Hey y'all, hope all's good. Been trying to get a feel for the threadless community by virtue of just observing/scoring/advising the past couple of weeks, but I'm now itching to get started with submissions myself.



Sorry for the compositional awkwardness of this initial pic, but I wanted to get some feedback on the idea itself in general etc...before going and trying to fit it all on the lovely T-shirt templates. Basically, it's based on a joke from the Mighty Boosh ( http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=gkuU6AmW-yA ). Who doesn't love the Mighty Boosh? Commies, that's who. I just wondered what the Mod-Wolf World itself might be like, and how those dapper carnivores get down without humans about. What if, instead of just dancing about, they had their own band? There's Ace Faze, the King of the Mods on vocals, Rene Lupe on Rhythm Guitar, Johnny Two-Teeth on Lead Guitar, and Mowgli Kid Joe doing his thang on drums.



Just clearing some of the ideas up in case they're too tiny and fiddly in the rough-1st draft mock-up. I thought the Mod Roundel definitely has to feature, as the Irises of the Wolves, and maybe on the shoulders of the Tee as well (although that I'm less sure of, seems like overkill). Also, debating whether to feature a crowd of Mod Wolves grooving along the bottom back and front to extend the fantasy, or just to have a shot of the band. I like the concept of using up the bottom of the shirt (that "Little Robot can't swim" shirt, lovely), but don't know how much individual action it would have to feature to avoid looking contrived or clumsy. And finally, whether there's any need to feature a "Mod Wolves" logo outside the drum kit or not.



Enough jabbering, I'll be cleaning up and finishing off and colouring the band members in the next few days, just wanted to get the ball rolling feedback-wise since I'm still a n00b at this game. I'm hoping that it's got enough of a surreal charm on its own that you don't have to be a Boosh fan for it to appeal to you.



Anyhoo, feedbackuh pleeze, thank you for reading, and catch you soon.

It's looking pretty good so far.



The only problem I see by now has really nothing to do with your sub. You have this preceding sweet Alavarejo sub, I know it's not the same but it's the first thing that came to my mind when I saw it.



Still, seems like that one isn't going to print so there shouldn't be any harm in finishing this one, juust be prepared for the similiarity comments that might emerge.

Cheers AB (can I call you AB? Well, obviously I can,; I just did ), still quite new to the scene, so don't have too much idea of the historical works preceding mine....although that's kind of one of the reasons I was thinking of putting the crowd in, I fgured just pictures of animals jamming away mus have been done before, whereas an audience of similar individuals helps to further the concept.

I'm unfamiliar with the joke, but I do like the sketch feel. Maybe doing this all in blue outlines and bits of colors, but keeping the sketch vibe may work out nice.

Cheers Ela.....Yeah, the concept of Mods might be a bit Anglo/Brit-centric, which is why I decided to put the video in there. When you say sketch, do you mean like the back two wolves, or is my whole style in general sketchy? Really all that happened there was that it was late and I couldnt be arsed to ink those two before patching everything together in photoshop, so I just mucked about with replace colour a bit to darken it. I'm not averse to sketchy drawings per se, but mods were all about being slick and polished and crisp, so not sure it would work in the context of this...I'll experiment with the blue outlines idea, but not sure my photoshopping skillz are hot enough for that...

I think the concept is cool. I am curious to see it in colour and cleaned up a bit....

Yes, I meant your draft is already in sketch style. But if the concept makes sense clean, then that may work better based on your explanation of theme.

I think the drummer's head should also be in 3/4 view. The straight on view doesn't do the wolf head justice.

Cheers mikdog, I'll take a shot at that....was just wary of having them all tilted the same manner, maybe I'll see what a full-on side view is like. Reason the drummer has a massive nose was as a nod to Ringo Star, but that's probs a bit to obtuse ('sides, he was a mocker, not a mod or a rocker)

I like it. Maybe a female wolf in the audience? The audience (in shadow?) could be a good opportunity to make little vignettes you might not notice on first glance.

Cheers Rudy. There's at least one female wolf in the audience, she's just covered up by the drummer's hand in the mock-up. Still working on trying to get all of the band coloured in, but should update soonish...

Love the look of this, and while I can see Hector (AB)'s mention that Alavarejo's sub is similar, this could stand on its own. I love the look of the wolf lead singer especially!

Scary !!!!!!

yeh i like it, will have a better feel when the colours added (cheers for the comments on mine skilly) keep the good work going.

i think this is a cool idea. wanna see the color version.

Cheers all, should hopefully have a colour mock-up of the band done by some time later tonight (British time). Cheap Friday nights in, wooo!

Right, this is the best/only way I could think to show the progress so far, since I neither have, nor can do Flash. That's roughly the position the Mod Wolf band would be in, but probably downscaled on the actual T-shirt to make more room for the revellers/crowd from the sketch (I just didn't want to make them so teeny-tiny you couldn't see nuffink) Put some roundels on the shoulders since that's a bit of a theme, but I think it might be overkill/overcomplicate things.



Otherwise, just included bigger versions of Rene and Ace on different backgrounds to try and show a bit of the detail, and how different colur uniforms would work on different colour shirts. I'm undecided on the bluey-purple ones they've all got at the moment; wanted to try the T-shirt as a light blue, but they didn't really seem to work on that.



Might have to redo the drummer completely, or at least his head, not sure how well he "fits" with the rest of the band.



So yeah, feedback etc... welcome and appreciated, please excuse the slipshod layout but it was probably that or 5 new versions submitted at once....Damn, just previewed it, and no matter what I try to do to the file, it always seems to come out squashed looking. You see, Mod Wolves don't need to put up with this crap....

The roundels (targets) on the shoulders won't work because they're on the edge of the shirt. Belt printing can do that but only one color is advised because the registration is really crappy. See specialty printing here



I have a few suggestions you might consider or not..



I'd say you need to simplify a bit. I don't think you need the guitar cords, motion lines above the drums, foot pedal, and the wolf tails. The tails just seem to be stuck on, do you really need them?



The guitarist's head on the left seems more in proportion than the rest of the heads. The drummer's is especially oversized and his brown hair is inconsistent with the rest of the band, (might be the reason you think he doesn't fit in). You might lose his leg and just make the base drum rounder and lower to fill in the space and maybe use one less symbol to further simplify the design. I think the MW on the drum is a good logo, you might want to widen it and make it bigger on an all white drum. The lead singer's mike holder could be longer. The target eyes are a bit distracting, they might look better in dark brown with a pupil highlight to put a gleam in their eyes. You might try the design on a gray shirt and let the gray come through as the gray color in the wolves, (a much used method of designers here to better integrate an illustration with the shirt.) You might also try enlarging the lead singer and having just his torso and head come up from the bottom of the shirt to add a bit of drama.



Anyway, just my opinion, thanks for your comments on mine.

Hey Quister, thanks for all the tips. I think I'll try to do away with the guitar chords and motion lines (I'm obviously coming into this from a cartoonist's background, rather than an artist's!). Deffo going to lose the shoulder roundels as well - they seemed like a good idea at the time, but upon review; bleh. Also going to do some work on the drummer-boy, probably going to try and switch up the head position as well to make things a bit more visually interesting. I'll try simplifying the bass drum design as well.



However, I'm a bit more reticent as far as target eyes, head size and tails are concerned. That target is essentially the symbol of the mod movement, so I like the thematic integration you get from replacing standard piercing-blue wolf irises with it. Plus, I think it provides a slightly crazed, "deranged" element as well. The tails are touch-and-go, but just covering them up with my fingers, I get the impression that it could just be guys in wolf suits playing, rather than anthropomorphised wolves. Re: Head proportions etc, I'm wary to have them look too alike or too realistic - not hugely my graphic style, but seems ike it could make for a bit more blandness visually. I guess the inherent expectation is for the same species to be rendered identically throughout, whereas I want to get some semblance of them all being individuals.



I'll deffo have a look-see at the Grey shirt idea as well, I was just wary of thm fading into the background. Cheers for all the feedback though, gives me a lot to think about and work on.

Reasonable arguments, all. Ahhh! The RAF roundel's use on clothing in the early 60s mod movement, I'm now informed, so yes, targets FTW. I kind of like the drummer's face, with tongue hanging out, he's definitely playing like he's into it. I think the wolves will hold up on gray with the line work you have, but maybe not. The red and blues and purples are intense so I think you might need a neutral color. You'll figure it out, I'm sure.

I think it looks great come on alot since i last looked. Boosh fans will be happy! left guitarists head still looks a bit funny but I know your still working on it



an advice for me?

http://www.threadless.com/critique/31293/Typo

Hello! I think this looks like a great idea. Also I love the mighty boosh :D I like the sketchy cartoony drawings, but i think that the drummer's head does need a bit of work. He seems a bit nerdy to me. Maybe if you made his hair a mohawk or something? Or if his hair had shade (since everyone else's does). I also think his head should be smaller. I agree with quister with the points that the bass drum should be rounder and the mike stand longer. Keep working on it, you'll get there.

If you want to comment on my stuff

http://www.threadless.com/critique/31710/Heart_Monster

thanks all, will keep at it, try lining them up straight, putting them on grey etc...just on the backburner for the next few days while i've got grad recruitment interviews coming up (I know - why would anyone bother attempting legitimate careers when there's hare-brained schemes like this to be had?). Drummer's going to get work done like his name was Catherine Zeta-Jone(on the advice of my attorneys, I have decided not to finish naming the celebrity married to michael douglas in question, for fear of legal reprisal).

Le bump de finalle for to get any last nuggets of advice and pearls of wisdom before I get back to work on this, dankeschoen.

i bloody like this...i think you would really like my designs about mod and freakbeat...or maybe you wouldn't, but anyway full marks for the mod-inspired design.The guitar playing wolf reminds me of Weller,funnily enough....

http://www.threadless.com/critique/32151/black_eyes

love the mighty boosh.

looks good

Are you not going to have problems with the copyright issue?

I don't think there's any real copyright issue - the wolves are all dressed differently to the show, don't have identical heads or heights (unlike the show), and there's certainly been far closer likenesses of central major pop culture characters (e.g. Darth Vader) than these one-shot punchlines. If you're talking about copyright with the roundel, I believe it is originally ascribed to the RAF, but has definitely been appropriated into a wider cultural contex since, and like for example the yin-yang or "peace" symbol, seems pretty much public domain.



But yeah, I needs to get back to work on this sucka. I was pondering decolouring the suits completely. Gah, it does look a bit shit presently.

Boosh is awesome

I like the way this is going. I think you should try tracing over these lines in illustrator though, it will look a lot cleaner.

i like the idea. i think it could use less color, or a more coherent color scheme.



Critique if so inclined, plz. Danke!

i really dig the targets in the eyes, man. maybe add an element to connect them.. like maybe a spotlight or a round section of the stage. agree with losing the patch chords unless you maybe add some towering amps, could be a good way to stick to the roundelle theme by having them on the speakers? just a suggestion bro, i like where you are heading with this one.

Oooh, cheers for the feedback ED, I'd forgotten all about this. Looking at it now, I'm wondering whether it might not be worth just restarting, and keeping the wolves kitted out as mods, but not as anthyopomorphised - just wolves, styled up to the max. Kind of like something you'd see in a science textbook. Can't really resume much on it for the next week though, hosting the travelling parents.

Thanx for your vote and critiques.

Hope to return the favor by helping you out if possible.

I would remove the rounds on the shoulders.

And remove details. I think this design would have more impact with simplicity. The easiest thing is probably make a new layer on top and set the rest on low opacity and outline the big area's.

I would change the position of the singer too a bit higher and overlapping the drummer. would perspectivle more correct I think.

Yeah it'd be cool if you could resurrect this, I think with a bit of work it could make a great tee. Having them less human-like is a good idea you should try that.

Cheers, yeah, I think de-anthropomorphisation is the way to go. Especially since there's both wolves and dogs in tuxes human-stylee in the running at the moment. I'll maintain that I started that trend though!



I thought of maybe having a bunch of animals, being their normal animally selves, but dressed up in various styles suggesting muscal genres, and annotated below, with faux-latin names and everything.



Thoughts so far are Mod Wolves (to honour the Boosh), Emo Emus, Gothstriches (a close relative to the previous), Punkupines (or does Punkuin work better?), Rock Lobster. I can think of others later. Technorangutan? Any thoughts? Has it been done here before? The closest I could find was



This, but I may have missed some. I'm a noob (which should be evident in case the html there is screwed up). Still, the look of that is worlds away from what I'm going fo.



Could just be titled "The Animals" like the band of House of Rising of Sun fame?

I would work on the faces of both wolves that are looking straight at us, they are not as good as the 3/4 wolves. the drummer's left arm looks like it needs a bend in it. Nice work. Thanks for looking at my Ganesh!

I like you animal ideas... and i would go with "gothstriches" over "emo emus" lol :)



"mod wolf", above, id prpbably say re-draw or re-illustrate it...and change the eyes and i also think you could lose the tails...

To be honest I think with a bit of work you could do a better job than that one you linked to. You should do another sketch so we can get a feel for what it's going to look like. I HAVE to see gothstriches!!

Cool. I like the full band best but I'd probably lose the air force symbols from the arms.

Cheers everyone, yeah I think I'll abandon this all-wolves concept and move to a menagerie of non-anthropomorphised animals each illustrating a musical genre. Prefereably with some faux-latin labelling beneath. I'll keep a mod wolf in (undecided on whether keeping the roundel for the iris or not), but this way I reckon I'll just be using a throwaway joke the Boosh made as a jumping-off point, rather than literally illustrating it with minimal original input.



It must be puntastic, for puns are grand. If there's a (?), that means I'm thinking the joke's a bit iffy/tenuous, and there's probably a better name out there I haven't thought up yet.



So far I've thought of

Mod Wolves

Rock: Rock Lobster

Reggae: Alreggaetor

Ska: Ska-rpion (?)

Glam Rock: Glam Croc (A crocodile with Ziggy Stardust lightning bolt? Or more like KISS?)

Angry/depresso music: Gothstriches

Opera: Op'rangutan (?)

Punk: Punkupines or Punkuins

Hiphop: Hiphoppotamus (apologies to F o the C)

Flamenco: Flamengo (self-explanatory)

New Romantic: New Roman-tick (?) - (sure Adam Ant wouldn't object)



Thoughts?



I'm struggling to think of any other animals whose names I could fuse with music styles that have a distinct enough visual identity (techno, metal, grunge, jazz, pop, country....I'm sure there's more) Any of you good folks got any animal-music puns you're itching to unload?



Will actually submit drawings in next few days hopefully, when I stop playing host to the holidaying parents...

Got a cool image in my head of 'punkupines' with outrageous mohawks!!

man you got a lot to say

haha :)

i like 1 version in GRAYSCALE and only sketch much more.

O no, don't submit 1 version! but i think you are goinig in wrong way. you catched uncontrolled spree in v.1 and now I see only few dreesed wolfs without the whoopy power they could have.

and I thonk you don't need those details on the shoulders.

The current image is a good start, but it might be better to abandon its current form.



Firstly, the Mod joke is probably not going to make it with an American crowd. I haven't seen 'Boosh', but I did watch A Hard Day's Night, and love Ringo answering 'are you a Mod or a Rocker' with 'I'm a Mocker'. But I don't know anything about recent movements. I don't think you'll sell a British movement to the Americans that easily, least of all the RAF roundels gag. You might have more luck with grainy b/w wolf Beatles (but that probably ruins your joke that I don't understand).



Still, the new idea is great, and with the captions it'll fly, I reckon. The most important thing for me with characters is gesture. If a shirt features characters of any kind, they're obviously the centre of attention, and so it matters entirely that they are perfect. The wolves in this version are OK, and the cartoony feel is nice enough, but the stance of one or two is a tad wooden. To nail a print, I think you have to get the gesture right. If there's a hint of mannequin about any of the figures it sucks the life out.

The captions that are definitely worth pursuing are:



Mod Wolves

Rock Lobster

Alreggaetor

Gothstriches

Operangutan

Punkupines



Hiphoppotamus will get you roasted by anyone who knows FotC, even if you say 'apologies to F o the C', so consider avoiding for that reason, but it could be a great Notorious BIG thing visually. The glam croc is too over, and superfluous with the alreggaetor, which may be better. I don't really get Mod wolves as puns go, but that might just be me. Flamengo is OK, but a bit too minor, and New Romantic needs a better joke, and may be unnecessary with Goths around (I know they're not the same, but still).



Style would be crucial. Consider going with Biology textbook.

Actually, Biology textbook may be too hard to pull off convincingly. Cartooning may be best then, but it'll still take a bit of doing. No going halfway.

Cheers Zeroplus, bunch of good points. Yeah, Mod Wolves isn't a pun per se, more the joke that started this whole movement. I should probs drop them with the new direction though. They've served their purpose, off to the glue factory they go!



Yeah, the gestures were a bit dodge, that was my main problem with it. Love drawing faces, not so high on bodies. Part of the motivation for deanthropomorphisation - put an animal head on a human body, and it's that much harder to strike convincing poses.



I was hoping to go with a Biology textbook, so that's the first thing I thought I'd take a stab at, but then I thought I could also try a band publicity shot type thing with them all grouped together, and maybe the annotated outlines on the back. So it makes less sense initially. GAH! I know not. WIll try and doodle at work tomorrow, undermining the very concept of capitalism.

I'm digging your new thinking! Maybe an insect, The Beatles, and some older bands, The Monkees, The Animals, Steppenwolf, The Turtles, The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Def Leppard, The Eagles, T. Rex, White Snake, etc., and some newer ones, Phish, Snoop Dog, Zebrahead, Counting Crows, Arctic Monkeys, Panda Bear etc., and then title it "Animal Collective" :D



Maybe look for, get a consensus of, what are the most popular/recognizable animal bands, so everybody gets it without the labels. Definitely get a good reference of a band's gestures when rocking it and go from there. Anyway, really like the idea and the direction you're taking. Cheers!

Forgot to say, start a new critique with a comment about your idea and maybe just individual sketches of your animal rockers to start it off! You need to start fresh as your thinking is now way different and not related to this critique at all. Cheers, again!

I like it, but maybe try and add some detail to the suits of the wolves.



http://www.threadless.com/critique/48814/Keyboards

nice idea, but maybe the outfits are too formal.



Thank you for your comment on my design, please give feedback on the latest update