HAWAIIAN SHIRT- Intro to Digital Media
INTRODUCTION:
In this project, we were tasked with creating a Hawaiian shirt with a uniquely generated pattern. In keeping in theme with the general subject matter seen in Hawaiian shirts, we designed a pattern and applied it to a drawn shirt complete with buttons and an imagined shirt company tag.
MATERIALS:
Adobe Illustrator was used to create all assets in this project from the illustration turned into a pattern to the designed button and tag. References, inspirational images and the utilized texture image sample were all gathered from internet searches.
CREATIVE PROCESS:
I wanted to create something playful that used imagery from nature. I love drawing mushrooms because of the vast variety of different shapes and colors they come in so I decided to create a pattern that reflected this. I knew from the get go that I wanted to express the design through a range of softer colors to create a sort of "cotton-candy mushroom" theme. A quick Google Image search brought me a wealth of visuals to refer to as I drew my version of an Amanita mushroom accompanied by smaller mushrooms. I added in a few loose spores as "sprinkles" hanging around the mushrooms in the hopes that they would add to the fun.
https://www.sciencealert.com/magic-mushrooms-may-soon-be-decriminalised-in-some-us-states
https://pixabay.com/photos/fly-agaric-mushroom-toxic-spotted-4569367/
The first rendition of my "mushroom art".
WORKFLOW:
I began by placing a picture of a Hawaiian Shirt into Illustrator as a template layer and traced the general shapes for the shirt elements, one on top of the other.
During the template tracing process, I ensured that all the edges and lines met appropriately and were layered in the correct order.
Once I completed the tracing, I deleted the template layer and completed any remaining adjustments to the shape of the Hawaiian Shirt.
I then began to draw my mushroom artwork, using the reference images found on Google as inspiration.
I tweaked a few elements of the artwork before I was completely satisfied with it. *This specific rendition of the work happened during the editing process near the end of my workflow.*
The mushroom artwork was then made into a pattern using the pattern-making tool in Illustrator. After experimenting with various tile types, I settled on the "Hex by Column" tile and adjusted the art work's rotation and spacing between tiles until I was happy with the result.
Using the appearance panel, I applied a the pattern fill (and used a second fill color underneath) for all the elements that made up the shirt structure, ensuring to use the tilde ~ key and Rotate tool to move the pattern around so that it appeared to be more uneven and realistic on the artificial "fabric" of the computer.
I utilized the appearance panel once more and used the "Multiply" mode to achieve a darkened, shadow effect on the inside element of the shirt. The "Screen" effect was used on the inner triangle portion of the shirt to create the look of the inner fabric.
The pen tool was utilized to draw shadow shapes under the collars of the shirt. The appearance panel was used for these shapes with a "multiply" mode along with the "Gaussian Blur" effect to create the look of a shadow.
Using the ellipses tool, a circle was drawn and filled with a radial gradient. In the gradient color slider, multiple colors stops were added at varying shades to create the look of a beveled ridge. A lighter color was applied to the inside to create greater dimension. Four circles were drawn inside the large one and the shape builder tool was utilized to subtract these smaller circles on the inside, leaving spaces behind to create a sort of button shape. Shadows were drawn and layered behind the button to create more dimension.
After the "buttons" had a few layers of white "string" drawn between the holes, they were copied and pasted onto the shirt and laid down at equal distance from one another.
The shirt label was next. I found a label-like rough texture image on Google and brought it into Illustrator. I then created a new layer and began drawing my label art using the pen tool. I wanted to keep in tune with the theme of my mushroom art in the pattern of the shirt, so I went with an imagined company that was just as invested in strange, cartoonish nature art for their apparel as I am. I drew a few mushrooms sitting in the grass with a color palette that was more earthy.
I decided that "Flora and Fauna" was a good name for my imaged mushroom Hawaiian shirt company and I picked a font that would compliment the art style while eliciting a love for nature. The "Multiply" effect was added to the art and the text to give the appearance of the rough fabric on each element of the label. Stitches were added to the sides using the pen tool to draw a dashed line.
I utilized the "Envelope Distort" function in the Object tab and applied a 4x4 mesh and played with the dimensions of label to create a bent and stretched appearance. This label was then placed beneath the inner collar of the shirt.
I then laid all the elements of the shirt at the bottom of my art board against a blurred blue background (to ensure that the white elements such as the mushroom spores and the button strings were easily visible).
At this point, I decided to make a few changes to my pattern - I changed a few colors and added a third mushroom along with tilting the art a bit for a more interesting effect. And finally, I named my shirt "Fun-Guy Party" because I think it's a shirt that a fun gi would totally wear to a great party.
FINAL WORK:
CONCLUSIONS:
This mushroom shirt taught me some important things - like how to make and adjust a pattern in Adobe Illustrator, using a variety of functions in the Appearance Panel and that saving your work often is a pretty good idea... If I were to do this project again, I would like to draw some more mushrooms of even more shapes, sizes and colors to make it more of a "Fun Guy Rave" v.s. a "Fun Guy Party"". But all in all, I think this is a shirt I could wear and feel stylish in.
