There are plenty of tutorials out there for this kind of thing, and this isn't one of them.
Though if you ask nicely, I'll happily point the way towards some really good ones ;-)
I got the urge one night (ok, 3 nites and 3 shirts) to make my own shirt designs right here by hand. I constantly shift between computer art and um, human-powered art. Doing one or the other gets tedious and this time around was no different.
The biggest obstacles I face right now are that my studio space is in Jersey along with my art supplies. Even if I had them here, papi raises hell for even small infractions. Like leaving a sweater on a couch.
Heaven help me if I leave a sweater on a couch, in this nursing home of derelicts! Not only will I keep hearing about it over, and over, and get lambasted with it atop any future accusations, but have a lil' old man chirping in my ear repeatedly whilst circling and hovering over me. Interrogation tactics that would make even the KGB cry for their mommy. Makes anyone feel all stabby, it does :-P
As a result, much of my art has been reduced to digital. Luckily I found my Japanese toxic marker pens that write on anything (leather, vinyl, fabric) and found some blank Hanes™ Tshirts and got the hell going on that there hizzy:
As you can plainly see, I began drawing on printer paper and taped it with drafting tape onto corrugated cardboard backing (my clipboard dissappeared). The drafting tape part is important. It makes peeling off super easy and holds strong. And for the drawing, a regular #2 pencil and Sanford™ Eraser Stick.
Above you can see the finished sketch, complete with a multitude of erased-over indentations. Kinda sloppy, so I remedied this by printing out a copy on my All-In-One printer, at full dark.
That printed copy I then traced in black Sharpie™ marker:
Next, as soon as I finish I tape onto the cardboard and slide a blank shirt over it. That shirt is then affixed to the cardboard to prevent sliding around as I draw over it with the paint marker.
See what I mean? Zoom shot!
And here are some angle shots of how I affixed the shirt in place:
Here I am drawing over the shirt (with Sharpie first), which covers the drawing I am tracing:
Here you can see the kind of paint marker I use over it, and the final result:
I should mention that although I made this shirt for a friend, that friend wears a size Medium in men's. All I had was XL to work with, which explains the extra tightening of the rubberband in the back. Also explains why the graphic seems small in the center. But he knows his way around industrial sewing machines, so it won't be problematic resizing it.
The drawing is a chibi of my friend; meet Poundcake!
