Looking Forward to Fall

Fall is coming soon, and not only am I looking forward to cooler weather, but also the hopeful chance to celebrate the season with the printing of this shirt. It's called The Fall of Troy.

When I first heard this idea described to me, I knew I wanted to do it for many reasons. One, I couldn't wait to draw the leaves. I'm aware of how that might seem strange, but I sort of thrive on detail. I immediately saw their oranges and golds too, so filling them in sounded enticing as well. The second reason I wanted to do it doesn't make a lot of sense either. Most of my close friends and I went to Troy University, and yes, we were the Trojans. So even though the Trojan horse was the pride of our enemies, I still have a strange affinity toward it. I'm going to decide that doesn't make me a traitor, ha ha.

I'd like to share with you the process of the creation of this design. I have to admit, there are times the process of creating shirt designs in general for me can be nerve-wracking and difficult, especially if I'm trying something new or just not confident of the idea. This design was wonderfully not the case. Other than some trouble deciding on the shirt background color, the entire development was enjoyable.

Of course it started with a sketch...

which was scanned and then inked in Photoshop.

I began to fill in the wood. Then I started to go a little crazy with the wood grain. I honestly did not intend to go to this extreme, but it just sort of happened, and I couldn't stop it.

This embellishment ended up being my favorite part of the piece.

After a lot of back and forth on background color, ( I so wanted a light green to work!) I decided on creme.

Then came those oranges and golds I mentioned earlier...

and finally, the background scene and shadows.

For those that aren't extremely familiar with making a design practical for printing, I'll show a close-up of the shading and highlighting. When I first colored this in, my technique was very similar to the act of "painting." But if left like this, the shirt company would have to use a more expensive printing method called simulated process, which can handle an unlimited amount of colors.

In hopes to increase my chance of this being selected to print, I limited the number of colors to six and separated them by turning them into halftones.

And that finished it! I hope this was enjoyable for you too. In fact, I hope you enjoyed that so much that you click this final mock-up and go give it a high score and a comment at Threadless.com! :) I haven't printed there yet. I would be thrilled to see this do well. I also have yet to reach one hundred comments on a submitted design there. Think you can help me make that happen? Thanks for reading, guys. <3