FINAL ART PROJECT!

Hello everyone!

This week we were tasked to create our own design using the knowledge we have gained throughout the year! So for this final project, I wanted to go ALL OUT. I knew I wanted to create a wearable design for a mini collection ever since I read the requirements for this project. I also wanted to challenge myself for this project and try to create this design fully digitally to improve my digital art skills. However, I wanted to transform a design I made previously with traditional art and convert it to digital. So with that being said, let's brainstorm!

INITIAL DESIGN:

The products I ended up deciding on for my mini collection were a tote bag, a graphic tee, and a denim jacket! As for my design, I knew I wanted to transform a design I made using traditional art. So, I looked through my sketch book and went through all the designs I created throughout the year. I decided on transforming...

BEHOLD! This was actually a design that I drew for one of our vocab words earlier in the year, but I was so drawn to it because of how abstract and dynamic it is. Now that I knew the design I was going to transform, its time to go digital!

I started off just tracing the features on Ibis Paint X to give me a base to start getting creative. For the actual design elements, I took inspiration from Bob Mackie's costume collection that were on the Carol Burnett Show because I loved how camp yet so chic these looks were. I really wanted to incorporate some of those high-camp elements into my design to make my design pop.

I was also inspired by this specific Vogue Magazine because this was the initial inspiration for my original design. I absolutely love how modern and abstract this cover is and I wanted to utilize some of the high contrast elements in this cover to make my design look really sleek and modern. The artistic influence for this cover just so happens to be Dadaism, which I took inspiration from for my last project :)

Another big inspiration for the design elements in this project was grafitti mixed media art! I actually found this picture on Pinterest and loved the grafitti elements so I decided to incorporate some of those elements into one of my designs since I later decide to make a second design... lol

DESIGN ELEMENTS:

After having found my inspiration for this project, I am finally able to start my new design! I started off giving my design some color because I loved the high contrast it gave my design after having seen it on the Vogue cover.

I then decided to play around with the colors of my design and came up with two new designs.

I really liked the vibrant colors on this design. However, I felt as though it didn't match the vibe I was going for and decided to scrap it since I couldn't imagine using this design for my final product. Looking back, this design actually could have fit one of my final designs in the end LOL.

I then decided to give my design more natural tones. Yet, the color choices felt really off to me for some reason so I ended up scrapping this design as well. However, by this time I was noticing myself becoming more comfortable using the digital tools on Ibis Paint X.

I decided to test and see what the design would look like without any color and I... LOVED IT. I decided to give the design shadows and highlights to give it more depth. This design was exactly what I had envisioned in my head. It still had those high contrast elements that I wanted to keep without it feeling bland. So I actually do end up using this design for two of my products. However, as I mentioned, I wanted to utilize this design and edit it to create the second design for my last product.

So I started my second design by copying my pre-existing design and then drawing out a matching eye and lips to make this design more cohesive. Now, here is where the grafitti elements that I mentioned earlier come in.

I decided to use the airbrush tool to give this design a "tie-dye" effect and ultimately reel in that grafitti aesthetic. I also decided to draw on the name of my brand because I wanted to set the bar for the aesthetic I want my actual brand to have,

Lastly, I drew in a few doodles reminiscent of actual grafitti until I covered the majority of the design and this is the final design I came up with!

FINAL PRODUCTS:

Now that I have both my designs done, it is time to apply them to my actual products! Now, considering the fact that I wanted these designs to feel like something I would actually sell, I decided to use my official brand logo that we generated earlier in the year and edit the colors to fit my final designs.

Now, I present... MY FINAL DESIGNS!!

My designs utilize an asymmetrical balance of organic shapes to create a sense of movement and variety to add visual interest. I used an analogous color scheme of blue, purple, pink, and red shades throughout my design. I utilized the softer shades of blue, purple and pink for the background and deeper shades of blue and red for my main visual aspects to create a strong focal point. For my focal point, the value is high-contrast, with deep shadows and bright highlights, giving the face I drew more dimension and dramatic contrast. I utilized less space in my first design to make it feel more minimalist yet abstract and I used as much space in my second design in order to convey the grafitti aesthetic I was going for. For the secondary elements in my second design, I used repetition when drawing and coloring my doodles in order to achieve visual harmony and maintain a consistent color pallete. I also repeated several visual elements such as color and similar shapes on each sleeve of the jacket to achieve rhythm within my design.

REFLECTION:

After completing this project, I learned more about the importance of balance and unity when creating actual clothing designs. I was able to create a fully developed design from start to finish and I am so proud of the end result. One of the biggest things I struggled with when creating my second design was figuring out a way to balance out the design since I didn't want to leave it too empty where the sleeves are, considering I was creating the design for a jacket, but I also didn't want to add too much to the point where the design is overwhelming. It definitely took a lot of editing and moving shapes to achieve just the look I wanted. Some of my successes in creating these designs was being able to maintain unity and rhythm within my designs. When drawing the doodles on the sides of my second design, I used similar colors as those I used previously to maintain a consistent color palette and bring unity to my final design. I also repeated most of the doodles I drew in order to achieve rhythm among the smaller visual aspects.

Creating The Pattern for My Product!

Hello everyone!

Currently in our art class we are being tasked with creating a pattern design that we will be able to use to design a product that we can use/wear IRL! So naturally, I wanted to create a wearable design that can be worn. However, coming up with a concept for this project was very difficult as there were so many ideas that came to mind and I wasn't sure which ideas would fit which articles of clothing. But, what I did know was that I wanted to create a bold design that felt like me and would be something that I would actually design and sell perhaps some time in the future. (Fingers crossed)

INSPIRATION:

After a long time of surfing my Pinterest boards for inspo, I finally found some pictures that were exactly what I had planned in my head. For this project, I was really inspired by Dadaism which is an avant-garde art movement from the 20th century. One of the artists that really inspired me was actually a music artist that I listen to who goes by Ashnikko. Her most recent album's aesthetic does a great job of combining really soft and light themes with dark and abstract themes which is something that I really admire and wanted to incorporate within this project.

Another huge inspiration for this project was Marcel Duchamp who was one of the most prolific artists of Dadaism in my opinion. His works questioned the definition of art and showcase some of the prime aspects of what Dadaism means. His use of "collage-like" visuals which were intended to shift away from art that is meant to only be pleasing to the eye showed me that visual pleasure can come from even the most abstract of concepts which is something I really wanted to touch on in this project.

One of the other big inspirations that really drove my visuals for this project was these mood boards I found on Pinterest that utilize several Dadaism aspects. What I really liked about them was how they combine soft and sweet-looking items with weird and "nasty" items. I really enjoy this concept as these mood boards were what introduced me to Dadaism in the first place!

CONCEPT DESIGN:

Since I knew I wanted to combine cute and sweet themes with weird and abstract themes, I wanted the main focus of my pattern to be something that I personally think fits both categories which is Rushton dolls!

So for my initial sketch, I started off by drawing all of the things I wanted to include in my design before I start thinking about color palletes and arrangement and such. In this sketch, I included a lot of the items I saw from the mood boards I found on pinterest and even some smaller elements I wanted to include in the background of my pattern using repeition. I wanted my design to look soft and sweet from afar, but the closer you look you start to notice the weird and abstract design choices. After drawing out the sketch I was able to determine what I wanted my pattern's main elements to be:

Main Element: Rushton doll-like characters

Secondary Element: Buttons, stars, and heart shapes

Accent Element: Eyes, teeth, and critters

COLOR PALETTE:

After figuring out the main elements of my pattern, I moved on to my color palette design. Since I wanted to combine the Rushton characters, which are usually light and pastel colors, with things like eyes and a variety of critters, which vary in color but usually tend to be darker colors, I knew I had to make the color palette compliment the dominant visual aspects of my pattern which was the Rushton characters. Therefore, I went onto Ibis Paint X, which is a free drawing app, and made a quick color palette consisting of pastel colors to compliment the lighter, softer colors I will use for the Rushton characters. I chose the light blue for main background; pastel yellow for the stars; pastel pink for the hearts; and pastel purple and pastel green for the button shapes included in the background of my pattern. (I forgot to make a color palette for the Rushton dolls and critters )

PATTERN DESIGNING:

Now, it was time to finally get down to the nitty gritty... the actual pattern. For my pattern, I decided to use Ibis Paint X since Procreate wasn't available on my phone for some reason and because it is also the drawing app I am most familiar with. I first started off making the background of my pattern using the color palette I made previously.

Then, I started designing my actual characters which was... a long process to say the least since I am still not used to digital art yet. I decided to draw only the heads of the Rushton characters since I wanted the pattern to feel more symmetrical and less cluttered. (Which I might end up changing) This was the first character I made, however I wasn't very satisfied with it because I felt it was missing something.

This was the second character I made and I tried coloring the eyes a different color (which I didn't like) and adding blush (which I did like).

Then, I created two more character designs given the consensus of design choices that I liked best and ended up with my final pattern!

FINAL PRODUCT:

Lastly, I edited my pattern onto a few things I thought would work best for this pattern which was a beanie and a tote bag! I used Capcut for this since I wasn't able to access Photoshop on phone. Overall, I really like how cohesive the colors look together and how visually balanced the pattern ended up looking in the end.

 

While I am pretty satisfied with my final pattern, I would like to try adding some of the accent elements in like the teeth and critters to fully realize the vision that I had in mind. I had completely scrapped them when actually drawing my pattern because I felt as though the colors clashed with my main elements as is and because I felt as though the pattern would feel too cluttered if I did draw them in. However, I do feel like my final pattern is more visually balanced this way. As for actually ordering these products, I searched and found a website called Printful which overs all-over printing on the exact products I plan to order. I have linked their website below if you wish to check them out yourself :)

https://www.printful.com/create

REFLECTION:

Overall, this project helped me fully understand the process that goes on behind pattern making, which is very tedious in my opinion. I definitely underestimated the skill it takes to plan, design, and create a full-blown pattern. However, I found this project very informational given the fact that I will one day be making patterns for my own clothing. I was able further my understanding of color theory and visual balance within this pattern and had a lot of fun doing so!

Bleach Art Tutorial :D

Hello everyone! For this week's blog post, we were tasked with creating an art tutorial to share with the class! As soon as I found out that this was one of our assignments, there were so many ideas that came to mind. Naturally, I wanted to do a tutorial for an art project related to fashion but I wasn't sure what medium I was going to use. So, I scrolled through Pinterest to find some ideas and I landed on bleach painting. Bleach painting is essentially the process of using bleach to remove color from fabric in a controlled way to create a design, rather than adding color on top with paint. I chose this medium because I wanted to incorporate art into wearable fashion. I also chose this medium because it is a great way to upcycle old clothing and personalize thrifted or plain clothing. Here is some inspiration if you are unsure what to paint. 

*THE DESIGNS ABOVE ARE NOT MINE AND ARE PICTURES I FOUND ON PINTEREST*

What we will be making:

Materials you will need:

-Water

-Bleach

-Hydrogen Peroxide

-Disposable Gloves

-4 Disposable Cups 

-A 100% Cotton Shirt (dark colors work best)

-Masking Tape

-Marker

-White Colored Pencil or Fabric Chalk

-Paint Brushes or Bleach Pens

-A Big Piece of Foam Board or Cardboard

Step 1: First and foremost, sketch and plan out the design you will want to paint on your shirt!

Step 2: Place the piece of foam board or cardboard inside the shirt you will be painting and draw your sketch onto the shirt using a white colored pencil or fabric chalk.

Step 3: Next, cut 4 pieces of masking tape and label them as follows: 1:1, 1:3, 1:6, and 1:10. These will be the bleach to water ratios we will be using to achieve different tones when painting. The more bleach you pour in each cup, the lighter the tone on your shirt will be and the less bleach you pour into each cup, the darker the tone on your shirt will be.

Step 4: Pour the proper bleach to water ratio into each of your 4 cups according to the size of the cups.

Step 5: Now, we can begin painting! As I said, bleach painting is very similar to acrylic painting, so you are more than welcome to use the techniques we have used in class. To better understand how to layer smooth gradients and add depth to your shirt however, please watch this YouTube video which does a great job at explaining how to layer bleach to achieve your desired gradients. You can also use stencils or stamps (wink wink) and a spray bottle to add fun shapes to your design. :)

Step 6: After you have finished painting on the design onto your shirt, let the bleach set for 10-30 minutes, checking every 10 minutes until your design reaches the desired shade

Step 7: To stop the bleach from damaging the fabric over time, soak the shirt in a mixture of 1 part hydrogen peroxide and 10 parts water for 10-15 minutes.

Step 8: Rinse the shirt thoroughly in cold water and wash seperately, then hang dry.

After washing and hang drying your shirt, you now have your very own customized shirt adorned with your art!

IMPORTANT TIPS AND SAFETY:

-Use bleach in a well-ventilated area and always wear disposable gloves when painting to avoid chemical burns on your skin!!!

-If using a spray bottle for your design, use a fine mist setting and spray atleast 6 inches away from the shirt.

-Don't leave the bleach on for too long before soaking in the hydrogen peroxide mixture as it can damage the fibers of your shirt.

-NEVER apply pure bleach onto your shirt as this can permanently discolor an severly damage the fabric.

-Only apply thin layers of bleach and wait for it to dry to apply more until you have reached your desired tone. For example: