I guess a few people thought my last post was too scary...Sorry that this one isn't much cuter, but 1. I don't really draw these people with any intention of being scary, and 2. Why is that bad even if it is kind of creepy? Anyways, hope everyone likes this design, it was very difficult getting the color combo to look right with only 5. I'd wear it:)

Lastly, if the dark blue looks kind of funky on the red version, it's just because the file lost some color quality when I compressed it to fit 120kb.

That's all, thanks!

I like the quality of this - It is intriguing, but it also leaves me wanting more. It hints at portrait - I would expand and provide a little more information in the illustration

That's interesting, could you explain a little more about what you mean by more information in the illustration? Do you mean information about who he is somehow?

Thanks that's helpful

smcfrk - I think of images as storytelling - everybody likes stories - you have an image that is well done and hints at a story but there is not enough so you are left wanting more - Adding different elements to the illustration - background, other characters etc. or going balls out with the portrait effect. I do not think the drips work really with the image, so IMO I would rid myself of them.



And try some diff color options too -

sncfrk - sorry if that was more vague - If I drew this I would look at it and say "looks good, but it looks like a floating aunt jemima head" and then I would say - maybe I should add some pancakes or her holding a state fair winning zucchini - or have her giant great dane in the portrait. etc. etc.

Very well drawn. Nice style. I think you should stay away from scary shirts altogether. Not everyone likes scrary stuff.

haha, thank you, those are both very helpful and I'll try to think of something that I can add that will make it more satisfying in terms of what you were trying to explain to me.

If this makes any more sense as to why the image looks the way it does, is because recently in my history class I've been keeping myself busy by referencing images in my textbook, which means that all of the deviated portaits are of prominant figures in the early 1900's; this being James Baldwin. As for those lines or "drips," it's just something I've done to each person to make the series more cohesive. Obviously this doesn't come across when just one character is taken from the series and put on a shirt out of context, and without the title I can see how James Baldwin might not be the first thing coming to mind.

So, yea, thanks for bringing that to my attention, I'll work on getting verion 2 out soon.

-Austin

If you have done a series of portraits - use them all for the shirt -

how is this going?

It's going well. I'm not sure if you meant use all of the portraits on one shirt, or for separate shirts, but either way - I am planning to put most of them one their own shirts to submit them individually, I think that's what you meant? As for this one, I'm trying to think of what I could add that would make it more appealing in terms of what you were talking about. I can't really draw the whole body or anything, and it seems like adding other objects would distract or be to manic... Maybe though, I could put kind of a cool looking frame around the portrait, like an old ornate vector picture frame, like it was an old portrait of James baldwin. I'm still not sure.

Oh yea, I made an iron on version of the guy with the red face and the blue fez for a school project. And...it looks pretty good. [besides the fact that it's an iron on] I say that though because it's basically the same shape and placement as this one ^ so as an experiment, I think it could look ok as it is, but I'll submit another version anyways just for feedback.

Something about the "drips" coming from the collar isn't right... Perhaps a little more variation?

sncfrk makes the best shirts in the world. look how i use the exclamation mark to make my point!

Thanks for all of the critiques and advice. I appreciate all that has been said about the shirt, and feel like I should push the design into the actual running. I have not however, made any changes, mostly just because I've moved on to other designs now, and I just want to push it forward and see what happens. Anyways, thanks for the support.