Hawaiian Shirt Project-
Introduction to Digital Applications
Introduction:
The challenge was to create a unique and attractive Hawaiian shirt from a template, design its pattern art and use the pattern-maker to make a pattern. Once the pattern was applied to the shirt and offset, there was more to consider. We were to also design a button with threads, and holes using radial gradient. Also a label with the art displaying texture through it using a blend mode. A layout featuring the shirt name and creator name had to be added with samples of the pattern art, button and label displayed at the bottom.
Materials:
Pineapple, Phone and Digital camera, Apple computer, Adobe Photoshop, & Adobe Illustration.
Creative Process:
As soon as I was assigned this Hawaiian shirt project, I knew right away that I wanted to use pineapples for the subject of my pattern. I let the pineapple inspire me using its texture and colour as my design start point. I preferred the pineapple's warm colours of orange and yellow for the pineapple with a green stalk. I placed photo images of the pineapple alongside a masked image of the pineapple texture onto an ellipse circle. I made this into a pattern. However, I had to re-do into a digitally drawn pattern. So keeping the pineapple as my source, I used the pen tool to digitally create a similar illustration of a few pineapples, using Criss-cross lines to represent the rough texture found on a pineapple. Once I had the pattern in place, I hit the 'done' key and it automatically saved a new pattern in my swatch library for later use. I could now begin the process of making the shirt.
Workflow:
Pattern
The key steps required to produce a Hawaiian shirt involve designing and creating a pattern, tracing the shirt and applying the pattern to the shirt, producing a button, a label with logo, a title for the shirt, samples of the pattern, button and label, and editing from the start, editing from the middle, and more editing near the end, all done to get it right.
How did I do it? Before I could create a shirt, I had to design a pattern. The creative process went fairly well for me. I bought a pineapple and took many photos with both my phone and digital camera. I took various angles and close ups to study texture. I wanted to get a good image of the fruit's skin so I could recreate this in a digital format. I decided to use angled line strokes crossing each other like an imperfect 'x'. To make multiple pineapples, I duplicated and moved the images around to produce an optimal assortment of pineapples. I added a gradient to each one and outlined the green stalks with a golden stroke of 1pt. I selected the pattern and using the scale tool, brought it down to a smaller size suitable for a Hawaiian shirt. From the Object menu, I chose the Pattern, then Make option. I chose to make a hexagonal tile from the pattern options menu. Next, I hit option 'Done' and the pattern was automatically saved to my swatch file.
Project Inspiration, The Pineapple.
Pineapple texture as Design inspiration for Criss-cross pattern
Pineapple pattern
Hawaiian Shirt Template
I created a tabloid page in Adobe Illustrator that was 11 X 17 inches. I then placed the Hawaiian Shirt Template file provided for project use to this page and embedded it to save the image with the file. This became a layer that I named Template.
Tracing the shirt
Using the pen tool, I outlined each of the 12 sections of the shirt in different colours. I made sure the caps and corners were rounded in my stroke key so the lines would be smooth, not sharp or pointy. Once completed, I carefully looked for mis-aligned components and using the direct tool, made the necessary edits.
Pattern sequence for pen tool tracing
Applying the pattern
Once the shirt tracing was complete, I no longer needed the shirt pattern template so it was deleted. I selected and outlined each pattern piece in a medium olive colour. This step could also be done as you are outlining the shirt template pattern with the pen tool. Outlining helps define the shirt pieces once the pattern is placed onto it. But before that, I must carefully consider the sequence of pattern placement. From sequence 1-12, a piece of the shirt is selected and then we duplicate the fill of the shirt layers with colour. Once done, the pattern swatch can be applied. I selected a small swatch onto an area on the shirt, and chose the pattern swatch just created for the fill. Piece by piece, I repeated the process of duplicating the fill with the pattern swatch previously created. The beauty of this feature is seeing your shirt come to life.
What the shirt looks like before the last pattern swatch is applied. Notice the colour fill circled in black.
Editing
To enhance the design, there is some editing to do. At first the pattern placement will show matched up patterns on a flat surface. But in real life, patterns are not usually lined up in perfect order. To change this look, the appearance panel is quite handy. First you must select the top fill in this panel on a section of the pattern and with the tilda key ~ and the arrow buttons, you can move the pattern to offset in multiple directions. Ensure you are selecting the pattern fill. I also used the rotation key by selecting a piece of pattern I wanted to adjust, by holding down the tilda ~key. I liked using he rotation key together with the tilda key as it allows more pattern movement than just up and down, or sideways. It was beneficial for me specifically for areas that had a congestion of pattern. I could move that busyness away to give a more even look to the pattern. The shirt looked better.
To further make the shirt look realistic, I would edit the interior piece. Normally, this shirt piece is normally a lighter coloured fabric than the rest. There is a way to do this using the appearance panel. First, duplicate the pattern fill. Once done, you will see there is a background fill, pattern fill and a copy of the pattern. Working on the duplicated pattern fill, we changed the colour to white, and its opacity to 'Overlay'. This created a translucent white colour effect within the back of the shirt.
The appearance panel helps achieve a realistic inner pattern appearance.
I also wanted to make the shirt's rear collar look realistic and have a darker appearance being the back of the shirt. Selecting the collar pattern, I duplicate the pattern fill as done for the overlay effect of the interior piece. Only now, in the appearance panel, we would select Multiply with a darker coloured fill, and gave it an opacity of 65%.
Darkened rear collar edit
There are many other edits that were made. The appearance tool was helpful in giving the shirt a less flat look and more realistic just by adding overlays and changing opacity types. Using gradient effect, such as the gaussian blur, I was able to give the shirt a shadow feature just under the front collars. Blurred drop shadows made a big difference. The rotate tool with the tilda ~ key and arrows allowed me to adjust pattern appearance. Likewise, the scale tool, and colour outlines were also useful for pattern building.
Buttons
With the editing of the shirt complete, I was now able to continue with the creation of a button design and label. I created a new layer and named it 'Buttons'. Then with the eclipse tool, I made a circle. I also used a radial gradient to give the look of a 3D button. I brought in colours to use such as purple tints and added some yellow dragging it down onto the gradient slider. I removed the black colour on the gradient tool slider. The yellows and white would be my highlight colour raised towards the end of the button. Towards the centre, I also changed the colour distribution on the gradient tool slider to give more highlights towards the middle section of the window. The shadow colour is the purple hue that gives the button a compressed look in the mid-section. If you make it darker, it gives a strong shadow effect. I added button holes using the eclipse key and with option shift, I select the first hole, and move to the area of the button holes. I have four circles now and to punch a hole through the circles/ holes, I used the shape builder tool. Holding the option key down, I can subtract the circles. Command Y on a mac reveals the button.
Next, thread is added to the button. I used the pen tool to create stitching using a line from top left to lower right and with the stroke panel, using three different strokes, each colour used, tan, grey and black, were given a stroke weight ranging from 1 to 3 pts. and round caps so the lines looked like thread.
This image shows the various colours of stroke used and blue effect to create a 3D button.
Gaussian Blur effect is also evident here with the drop shadow effect on holes and button.
The button is flat without shadow so to make it more realistic, I made a copy of this button in black with a gaussian blur to create a shadow effect of the whole button, and its four thread holes. This copy was placed behind the colour button layer. I moved it around until I could see a shadow effect below and within the button holes. The amount of shadow used help to create a realistic button. With the button complete, it can be applied to the shirt. I select all the button elements and hit the Object menu, and Group to group the button components into one piece so it scales as one. Go to the scale menu first and look at the option to make sure that we check mark the 'Scale Strokes and Effects'. This keeps the button stitching a scaled down version otherwise it would appear too large for the button. I kept a copy of the button and moved it down as a sample. Then we return to the button, make a copy and with the option key scale it down quite a bit until it looks like a good size button. I made four buttons so I made three more copies, applying them to the shirt with the option and drag feature.
Label
The last part of the project was to create a label for the shirt. After finding an image of cotton fabric, I used the pen tool to make a simple palm tree.
Here is a close look at how the palm leaf is made translucent.
As I drew the palms and trunk, I used the multiply appearance with an opacity of 65% to create a translucent look to the label. You can see through the palm leaf and company name onto the fabric beneath. This created a very original authentic look. For the stitching located on the sides, I used the stroke feature to make dashed lines in red that look like stitching. I gave it a stroke weight of 1.572 including a dash and gap each of equal measure. I then copied the lines and placed it beside its original stitched look, but this time, gave it a lower opacity for a shadow effect on the stitching.
Stiches on label illustration
The finished label.
The label, once completed, is applied with scale, to the back of the shirt. A copy is also used for the sample display together with the pattern swatch, and button.
A shirt name is referenced under the shirt in bold, followed by creator's name.
Conclusion:
This was my first time designing a shirt with digital art. Learning how to do this was definitely a challenge, however, taken in small steps, it is definitely doable.
For me, I had some wins and losses to reflect on. The biggest loss, was creating a pattern using masked art and photos. We were asked to create a digital art design pattern so I had to draw the pattern. However, it was a loss that turned out to be a win for me. Yes, it was literally back to the drawing board, but I looked at this as an opportunity to gain more skills, practice and experience with Adobe Illustrator. There was no loss here.
Incorrect Hawaiian shirt using masked eclipse shape and photo for first pattern attempt.
I enjoyed using Adobe Illustrator and its features to make a 2D object appear realistic, mostly through layering, gradients, the appearance panel, and so many more of the programs features. This learning curve allowed me to be more creative with the design.
When I look at the version of the Hawaiian shirt I had designed, I am quite happy with it. Yet there are things I could have done better, for example, I didn't add a shadow effect between the main shirt panels. Perhaps I could have played more with background colours and outline. I also thought of having the collar pieces different colour fills and design. All in all, I am very confident in my effort and finished product. Through this project I realized simple things appear that way but this project was complex. The biggest win is that I can now build on the knowledge gained and continue to design. Nothing is impossible.
Correct Hawaiian Shirt version with drawn digital art
