August 2009

So the folks who were supposed to get shirts all got them, and two of them were kind enough to send me photos of themselves enjoying their fine new shirts. Yes, I know they're not really "customers," since the shirts were gifts, but bear with me here.

Sarah got hers first! And I had asked her specifically for one since I needed an awesome model for whenever I decide to post these on Etsy (don't worry, gentle readers--I will let you know whenever I post something on Etsy).

Max got two shirts, but only because it was his birthday.

I don't really know what's happening to him in the picture below. Is he being possessed by Ninkashurra?

I honestly haven't been doing too much drawing in the last couple days. Maybe I'll write you a review of District 9 or something (but you already know my opinion if you know anything at all about the consensus--this is a great movie).

And the third design: a character you've almost certainly seen if you've been following my art for any length of time. For this one I used an entirely different technique--I cut out the character and stenciled around it. I think these two turned out pretty neat. I don't think the recipients have received them yet, but at this point I'm fine with spoiling surprises.

Another stencil t-shirt. By this time I'd had a bit of practice with the more complicated frog design, so this one was a bit easier.

So lately I've been working on making t-shirt stencils. The initial attempts were gifts for friends, who may be more forgiving of errors in technique. I used acrylic paint mixed with fabric medium, since I had done that once before with one of my artsy friends and it had both turned out and held up quite well (though, that time, he had made the stencil).

The process for making these isn't hard, but it's tedious. My stencils were generally both more complicated and thicker than I'd really recommend to anyone else. You have to have the Devil's patience to cut out the tiny details--gingerly, with X-acto knives--and then wait for the thing to dry.