For anyone who has been in INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MEDIA CRN-13595-201701 they likely remember this odd assignment in which they have to draw up what appears to be a Hawaiian shirt in Adobe Illustrator which is surprisingly a much more difficult task than what one may expect.

Computer, Adobe Illustrator (It was all digital)

Since there was already a base image to trace and some patterns to use the options were slightly limited, So I traced the flowers provided as part of the assignment and made one of my own for the pattern (Primarily just through fidgeting with the shape tools and shape builder tools). Afterwards I decided to use a dark purplish blue and a standard purple as colours for the pattern due to the colours in question looking rather nice together (at least in my opinion).

For the buttons I wanted a colour that stands out in the pattern but in an intentionally unappealing manner (as Hawaiian shirts are generally known to be rather unsightly) so I made them with a reddish orange gradient, which at least in my opinion looked as comedically bad as it was intended to.

I started by simply saving all of the important template images and opening up a file called "FlowerSymbols.jpg" in Adobe Illustrator.

(Above: the file "FlowerSymbols.jpg")

After opening the image template I traced flowers #5 and #6 using the pen tool and an alternate layer making the stroke black and the fill a simple purple. Original flower in the pattern was created by using the star shape tool creating a 8-pointed star and rounding the edges, afterwards I created a smaller similar shape with the already chosen background colour but smaller and a circle with four smaller circles inside to serve as a stamen for the flower (the stamen being the central pollen producing area of the flower). After making the flower shapes I put the flowers over the background colored object selected all objects and then searching for the options "Object" then "Pattern" and then finally "Make". Use the settings provided by the pattern making interface to undo discrepancies and once it is to your liking approve it and you have finished your pattern.

(Above: what the Pattern tile looks like)

(Above:What the pattern looks like in the pattern creation interface)

After completing the pattern open up the template image titled "HawaiianShirt.jpg" go to the layers panel in Illustrator double click the layer it is on and check a box that says "Template". After that begin tracing parts of the template using the "Pen" tool dividing it into parts such as the collar and sleeves.

(Above: the file "HawaiianShirt.jpg")

(Above:The layers option screen showing the "Template" option)

After tracing the shirt and shifting the objects so they are layered properly (Example one side of the Collar should be layered over another and the collar pieces should be layered over all other pieces) I simply applied the texture to most of the objects in the picture. After applying texture in most places I went back to the file I made the pattern in and made slight adjustments, the reason for this is that most forms of patterned clothing has inconsistencies from stitched piece to piece in the patterns often showing only part of an image along the seams, This added a bit of realism to the image where there would not be any. After making the alternate pattern I applied it to the remaining parts of the image and placed a transparent white overlay on the part of the shirt that shows it's inside.

(Above: The Hawaiian shirt as it looks after tracing, applying patterns, and applying the transparent white piece)

After completing the majority of the shirt I created various other objects to use as details, starting with the buttons. They were made from two overlapping circles (one bigger than the other) and four tiny circles in both bigger circles cut out using the "Shape Builder".After making the desired shapes I applied an orange gradient to both shapes setting the range to which one color to another as being different for both of the shapes (To make an interesting contrast). Lastly I put two lines in an "x" shape on the two large overlapped shapes in the center, after placing the lines I altered their width and gave the ends rounded caps, in the end the lines were made to look like the stitching often used to attach buttons to fabric.

(Above: An example of one of the buttons used for the Hawaiian shirt project)

After making the buttons I moved on to the label which was a simple black rectangle, a white rectangle with only a stroke and no fill and lastly some text in white. The text read "Island Sneeze" as somewhat lazy joke about "Island Breeze" a common brand that makes Hawaiian shirts. I rotated the text to be diagonal (In order to a bit more artistic) and lastly set the text to a desirable font.

(Above:The label I used for the Hawaiian shirt)

I then added some shading by making transparent black pieces in the same shape as some of the shirt's pieces, scaling the transparent black pieces to be slightly bigger than the original pieces, and lastly layering them under the intended pieces. This created and interesting casted shadow effect.

(Above: my submission for the "Hawaiian Shirt" project for INTRODUCTION TO DIGITAL MEDIA CRN-13595-201701 a class taught by Professor James Kinney)

I personally was not a huge fan of this assignment primarily due to the assignment's need for many objects to be in the file all at the same time, this resulted in many issues keeping all of the items arranged properly as even a single misplaced click cause one or sometimes even more pieces shifting in such a way unsightly gaps were visible. I also found that tracing the template was extraordinarily difficult due to suffering from hand tremors as the "Pen" tool would register even a small, involuntary shake could cause the line to shoot shoot to the other side of the screen or connect it prematurely to it's beginning line making it a full object.Unfortunately to the assignment being a Hawaiian shirt meant I would not like the final result regardless of the effort placed. Lastly the file corrupted unexpected and I essentially had to redo the vaunted assignment causing me more stress.