP and make it "transparent" (so the image alone will show up on black apparel) and then save it as PNG. Then I upload them on CafePress shop. Typically, I have 2 designs placed on each product (mainly Tshirts)...the design itself and my Kayjo Designs logo. Yep, I even have to make the logos "transparent".

The last step is fitting both uploads (the image and the logo) together so it looks right. Many times I'll sit at the computer for 15 minutes, drooling..because I just don't know where to put them haha.

Is it all worth it? Depends on what people like. I figure if people are willing to fork over $40 for a plain white T with a Designer name on it, why not $20 for a hand-drawn cool painting similar to what people ink themselves with? (I mean tattoos..)

The New Kayjo Tiger

2011-04-16T14:24:00.000-07:00

After much digital work put into this and re-doing, I finally just decided to go with the more original piece...I experimented with the glowing eye and it just didn't turn out right, in my opinion. So, Here it is:

Introducing the Kayjo Dragon!

2011-04-13T11:07:00.000-07:00

My newest creation is still in the works and won't be seen on any products just yet. However, I will post the rough drafts. I used the same methods with the dragon as I did with the koi; pencil free-hand sketch, outline with pen, paint in colors, use same pen to outline. Sometimes I'll use paint for outlining but not when there's so much detail involved like the dragon & koi. Here they are:

(Note: You'll have to excuse the quality that this turned out...I'm not quite sure how to get all 4 images to align the way I want them to by uploading them individually. So I just did it the only way I know how -Word! haha....the finished dragon will look much better at my shop when it's done being digitized!)

To Update (May 21st, 2011) since this first post came out, I did finish the design and it is called the Dragon Star; which is on my CafePress shop now. I even made another design using this very dragon. I used GIMP to make it into a silhouette with some 'professional' glowing flame as the outline. I call it the Sun Dragon

Kayjo Designs has a Shop on CafePress!

2011-04-11T11:28:00.000-07:00

I decided to make a single post about CafePress and my very own, Kayjo Designs. I will be creating more images and maybe some text to various products on CafePress. So far, I have only one complete image and a logo. I always draw, sketch, paint them by hand and then later digitize them up so they can properly fit on products.

I recently uploaded a widget on this blog to display some products (towards the right!)..and for some reason, the prices seem a little off..maybe they add the shipping & handling with it? I don't know.. Go ahead and check it out. My personal favorite product is the Women's Cap sleeve T....I bought one for myself a few days ago and I'm anxiously waiting for its arrival.

My next project is designing various logos (Kayjo Designs) with different color themes that can fit with any image.

I am also open to any suggestions from followers. Thanks for reading :)

3 Step Koi Fish

2011-04-06T21:22:00.000-07:00

This is one of my first attempts at drawing and painting a koi fish. I liked how it turned out, personally.

I also did some more digital work on the "final" product so it would fit well on products. Also, the scanner doesn't always get the best effects (as you can see some gray shading in some areas).

If you like what you see and are maybe interested in seeing this on a Tshirt or other product, Come visit my store on CafePress!

I uploaded 3 images to show the work involved. I think that showing off the rough drafts is quite interesting...

1) Rough Sketch

2) Color it in (Sorry about the little gray shading at the top of the picture...I have a small scanner so it let SOME light in. heh)

3) Add some finishing touches and "sign".

Alright...this is the first time I did a terrible "step by step" so of course I skipped a lot of stages. In the end, I like to outline with black because it pops everything out and that's the look I'm going for. Also notice how it gives a different visual effect on the color of the scales.