Week SIX!

Time to finish off and accessorize!

The accessory was pretty fun, and it was cool to be able to attack it with a plethora of new techniques to try out! 
Initially the leather trim was a little daunting but then I had a light bulb moment to make a pattern brush  of the design which made the whole process so much easier!




To add the finishing touches to my tech sketches involved adding drop shadows (in some cases I had to re trace the outlines- fill with white- multiply then add shadowing) but mostly I found it a really quick and easy trick to give my sketches a professional touch. 
I also tried out gradient lines and grey area fills which were all gave different effects.

Layout was aided muchly with the use of GUIDES!
At first I was all like nah, thats wayy to much effort... But then I used them on one layout and was all like THESE ARE THE GREATEST THING EVER! 
I used that one initial one as a template for the rest :)

 

Week FIVE

wow, so I thought directional stripes was tedious... I had obviously never tried technical sketch knitting!!!!!!

The knit/cable stitch itself was not so bad... but putting them in a track free repeat was the worst! 
Finding the correct square repeat outline for the cable stitch was a very traumatizing experience. 
I can definately say now that got way too OCD with my cable knit but it is almost PERFECT and super cute.... kind of.

This week was pretty challenging but I  learnt a bunch of new techniques such as how to make clipping masks (for knit ribbing)- knit fills- cable stitch brushes plus drop shadowing.... YAY!


 

 knitted jumper- ASOS

Week FOUR!

THIS ARE GETTING PRETTY HECTIC!

We also learnt how to do stripes this week... draw boxes- align them- draw a no fill, no stroke box over the stripes you want- send it to the back- select all components- drag into swatches pallet and VOILA!!!

so, not only am I doing a stripe fill I also chose a hectic Vivien Westwood jacket with directional lines and I decided it would be fun to turn my stripe fill into directional strips!!!!!!!!

It was painful but a little bit satisfying when finally finished... I dont think I knew the correct way to fill areas so I traced each different area with a no fill, no stroke shape then filled it and rotated the stripe...


SO PAINFUL!

Jacket- Net-A-Porter

Week THREE!

Nothing new or exciting to report in this week, just slowly increasing my illustrator knowledge and skillzzzzzz.

Shirt- ASOS

Week TWO!

And so the pen tool lives on...

I am getting a little tiny bit faster but am still slow.

Something cool (and super time efficient) we learnt how to do was double stitching lines for top stitch on pants and denim!
It is GREAT! 

Also, I learnt spots! (and how to make swatch fills for future garments)

Note to remember: make sure the second square is no fill, no stroke- sent to the back then using the (a) arrow select all components then drag them into the swatch pallet. 

Pants and chino's courtesy of Amy Crookes!

Week ONE!

Illustrator is the scariest.

At the moment pen tool is the definition of evil and a little out of control... although I feel/hope that with time and practice it will become super handy and FUN!

One thing I learnt from my initial encounters with the pen tool is that you need to double click on your last anchor to make it to the an anchor point for the new line otherwise you line has a mind of its own and goes off in all different directions!

Here are my feeble attempts at using the pen tool to trace a dress and skirt from week 1... 


 

I think this skirt ended up being one of my favourites!

Dress- ASOS

Skirt- Net-A-Porter

getting fancy

Here are some digital fashion illustrations I took a liking to... It seem that I am most most drawn to quite abstract, watercolour illustrations so here's to trying to replica a similar effect in my own work! 

 

MY ATTEMPTS!

 

rendering

how to render

1. If the colour of the scan changed during scanning adjust the brightness/contrast or levels so  you can select the white out of the images
2. Unlock the layer – name it tech sketch
3. You want a solid outline of the sketch so using the paint brush tool touch up any parts of the line which may be broken then delete all white areas with the non-contiguous magic wand.   
4. Now if you magic wand the sketch it should just be an outline.
5. To make the color of the outline a solid black: select the background area (contiguous off), select the inverse so all the black areas are selected.
6. Fill the outline with solid black.
7. Keep this outline layer on its own layer. Do not fill!

how to fill with colour

1. Create new layer and place underneath *TECH SKETCH* 
2. On the TECH SKETCH select the back ground (contiguous on) then select the inverse so just the silhouette of the sketch is selected.  
3. Go back to the new layer and fill the selection with colour.
4. This step can be repeated for as many colours you wish, just keep making new layers.
5. Do not merge these layers.

 

 

how to fill with  print

1. The pattern needs to be re-sized so that it is the correct size on the garment.
2. Open the pattern fill.
3. Duplicate a layer into the skirt file.
4. Using free transform reduce the pattern by 25% until it fits in the canvas (so enter in 75% to the top left hand box) 
5. Duplicate, repeat and merge, making the pattern smaller.
6. Continue this process until the pattern is a realistic size in relation to the sketch.  
7. NEVER DELETE THIS RE-SIZED PATTERN LAYER! 

 
 
 
 how to warp your pattern into fabric

1. Duplicate the re-sized pattern layer and select a rectangle around the section you wish to transform.
2. Use the warp tool and play with the guides (small dots) around the rectangle until it looks realistic.
3. Repeat until all the sections have been transformed.
4. On the outline layer select each area (holding shift) with the magic wand on contiguous then going back to the fabric layers cut around the warped section.
5. Create one last layer with the fabric pattern and position it under the others to fill in any gaps.
6. Merge all pattern layers when finished. 

how to create shadows

1. Create a new layer for the shadowing.
2. Select a very soft brush, make the colour black and the opacity about 35% 
3. Shade where appropriate... Imagine there was light source and add shadow to create a more realistic 3-D garment. 

The final cut

I thought I would try combining elements of my two favourite prints and see if I can create some sort of final pattern!

+

I began by creating a duplicate layer of the top repeat and then started fiddling with the thresholds on one layer until I found a suitable level of contrast.

With the full colour layer on top I then I began using the magic tool to cut out areas of colour to reveal sections of the threshold layer.

I continued to play around with revealing different sections until I was happy with the definition and depth of the print design.

I like the intricacy and detail of the design at this point although I felt that the colours were a bit harsh now with the black and the white showing through. To fix this I went through and recoloured selected colours which were a bit too stark and using the eye dropper tool match colours and tones until they all complemented each other nicely.

With a few last tweaks...

Finally my textile fabric design is complete!

I am pleasantly surprised with how my final print has turned out. Although it is not what I imagined I was going to create when given this assignment task I feel like this design has combined all the positive elements from of my experimentation and practice patterns. 

I am a little bit proud of myself for developing such a detailed end product and learning so many new skills and I am amazed by how much I have learnt through the process of completing this assignment. 

I am excited to see my prints applied to my fashion illustrations later on this semester.

complete image flips

I had done quite a few little experiments and made a few repeats by now but I wasn't convinced any of them were the one so I thought I need to take a completely new approach to my textile print design.So I decided to take another look at the photographs I took of the Bird of Paradise... Whilst flicking through the photos it struck me that some of the close ups were really quite beautiful just as they were so I thought I could utilise the quality of the photographs and create some design repeats using the entire images... 

I took this photo

Flipped it

 and again

created a stripe repeat flipped on the axis

 and put it into repeat.
This is my first attempt at turning it into a repeat and if you look closely there is a fairly obvious track line so I tried again

and succeeded!

This is my favourite print/experiment so far. Despite being a fairly simple repeat I love the shapes and spaces created by the beautiful silhouettes of the Bird of Paradise. I think once developed a bit further these shapes are striking enough to create a really interesting print design. The design when repeated becomes eye catching and almost hypnotising, drawing the viewer in. 

I also like the fact that despite the abstract nature of the design (it is not obviously a Bird of Paradise flower) the colours have remained true to the original flower and I do not feel that they need altering at all.  

Because my fist outcome using this technique on a closeup photograph of the fresh orange/purple of the Bird of Paradise was so successful I thought it could be interesting to try it out with one of the older more wilted flowers...

I used exactly the same techniques and this is what it created! 

I think this print i really interesting too. The same techniques have created a completely different outcome this. I like that it is less busy but still has quite intricate detailing with the leaves, although I think the large plain areas of grey detract from the overall print.