While I’m here, I think I’ll show off a bit of what I’ve been up to lately. As you can see by the punny post title, I’ve been making merch artwork. It’s fun. It lets me explore some visual idea that don’t get a lot of room for expression in the day to day. I’m leaning into my fantasy interests here. Last summer I started making some Dungeons and Dragons themed designs… all original, of course, but aimed at fans of the property. Recently though, I think I’ve hit upon the style I want to continue working with.
https://www.teepublic.com/user/geomo-designs/albums/202881-dragons
The Red Dragon. My favourite. I bought one. I think I’ll wear it to the Honor Among Thieves premier later this month.
There are variations on it… all built from the same base file. Using some Adobe Photoshop trickery, I rendered down some real textures to light and shadow, and then separated them. This one’s defined by the highlights, as is the black and white shirt shown below. The red shirt below is defined by the shadows.
I’m a big fan of using the shirt’s base colour as a part of the design… be it the highlights on a dark shirt, or the shadows on a lighter shirt. But my tastes don’t always line up with the purchasing public’s, so I’ve made available one that uses the illustration whole, on any background shirt a customer would like.
(I still prefer red highlights on a black shirt though)