Shirt.Woot

Andy47240 wrote:Designs like this give people like me hope that there is a chance I could compete someday. If winners were only decided by the skill of the designer or the wow factor of the illustration, then I may as well pack it up and not try here. I know you may not care if I submit or leave, but I like to think that designs of all kinds and style help keep these derbys alive.
These designs are the "AC/DC" designs for me in that they are always picked on for being simple and "anyone could have wrote that"...but, people love them.
-Andy

I am all for the amateur part of this contest. I am nothing if not an amateur. However, if you can bring neither art nor concept to a piece, you've entered nothing but lines. Amateurs have done some great work... SkekTek, for example, has been giving us his best for four derbies in a row now. However, I feel effort and quality should win out. I don't care about complexity or professionalism if there's effort and concept and a feeling that someone said "yes, this is my vision". I can't possibly feel this here. To me, designs like this don't inspire amateurs to enter... they inspire entrants to be at their most amateur

Re: Sky Samurai

wow, the text just made my eyes cross. my mind feels melted now that wuz teh funneh

mcwalters78 wrote:What a great idea.

Woot is a consumerism based organization. I always thought supply and demand fueled consumerism... silly me.

Reading the comments on some of the shirts that hit the fog kills me. The elitist attitude of some of the people hating on simplistic, common and "cute" designs amazes me. I always thought comments that say that those types of shirts should be banned was just a lot of hot air. Just venting from people frustrated that their obviously "superior" ideas or art was being passed over.

I guess hot air rises straight to the top. It is always a good idea to just unequivocally dismiss the work of others based on an "admittedly irrational hatred" even though the demand (via votes/the fog) says otherwise.

woot -is- a consumerism based organization.

Shirt.woot is a shirt store. Just as woot picks what they wish to sell you at woot.com, they also surely have a level of quality they wish to be represented with in shirt.woot. If you can't deal with the fact that votes don't equal what they want to sell, maybe you should go to tshirt hell or snorg or shirt-a-day, where they'll let just about any lame concept go so long as it rakes in the $$$.

I think the penguins were a weak rejection, too, but I completely agree with WHY they went. Just not how.

Re: Cheese Lover

I also adore this one.

Re: Impish Fairy

very art nouveau... i love this

Andy47240 wrote:Designs like this give people like me hope that there is a chance I could compete someday. If winners were only decided by the skill of the designer or the wow factor of the illustration, then I may as well pack it up and not try here. I know you may not care if I submit or leave, but I like to think that designs of all kinds and style help keep these derbys alive.
These designs are the "AC/DC" designs for me in that they are always picked on for being simple and "anyone could have wrote that"...but, people love them.
-Andy

You know, I am by no means going to say I am any more skillful than any of the submitters here. Because if you look at what I started out with, since Derby #1 and now, I have vastly improved over the course of {almost a year} because I liked to do this as a hobby {print design} and wanted to get better. I'd like to owe my printed shirts thus far to the fact that I put effort into my stuff, not because I struck gold on some concept that everyone loves. I code and design user interfaces, and consult for a living. I'm not an illustrator, though I do love drawing in my free time.

I started in the derby as my first go in print design, and I love so much to where I'm spending a lot of time now doing entries, because it gives me some freedom from the corporate work I have to do for money. To say what you said makes me depressed {the I may as well pack it up and not try here part}, because I really hope i'm not, or anyone is winning simply because they can draw well - and it goes the same way with I hope people are not winning simply because they equate simple with being wearable.

Andy47240 wrote:As is, James and Jimiyo as an example can pop out a masterpiece with little or no time anyway, so they would not likely labor over anything for more than a day or two even if they had more time.
I’m sure my opinion will flip-flop again though.
-Andy

not busting on you Andy. just the comment "can pop out a masterpiece in little or no time..." i know you meant this as a compliment. i have a soapbox.

I am very meticulous with my designs. I spend HOURS and HOURS.

(and beyond that, Ive sacrificed the last... 5-7 years... spending time in front of my computer, in front of my paper and pencil, to get to the point where yes, I can design something like the Dos La Morte design in approximately .... Hrm...3-7 hours.)

You dont get skilled at any craft without spending quality time and sacrifice.

I innately know that its a total waste of my time commerce wise to be so meticulous because as you can see from many of the derbies, art regardless of skill level and time involved, does not necessarily equate to winning.

I actually told myself that March would be 'sell out to the public' month where I would take ideas/concepts I know are popular, and divert from doing my stupid designs that only a small portion of the public actually appreciate for the time and skill it took.

But Im stubborn. I will do what I want to do. And MOST of the time, that means I wont be winning the popular vote.

And March, I wont be selling out Ive decided.

/end rant

Re: Jet packed.

i really like that it's on the paper! reminds me of the teenage angst drawings i used to do in high school tee hee. plus her expression is great! GMV

Re: Mono HeartBEAT

This looks pretty interesting, but do you have a larger detail view?

Re: Always.

a stone, a rose, and an unfound door? am i in the ballpark?

Andy47240 wrote:Designs like this give people like me hope that there is a chance I could compete someday. If winners were only decided by the skill of the designer or the wow factor of the illustration, then I may as well pack it up and not try here. I know you may not care if I submit or leave, but I like to think that designs of all kinds and style help keep these derbys alive.
These designs are the "AC/DC" designs for me in that they are always picked on for being simple and "anyone could have wrote that"...but, people love them.
-Andy

Call me crazy, but i'd rather be able to compete because I improved, not because everything around me got worse.

superspryte wrote:Creepy.

and crawly. :^)

bluchez wrote:This looks very much like something I would find in Microsoft Word's clip-art gallery, and less like a shirt design.

yep... how irritating

Re: Buddha Variation 5

oh wow, good use of line! i prefer chubby buddhas myself, but still GMV

Re: End of an Era

gmv... simple, not too cute, and something you dont see much around here lately, color

Re: Dawn

why am i thinking of georgia o'keefe now?

Re: Death on a Pale White UNICORN!

It's a true shame that this got bumped from the fog...I really don't know what people are thinking sometimes...

jamescho84 wrote:You know, I am by no means going to say I am any more skillful than any of the submitters here. Because if you look at what I started out with, since Derby #1 and now, I have vastly improved over the course of {almost a year} because I liked to do this as a hobby {print design} and wanted to get better. I'd like to owe my printed shirts thus far to the fact that I put effort into my stuff, not because I struck gold on some concept that everyone loves. I code and design user interfaces, and consult for a living. I'm not an illustrator, though I do love drawing in my free time.

I started in the derby as my first go in print design, and I love so much to where I'm spending a lot of time now doing entries, because it gives me some freedom from the corporate work I have to do for money. To say what you said makes me depressed {the I may as well pack it up and not try here part}, because I really hope i'm not, or anyone is winning simply because they can draw well - and it goes the same way with I hope people are not winning simply because they equate simple with being wearable.

You are missing my point James. You know I love your work and I am not saying anything negative towards you or Jimiyo who is my second favorite artist here so I wish I would not have mentioned either one of you when I was making my point. But I am trying to defend the designs that irk everyone when they get lots of votes.
I know that you and Jimiyo put major effort in your work and I am not trying to say anything that suggest the opposite.
-Andy

Gumiho wrote:This looks pretty interesting, but do you have a larger detail view?

Yeah, I didn't realize the detail veiw I was going to be shrunken when I submitted this. Here's a better view:

jimiyo wrote:not busting on you Andy. just the comment "can pop out a masterpiece in little or no time..." i know you meant this as a compliment. i have a soapbox.

I am very meticulous with my designs. I spend HOURS and HOURS.

(and beyond that, Ive sacrificed the last... 5-7 years... spending time in front of my computer, in front of my paper and pencil, to get to the point where yes, I can design something like the Dos La Morte design in approximately .... Hrm...3-7 hours.)

You dont get skilled at any craft without spending quality time and sacrifice.

I innately know that its a total waste of my time commerce wise to be so meticulous because as you can see from many of the derbies, art regardless of skill level and time involved, does not necessarily equate to winning.

I actually told myself that March would be 'sell out to the public' month where I would take ideas/concepts I know are popular, and divert from doing my stupid designs that only a small portion of the public actually appreciate for the time and skill it took.

But Im stubborn. I will do what I want to do. And MOST of the time, that means I wont be winning the popular vote.

And March, I wont be selling out Ive decided.

/end rant

I respect your integrity. I too, have spent countless hours trying to do something i'm proud of, rather than sitting there wondering why people aren't impressed, or why I can't get better.

You're absolutely right. Anything worth doing, always takes time and sacrifice. Sometimes that means working all throughout the night, every night, because it's simply what you love to do.

As i've said previously - in last week and this week, I am inspired by you. Enough to where I read through your site tutorials, looked at all of your works meticulously to find what it is that makes your work look so professional. My entries this week, are in part, dedication to what you've worked so hard to obtain.

I've thanked you before for being here, showing this derby that your eye for composition, balance, and concept is amazing and cannot be replicated. I only hope that others will try to look at what you've created and strive for the perfection that I know, you put into all your pieces.

brizz wrote:Call me crazy, but i'd rather be able to compete because I improved, not because everything around me got worse.

That's not what I am saying, but o.k. I'll call you crazy.

Re: Ushering in Spring

pretty, but i think it's got too much detail. it took me several seconds to see what was actually going on.

also, a paler yellow might have been nice. like your stuff though

Okay, that didn't work right, trying again:

waffala wrote:Okay, that didn't work right, trying again:

That image helps alot. Looks great.
-Andy

goldenmomiji wrote:This is my hand drawn sketch. Is there an easier way to digitize this? I had to scan it and then go in with Inkscape and trace back over the whole thing. I would love to find an easier more time efficient method. Thanks for looking.

I use Illustrator's live trace on my scanned sketches. There used to be a website that did a fairly comparable job, but it has ceased being free in recent days. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure of what other methods may help you.

AdderXYU wrote:woot -is- a consumerism based organization.

Shirt.woot is a shirt store. Just as woot picks what they wish to sell you at woot.com, they also surely have a level of quality they wish to be represented with in shirt.woot. If you can't deal with the fact that votes don't equal what they want to sell, maybe you should go to tshirt hell or snorg or shirt-a-day, where they'll let just about any lame concept go so long as it rakes in the $$$.

I think the penguins were a weak rejection, too, but I completely agree with WHY they went. Just not how.

At what point did I say that any lame concept should be allowed?

With your logic, if "votes don't equal what they want to sell" then why have a voting system in place? Obviously, they want to make available what has proven to be of interest to the community, otherwise they would just randomly pick shirts they like from the submissions (which I believe rules like this make a move towards) and put them up so as to ensure that their level of quality is always met. Woot.com is not a parallel to shirt.woot because it does not poll the community it serves, it makes that decision solely in-house.

My point is that the setup they have in place is for the community to decide what it would like to buy. Tying people's hands because with rules like "been done before", "I have an admittedly irrational hatred of this idea" and the like goes against that setup. Who is to say that the new design of an idea that may have been presented before isn't a better execution of said idea. Who is to say that the person who has the irrational hatred isn't in the minority? (which, again, seems to be the case here)

Obviously I need to clarify my gripe. I'm not saying any poorly designed shirt should just be made available. I'm not saying that there shouldn't be rules (copyright, plagiarism, profanity and lewdness rules NEED to be in place). I'm just saying making arbitrary decisions for the community based on an individual's dislike just because they have the power to do so, doesn't make it right.

Andy47240 wrote:That's not what I am saying, but o.k. I'll call you crazy.

That's exactly what you said: Seeing simplistic five minute designs win gives you hope that you might be able to come up with something crappy that people will like and vote for because you aren't skilled enough to do more complex design. Well, as cho said, he wasn't either a year ago, but now look at him. Using something like Let It Grow as an inspiration is not suggestive of a desire to improve, but to figure out the easiest way to win.

Gumiho wrote:I use Illustrator's live trace on my scanned sketches. There used to be a website that did a fairly comparable job, but it has ceased being free in recent days. I'm sorry, but I'm not sure of what other methods may help you.

Inkscape has a version of livetrace built in, but I can't remember what it is called.
-Andy

brizz wrote:That's exactly what you said: Seeing simplistic five minute designs win gives you hope that you might be able to come up with something crappy that people will like and vote for because you aren't skilled enough to do more complex design. Well, as cho said, he wasn't either a year ago, but now look at him. Using something like Let It Grow as an inspiration is not suggestive of a desire to improve, but to figure out the easiest way to win.

I did not say that.

Re: Beards

nice lines

mjc613 wrote:There have been comments about how the dragon has a hungry look, and it will soon be curtains for the knight. I think it's the opposite. After all, the dragon has had the albumin and yolk to feed off of while in the shell. Instead, the dragon has emerged and thinks the knight is his/her mother. It's love in those eyes! That's why our gallant knight is saying "oh crud". He's gotta figure out how to take care of the dragon, or leave it with someone else!

well you know how Knight Errants are... always running off from one damsel to another, never staying in any tower very long.. Absolutly NO sense of commitment...

Maybe he can pawn the dragon off on Snow White before he goes off to check how Rapunzel is doing....

ihgg wrote:oh man... what a great shirt!! GMV

thanks! I actually doodled it in my Physics Class. I think It's got a Gordon Freeman/Bob Ross/Thomas Edison feel to it, no?

I like this idea, especially the paper, the bears look off though, they don't give off the same vibe as the girl does because of how they're drawn, but I would be interested in seing a peice based on them by themselves. The flying away on a jetpack and that she's actually flying away idea is awesome though.

jamescho84 wrote:I really love this entry. you've captured the idea perfectly, it has our house's vote. Magnificently executed.

Thanks very much, James. This is typical of me, to think of my best idea sometime Friday afternoon, and it not be a simple idea but one that takes a long time and really needs to be finely detailed (for me) in order to work. I'm really pleased by the look of the ants as they investigate their new digs.

I still have a lot to learn about shading with lines like this, but I think it is a great way to draw.

Re: Cherry Blossoms in the Shadow of Mount Fuji

I love this. The colors, placement, subject are all perfect. It's nice to see something different. I wish you luck and look forward to seeing more of your work.

frogboyjb wrote:I wanted to submit a new design with simpler line art, and on black for anyone who thinks a punk won't
wear baby blue

I like the Black way better frogboy.
-Andy

Andy47240 wrote:You are missing my point James. You know I love your work and I am not saying anything negative towards you or Jimiyo who is my second favorite artist here so I wish I would not have mentioned either one of you when I was making my point. But I am trying to defend the designs that irk everyone when they get lots of votes.
I know that you and Jimiyo put major effort in your work and I am not trying to say anything that suggest the opposite.
-Andy

Andy, truly, it was just my soapbox. Your comment wasnt taken as negative, just a way for me to twist your words into me starting off on my rant.

;j

I appreciate your confidence in me.

Re: Line Dancing

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2220/2303486927_c8dd110f53_b.jpg

Larger version of the shirt for visual reference.

Andy47240 wrote:I did not say that.

yes you did:

Andy47240 wrote:Designs like this give people like me hope that there is a chance I could compete someday. If winners were only decided by the skill of the designer or the wow factor of the illustration, then I may as well pack it up and not try here.
-Andy

but since you see something that took five minutes in the fog you are now inspired? Because anyone can do it? Because talent isn't required to win?

That is what you are saying.

Re: Symmetry

Re: Symmetry

Here is a new view of my entry, the preview is crap I had to redo it and i don't think i can replace the current preview image


how does everyone like the colors?