HAWAIIAN SHIRT - INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MEDIA
INTRODUCTION:
For this project, we were asked to design a Hawaiian shirt with a unique pattern and theme. Hawaii reminds me of the ocean and I decided to create a Hawaiian shirt with sea creatures as the pattern and the final shirt design rendered with buttons and an Aloha label of an imaginary shirt company.
MATERIALS:
The software used to create and complete all aspects of the project was Adobe Illustrator CC 2021. The reference images used to create the patterns and shirt label were sourced from Google.
CREATIVE PROCESS:
Having ocean as the main theme, I firstly decided on the colors I wanted to incorporate on the shirt and patterns. I figured cool colors would fit the theme perfectly. Then, I started looking for sea creatures on the internet that I can make illustrations of that wouldn't be too typical, I came across 'Axolotl' which is a relatively tiny sea lizard and decided on sea horse for the second creature. I used both warm and cool tones, almost pastel like on the sea creatures so that it would bring in balance and work harmoniously as a pattern. I kept the pattern illustration minimal and cartoony as I wanted the creatures to look cute and playful!
REFERENCES:
https://www.google.com/search?q=seahorse+cute&tbm=isch&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiv9bTy_snvAhUDzqwKHaTuDVsQBXoECAEQMw&biw=1351&bih=745#imgrc=MrU742wyzHyoGM&imgdii=FckHapUiNKyyLM
https://www.google.com/search?q=axolotl+pink+sea+creature&tbm=isch&ved=2ahUKEwjc59He_snvAhWwl60KHbnOBwYQ2-cCegQIABAA&oq=axolotl+pink+sea+creature&gs_lcp=CgNpbWcQA1AAWABg9pUDaABwAHgAgAEAiAEAkgEAmAEAqgELZ3dzLXdpei1pbWc&sclient=img&ei=x75bYJzoMbCvtgW5nZ8w&bih=802&biw=1368
I drew illustrations of the creatures and used the Live Paint Bucket Tool to fill in warm colors for the Sea horse and cool colors for the Axolotl.
WORKFLOW:
I started off by placing the Hawaiian shirt as a template in Illustrator and traced sections of the shirt and filled it in with different colors using the layering method.
After the initial tracing, I went back and aligned the edges using the Direct Selection Tool and matched it to the shirt template as close as possible.
I hid the shirt template and adjusted the collars like how it would sit on an actual shirt.
For, the final render of my pattern, I placed the two objects closely so that it worked as a pattern and avoid any unusual gaping.
For the next step, I changed the color of the shirt to Teal and made the inside of the shirt beside the collar darker and lighter by adding another layer of black and white fill and set the Opacity Blend mode to 'Multiply' and 'Screen' respectively. To create more depth and a sense of lighting, I offset the collars and created shadows using Gaussian Blur.
I then turned turned the illustration into a pattern under Object > Pattern > Make. I renamed my pattern to 'sea' and played around with the tiling and spacing. I adjusted the height and width between each tile and aligned it to 'Hex by Column'.
The pattern was applied to the shirt by using another layer of fill on top of the color, I used the tilde key ~ to move/rotate the pattern on the sleeves and the collars to make it more realistic.
The patterns on the shirt after being offset.
The button was made using the Ellipse tool and was duplicated one behind the other to create depth and shadow, the holes were punched onto the button using Pathfinder tool. A radial gradient was applied on the button with varying tints and shades to produce almost a 3D effect. The threads were created using Line tool with lighter fill and darker strokes.
For the shirt label, I imported a fabric texture and started making a simple logo representing Ocean for my shirt company. I named my shirt company "Makai" meaning 'towards the sea' in Hawaii. I included warmer colors as it worked better with the background of the label. Further label details were also added. I then set the opacity of the company name and logo to 'Multiply' for the texture to be visible on the logo and the text. Later, I used 'Dashed line' under stroke to create the stitching around the label.
After placing the label on the inner side of the shirt, I tweaked the edges of the label by using a 4x4 mesh under Object > Envelope Distort.
The buttons were duplicated and aligned with proper spacing on the shirt.
I arranged the pattern, button and the label in a row and added a bit of wave like background to go with the Ocean theme.
FINAL WORK:
This is the final template with all the elements in place, I named my name shirt 'Oceangoing', to go along the theme. Pun intended!
CONCLUSION:
This project was a lot of fun to work on! It also provided me insight on a few tricks and also knowledge on functions like the Tilde key and Opacity filters. Overall, I am satisfied with how the shirt turned out. Given a chance to work on this project again, I would experiment more with colors and patterns, maybe create patterns with Boba Cha or 'Among Us' characters which were other of my initial ideas.
