Braaains!
My Threadless submission based on a fable by Aesop is in the running and seems to be getting good feedback. I used a homebrew SWF file for the presentation. It allows for zooming in and out with lossless quality. Woo!
The newest submission, however, might be a bit of a tough sell to the wider Threadless demographic:
It’s got gore - albeit toned-down gore. Regardless, gore is historically about as limp as a wet noodle voting wise.
I’d been practicing my ability to draw a likeness by asking Threadless’rs for photos of themselves. I decided to turn that idea into a tee shirt and solicited 30 people for new photos and for their permission to use their likeness on a shirt. The tricky part was getting everyone zombified (for lack of a better term) while still leaving enough features intact to make them discernible.
Now, I realize that their likenesses being recognizable was not necessary for the design to be successful. I thought doing so was the least I could do to repay them for use of their image as a point of reference. Mind you, I didn’t trace their photos or anything. I know some guys include tracing reference as a portion of their workflow. I’m just not comfortable doing that. Seems cheaty.
The interesting thing about this tee design is that it features a seamlessly tiled image. It repeats endlessly in all directions. Over 30 heads repeated in a 5 across, 6 down table.
Uncolored, reduced, still mostly tileable version suitable for putting in a blog post:
See the image on a tee and a whole lot of process after the jump.
The finished piece mocked up on a tee:
A whole mess of process:
Last, but certainly not least, the 30 intrepid volunteers:
For the record, number thirty was me. Oh, vanity!
Mar 28th, 2008 #
Holy crap, Ray. You’re most impressive illustration to date. Wow! If this is not turned into a shirt on Threadless, you should do it yourself. Brilliant!
Mar 28th, 2008 #
$%#!!?… I meant “Your”, not “You’re”…
Mar 28th, 2008 #
Heh. No worries. Despite being acutely aware of the difference, I occasionally make an embarrassing typo or two. :)
Mar 30th, 2008 #
BTW, by “homebrew” swf file, do you mean that you created the Flash file yourself? I’m an utter novice with Flash and I’ve been looking for some scripts for t-shirt design presentation. Any nuts for a squirrel, here?
Apr 1st, 2008 #
Hoo boy - That’s a good ‘un.
Apr 1st, 2008 #
GC, that’s exactly what I mean. I really don’t know how to offer advice on Flash, though. I used to do some development ages ago and just remember the bare essentials, really.
Eric, thanks, dude!
Apr 5th, 2008 #
Oy! I don’t know how else to tell you, but would you take a saunter over to:
http://www.threadless.com/submission/157424/El_Burrito_Original
…and drop a vote? Gracias, amigo.
Apr 5th, 2008 #
loved ur video great details great colors, so eventualy all ur work u used manga studio? ex, right?
the lines are sooo sensitive,, just wondering this is like vector? like i can send for threadless to be printed right like tis vector or it have conversion to it, cause with senstivity and colors like that illustrator cant compete either do fotoshop,,
Apr 6th, 2008 #
I can’t speak for Ray, but my process has been… create line art with Manga Studio EX, export as a Photoshop PSD file (sometimes layered, sometimes not), open in Illustrator, streamline (create vector line art), retouch any stray lines, add PMS colors.
Apr 6th, 2008 #
It’s raster. I do all my lineart and colors in MS and no editing in Illustrator whatsoever. I trace the file using a third party, open source, command line utility and then save as AI/EPS.
Apr 11th, 2008 #
Which open source app do you use? Is it a Linux or Ubuntu thingy?