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.