Shirt.Woot

I'm extremely excited about this Derby! I like the rule on what shirt colors to use, makes it interesting! Expecting beautiful designs

gulp. terrifying.

That's pretty cool, I was actually thinking to myself yesterday: I should do a watercolor illustration on a white shirt I guess I really should do it.

Intriguing! I love doing watercolors IRL but haven't had much luck transitioning that to digital. I'm unlikely to enter but will enjoy watching.

While I LOVE the theme- I just don't have the halftone chops to pull this off. I see a handful of shirt.woot derby designers (all frequent printers) pulling this off spectacularly though.

Oh look, a derby theme people can't just ignore and get away with it. Sweet.

brb, spending 10 hours angsting and flipping my computer trying to come up with something acceptable

Yay! Love the theme!

Here's a question for the print rules?

Can I paint a colored watercolor,scan it and pull the separations myself in the required halftones? I would then assign the appropriate pantone colors to it to cover the CMYK values, so that the result is a simulated CMYK print, like the old newspapers and comics?

Bonus question? Can we set up the inks for overprinting?

Can we get a clarification on this:

"Halftone dots must be only one color each, and not overlap."

Does this means a layers of red halftone dots will not be allowed over a layer of blue halftone dots?

Or is this more about preventing people from trying to do 4 color processes?

this should be fun

Style derbies are always so challenging. I'm looking forward to see what folks come up with. I'm a big fan of sumi-e, though I wonder if the ink-wash technique is considered 'watercolor'?

the way people complain about designs on white and creme shirts, i bet woot won't sell many of the winning designs.

"I'll just color penguins in pastels and call it a day."

Ok not pastels, sumi-e, but c'mon - that's funny right there.

paigeg wrote:Style derbies are always so challenging. I'm looking forward to see what folks come up with. I'm a big fan of sumi-e, though I wonder if the ink-wash technique is considered 'watercolor'?

Good question. I love sumi-e.

cdrewlow wrote:Good question. I love sumi-e.

My opinion is that it would be allowed, though sumi-e is kinda "water-uncolor"

Personally, if the artistic process involves water, I'd ask the Woot gods to allow it.

Lagbert wrote:Can we get a clarification on this:

"Halftone dots must be only one color each, and not overlap."

Does this means a layers of red halftone dots will not be allowed over a layer of blue halftone dots?

The way I always think of it, is that two different halftones can interlock (perfectly position to fill together) but a dot can't be centered inside another dot, or a halftone line can't be centered inside a different color line.

So you can have three colors in any given area; two interlocking halftones, and the background color of the t-shirt itself behind them.


If you're using more than two inks then it still takes careful planning to make sure you never have more than two different colored effects trying to inhabit the same space, things will get tricky, but if you look at patrickspens or odysseyroc's designs you'll start to see how the areas of color can be divided up in a smart way.


EDIT: 'Keep Driving' the zombie motel design in my sig is a good example too!

Leahbh wrote:the way people complain about designs on white and creme shirts, i bet woot won't sell many of the winning designs.

Of the three, I think creme stands as being the most acceptable by the masses. And I'm not just basing that because the entry with the highest vote count ever on Woot was on a creme shirt.

I'd just personally like to thank the benevolent Woot overlords for actually making a non-pop-culture style derby.

Whether or not this will help weed out blah-blah swirlies is another story, but I'll happily take a legitimate art challenge.

It appears the last few have been "non-pop culture". I admire that. And this will certainly amount to be an interesting derby. Hmmmm....

juliaL719 wrote:Whether or not this will help weed out blah-blah swirlies is another story, but I'll happily take a legitimate art challenge.

I'm hoping that it does. Not that such "flowing" designs are horrible (I'd take them over a turbunguin any day), but they certainly aren't setting any new standards or raising any bar either - in which case, it's like BTDT, so why vote for it?

Narfcake wrote:in which case, it's like BTDT, so why vote for it?

Because it's like "I voted for that last time, it is familiar to me, so I'll vote for the same thing again"

j5 wrote:Because it's like "I voted for that last time, it is familiar to me, so I'll vote for the same thing again"

Or else it's "Hell, this looks like every other generic bit of pablum at [insert department store of choice]. It's so overwhelmingly bland and inoffensive and ubiquitous, it must be cool!"

Spiritgreen wrote:The way I always think of it, is that two different halftones can interlock (perfectly position to fill together) but a dot can't be centered inside another dot, or a halftone line can't be centered inside a different color line.

So you can have three colors in any given area; two interlocking halftones, and the background color of the t-shirt itself behind them.


If you're using more than two inks then it still takes careful planning to make sure you never have more than two different colored effects trying to inhabit the same space, things will get tricky, but if you look at patrickspens or odysseyroc's designs you'll start to see how the areas of color can be divided up in a smart way.


EDIT: 'Keep Driving' the zombie motel design in my sig is a good example too!

How do you get two half tones to interlock? I get the idea of using a half tone over a solid ink color that itself fades into halftone somewhere else, but is there a way to actually overlay two sets of dots that interlock, like maybe set the two sets of halftones at complimentary angles or something? I thought ANY time two half tones overlap it created moire, so I've always restricted myself.

Hmm, don't know if I'll enter this one. Just starting to try to get a grip on halftones. It should be an interesting derby though.

As a recovering watercolorist, I can't think of something I'd associate with classical watercolors that I'd actually want to wear on a shirt.

rglee129 wrote:How do you get two half tones to interlock? I get the idea of using a half tone over a solid ink color that itself fades into halftone somewhere else, but is there a way to actually overlay two sets of dots that interlock, like maybe set the two sets of halftones at complimentary angles or something? I thought ANY time two half tones overlap it created moire, so I've always restricted myself.

Are you talking about just dot halftones, or lines as well?
I used lines instead of dots for the couple of halftone-heavy designs I've submitted. I think the tones look smoother that way, and it's easier to overlap two colors by placing the lines in between each other. Just have all the halftones at the exact same angle and they seem to sync up by themselves.

It's hard for me to explain without making a tutorial video or something... Just experiment a little with line halftones in different colors and you'll see what I mean

rglee129 wrote:How do you get two half tones to interlock? I get the idea of using a half tone over a solid ink color that itself fades into halftone somewhere else, but is there a way to actually overlay two sets of dots that interlock, like maybe set the two sets of halftones at complimentary angles or something? I thought ANY time two half tones overlap it created moire, so I've always restricted myself.

Like ocho' I tend to use lines rather than dots, because it feels more like something a human could draw and it's less broken up.

Using too many halftones can be a really bad idea, especially if the colors are too contrasting but some artists like Patrick use them all the time because they know how to avoid the pitfalls, I guess!

I make all my halftones at 22.5 degrees because that's supposedly is better at avoiding moire patterns if the printer has to scale it for different types of shirt.


This is a green shirt with red, blue, yellow and black inks interlocking but only being paired in twos:



It looks pretty gnarly in the extreme close-up but zoomed back out everything -can- still look fairly soft and natural. (zoomed out)

Lagbert wrote:Can we get a clarification on this:

"Halftone dots must be only one color each, and not overlap."

Does this means a layers of red halftone dots will not be allowed over a layer of blue halftone dots?

Or is this more about preventing people from trying to do 4 color processes?

As a non-professional, or even hobbyist, I thought that when you over lap them you cause the dot covered by the other color to wind up being smaller than their minimum printing width.
Now I am wondering if what I came up with to explain the rule is in any way part of reality.

Hi, still pretty new here. Is this the appropriate thread for posting WIPs for pre-derby critique, or is that someplace else?

blanked wrote:As a non-professional, or even hobbyist, I thought that when you over lap them you cause the dot covered by the other color to wind up being smaller than their minimum printing width.
Now I am wondering if what I came up with to explain the rule is in any way part of reality.

That's part of it--if you put a tiny spot of ink partially on top of another tiny spot of ink, it'll look messy. and if you delete the portion of the bottom layer that is hidden by the top layer, you could end up with a spot of ink that is too small to print.

While I don't follow those artists watercolor style that you listed. I do love the work of several present day watercolor artists who do fantasy/surreal watercolor designs which I have experience with.

Will surreal/fantasy elements or designs be acceptable for this derby or do we need to stick strictly to nature elements such as:plants,botanical type flora, and people? Can a moderator,staff member,or some one from management please advise?

Also, Is hard line or outlines acceptable in this derby or no? Because some water color artists use hard lines even in black while others have no discernible lines present in their work?


Thank You,
OfficeInk

gregjxh wrote:Hi, still pretty new here. Is this the appropriate thread for posting WIPs for pre-derby critique, or is that someplace else?

Since it's pertinent to this derby's theme, post them here.

This looks like a pretty challeging derby. I'm curious with what people will create.

gregjxh wrote:Hi, still pretty new here. Is this the appropriate thread for posting WIPs for pre-derby critique, or is that someplace else?

Here's appropriate. There are a few experienced people who give great feedback.

SO EXCITED!!!!1!

Seriously, though. This derby may just justify the $2 increase. I'm stoked to see the designs that are going to be submitted.

Hey guys, been a long time since I've tried a derby, but this is a cool theme and I've been wanting to learn how to do digital watercolors.

So, a long time ago edgarrmcherly submitted this design, and I thought it was pretty frickin awesome but unfortunately it didn't print.

I sorta associate edgar with watercolors, because he was always able to pull off the style really well. I thought it would be kinda cool for Old Man Winter to have an Old Man Summer companion.

I came up with this sketch and I'm thinking about working it through, but I want to see what people think about "remixing" another artist's idea like this.

I admire edgar's work, but I don't want to take it any further if you guys think it's too close to the original to pursue (Or edgar, if you're around and want to chime in)

Here's my sketch. Sorry the picture is sorta sketchy, I don't have a scanner so the pic is from my phone : )

Here's my WIP, saw Schiele's style and thought it'd look cool in a cyberpunk type piece...

Anyway, I'm looking for any kind of critique from layout (should I add an eement to balance?) to colors and if you think it looks enough like a watercolor.

Thanks.

Not a huge fan of white, creme, or lemon. The actual colors are nice I just wish the American Apparel blank wasn't so thin on those colors. Oh well, I guess I'll aim for big ink areas to cover the chest/bra area. =/