As we’ve reported a few times now, stripes have been quietly elevating their status from classic wardrobe staple to one of 2016’s biggest trends. We saw this budding as early as last year, gaining traction through early 2016, and now; they’ve officially hit their trending tipping point:
Stripes are easy to create, compliment other prints (think polka dots or floral pattern mixing), and go well with multiple colors and styles. Simply put, they’re perfect for incorporating into your MyWear® designs this summer!
To design your own in Photoshop, use the rectangular marquee tool to select the size stripe you want. Then, use the paint bucket tool to fill in the selected area with a desired color. Repeat! Copy and paste your stripe design for an ongoing pattern.
Want to switch it up with a new color scheme, you chameleon, you? No problem! Use the Hue/Saturation dial located in adjustments to give a quick color change!
As mentioned above, pattern mixing is a cinch with stripes, just remember to use at least one matching or complimentary color!
Most importantly, have fun and infuse your own personality into this classic!
In this week’s MyWear® How-To, I’ll walk you through creating your own tribal print. To do this, you’ll need Photoshop and a little creativity. Easy peasy!
Start by using the rectangular marquee tool, located on your tool bar to your left, to create a couple of lines. Fill them in with the desired color using the paint bucket, also located in your tool bar.
Use the polygonal Lasso Tool to begin shaping out an angular design. To do this click corners and the polygonal lasso will connect them with lines. You’ll be using this tool a lot for this particular design, so I recommend playing around with it for a few moments to get a good feel for it.
Once you’ve created a shape, fill it in with the desired color.
Add an additional color, if desired.
Create more space for expanding your design by lengthening the canvas size. To do this, go to “Image” on the Menu Bar, then “Canvas Size”, and shift the anchor to one side. Enter a larger number in the Width box.
To repeat a design, use the rectangular marquee tool to select area you’d like to repeat. Copy and paste (Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V) and use cursor arrows to move the desired spot.
Continue creating a design using your Polygonal Lasso Tool and filling it with the Paint Bucket tool, adding additional colors as you go.
From here, it is really just a matter of creating, copying, and pasting, and adding to your design.
Here’s my final pattern:
From here, you can either save and upload to LaunchMyWear or you can add texture. To do this, Go to “Filter” on your Menu Bar and dropdown to select “Oil Paint”. Move around the dials and up the “shine” until you achieve desired effect.
Now you’ve created a one-of-a-kind tribal print ready to be uploaded to LaunchMyWear and turned into an awesome piece of clothing or accessory. Have fun and remember to tweet your designs to @LaunchMyWear.
This is the first installment of a weekly-running tutorial on different ways you can create art for your LaunchMyWear collection. In this one, we’ll explore how to make a print from a photograph!
Today’s tutorial will require Photoshop. Adobe Illustrator is also used for an additional step, but not necessary. Some basic knowledge of Photoshop would come in handy, but fear not if you’re a beginner. There are lots of free resources out there.
Because life if absurd and I’m obsessed with my pets, Andre and Shanté, they will be the source of my pattern today!
Awww
1. Open desired photo in Photoshop. Click on the quick selection tool, located to the left in your toolbar, and select the area you want to feature in your print. You can use the magic wand or lasso to select the area, as well.
2. Create a second blank document in Photoshop.
3. Copy and paste the selected area (ctrl-c, ctrl-v) and use the cursor to drag the layer to its own new Photoshop document.
Double the Andre, double the fun!
4. Use the clone stamp tool or eraser to soften edges. To select the area you want to clone, hold down the alt key while clicking on desired area. Then, click again where you want to apply the cloned selection. If you’re new to this feature, take a few minutes to play around with it. It’s incredibly intuitive once you get the hang of it, but requires a little getting used to. In this case, I’m selecting the white background and applying it to the edges of Andre’s fur, to soften the appearance.
This is getting weird.
5. If you want a cartoon-y effect, I recommend turning up the saturation, which will help keep the photo from getting washed out during the process of making it look more illustrated later in AI. To add saturation, go to “Image” on your menu bar, then “Adjustments” in the dropdown. There, you’ll see an option for “Hue/Saturation”. Turn the saturation dial up and press ok. You can also turn up the exposure under “adjustments”, which I have done here.
6. To create the cartoon-y effect mentioned above, save your saturated document and open in Adobe Illustrator. Go to “Object” in the top menu bar and select “Artboards”, followed by “Fit to Artwork Bounds”, which will be necessary for saving/exporting the file later on. From here, you can click on your image and an “Image Trace” box should appear. Use this to change the preset to 16 colors.
You can also use the pen tool, located on your toolbar to the left, to trace your photo and create an outline.
7. Return to Photoshop after exporting your art from Adobe Illustrator (don’t forget to check the “Use Artboards” box when exporting!) . From here, create a background color with the paint bucket tool.
8. Enlarge your canvas size and copy and paste your photo repeatedly until you begin to create a print. Here, I added Shanté to the mix in the same way that I did with Andre earlier.
9. Keep going until you develop the desired size and look.
10. There you have it! After re-sizing to 20MB or less and saving, your artwork is ready to be uploaded to LaunchMyWear. You can also size it into a square and use the tile option when uploading to LaunchMyWear.com Your print is now on its way to being turned into an incredible one-of-a-kind item. You’re not going to find this scarf anywhere else, that’s for sure!
Have fun! And, as always, tweet you designs or questions @LaunchMyWear.
