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Camouflage Problem
Camouflage Problem
I now need to sort out that 'camouflage' connotation that kept cropping up whenever I looked at the tea leaves pattern, so I went back to the tea leaves document and using the sketch as reference I started to delete some of the leaves.
I copied this square and went back to my mug document, pasting it on the side before reducing it so that it was the same size as the other pattern. I then created a swatch and changed the background.
I put the designs side-by-side to compare them both, and I much prefer the one that had the lesser amount of tea leaves. The leaves are more prominent because there's now more of a focus on the larger ones, so it doesn't resemble the camouflage pattern so much anymore.
Twinings Label
With that done I can add some colour to the Twinings label, and I think I might just do it in the same yellow as the banner. I used the brush tool to create the smooth piece of string.
Other Colour Schemes
Out of curiosity I decided to try this design out with an orange tea leaves pattern before reducing its opacity. I wasn't too keen on it, and that's when I thought: why not try it with my red/blue/white colour palette?
Seeing them placed side-by-side made me reach the decision that although I've fallen in love with the blue/white/red combination, the green/yellow/orange is unusual and certainly attention-grabbing. [4] Plus I need to consider my past results when I presented my colour combinations to my target audience, peers and lecturers, as the most popular choice was the green one.
Shading
My next step is to add in details and I have decided to try this out on Photoshop first because I could combine the vectors with some painting. I was going to try it out on Illustrator but as I'm not familiar with it's functions (apart from the basic pen tool and shapes tool) it'll be best to work with Photoshop. If I have time I shall experiment with Illustrator and compare my results.
I save my Mug design as a PSD and open it up on Photoshop, and the first thing I noticed that all of the layers were mixed around and the names have been changed. The first thing I do is thus change the names and rearrange the layers. I sometimes had to select using the magic wand tool and then delete objects off layer to put them on a new layer.
With everything now done I hopped over to Steve Simpson's Behance where he had uploaded a process video of his "The Big Bang Theory" piece for inspiration. That's when I noticed that we used a similar colour scheme, haha!
I was about to start shading but I kept thinking that it might be better to do in Illustrator... I just couldn't decide what to do! I then gave in and did it up on Illustrator, deciding to just do the texture in Photoshop.
I created a new layer for the shading and started working on it. At first I did really small shadows but then went larger as I realised that you couldn't actually see them as you zoom out!
I started getting a bit confused of where to place my shadows so I created a new layer called 'light direction' and drew lines where the light source would be. This made things a lot easier!
I then made my shadows a shade darker so that they were more dramatic and would show up easier when printed.
Now I want to try experimenting by creating a second layer of shading, but this one a shade lighter, so that it looks like cell shading. Another technique is to use the same shade but at a lower opacity, and this is the one I chose to use in the end.
This was quite time-consuming so I first worked on the ampersand before moving onto the banner.
Now I will move onto the Twinings label before I do the teapot and cup as I'm not too sure what to do with them at this moment in time.
Okay so I've now nearly finished all of the shading, so I can concentrate on shading the teacup and pot. I don't want to shade them too much because I want the main focus to be on the ampersand and banner, so might just stick to a minimal amount of shadows, perhaps only choosing one or two very deep ones.
With all of my shading done I can now use similar techniques but for adding some lighting. This will make the illustration 'pop' even more.
Now it's time to move onto adding texture! I save my document then export it as a PSD before bring it up on Photoshop.
Texture
I start by adding a very subtle shadow on the red section of the banner just to bring the ampersand out a little bit. I used the paintbrush tool at a very lower opacity in a soft brush, and slowly layered my shadows. Then I used the eraser at an equally low opacity to blend it out before using the magnetic lasso tool to delete any shading outside of the section.
Time to add some texture! I took some photos of watercolour and sketchpad paper, although the texture isn't very prominent... I'll give it a go anyway. I scanned them into photoshop and adjusted their brightness (I decided to just use watercolour paper) before putting it into the Mug document.
I deleted the areas outside of the template and started to play around with layer styles before moving it so that it was right at the top. Multiply seemed to work best, so I duplicated the layer and deleted the areas that cover the illustrations as I want them to have less texture.
I've noticed that the paper has made the colours a lot darker, so I hid the two paper layers and duplicated the original (the one that doesn't have the illustrations cut out of it) and adjusted the brightness/contrast.
This greatly improved it, as not only did it bring the colours to their near-enough original state, but the texture was easy to see as well!
Et voila, I'm done! That's until I spot something to change, of course...
Conclusion:
I've learnt a lot throughout the whole designing process, and one of the most important things is being able to work with vectors in Illustrator. I had been trying to avoid Illustrator when I first approached this project, but now I feel confident enough to do it again.
I'm really surprised at the outcome of this design as I thought it would be more 'cartoony', but I quite like it nevertheless. I'm also amazed at how well the colours work together... I never thought that they would do!
My next step is to take a break away from this a little bit so that I could look at it with fresh eyes in case anything needs to be changed.
Shading
My next step is to add in details and I have decided to try this out on Photoshop first because I could combine the vectors with some painting. I was going to try it out on Illustrator but as I'm not familiar with it's functions (apart from the basic pen tool and shapes tool) it'll be best to work with Photoshop. If I have time I shall experiment with Illustrator and compare my results.
I save my Mug design as a PSD and open it up on Photoshop, and the first thing I noticed that all of the layers were mixed around and the names have been changed. The first thing I do is thus change the names and rearrange the layers. I sometimes had to select using the magic wand tool and then delete objects off layer to put them on a new layer.
With everything now done I hopped over to Steve Simpson's Behance where he had uploaded a process video of his "The Big Bang Theory" piece for inspiration. That's when I noticed that we used a similar colour scheme, haha!
I was about to start shading but I kept thinking that it might be better to do in Illustrator... I just couldn't decide what to do! I then gave in and did it up on Illustrator, deciding to just do the texture in Photoshop.
I created a new layer for the shading and started working on it. At first I did really small shadows but then went larger as I realised that you couldn't actually see them as you zoom out!
I started getting a bit confused of where to place my shadows so I created a new layer called 'light direction' and drew lines where the light source would be. This made things a lot easier!
I then made my shadows a shade darker so that they were more dramatic and would show up easier when printed.
Now I want to try experimenting by creating a second layer of shading, but this one a shade lighter, so that it looks like cell shading. Another technique is to use the same shade but at a lower opacity, and this is the one I chose to use in the end.
This was quite time-consuming so I first worked on the ampersand before moving onto the banner.
Now I will move onto the Twinings label before I do the teapot and cup as I'm not too sure what to do with them at this moment in time.
Okay so I've now nearly finished all of the shading, so I can concentrate on shading the teacup and pot. I don't want to shade them too much because I want the main focus to be on the ampersand and banner, so might just stick to a minimal amount of shadows, perhaps only choosing one or two very deep ones.
Now it's time to move onto adding texture! I save my document then export it as a PSD before bring it up on Photoshop.
Texture
I start by adding a very subtle shadow on the red section of the banner just to bring the ampersand out a little bit. I used the paintbrush tool at a very lower opacity in a soft brush, and slowly layered my shadows. Then I used the eraser at an equally low opacity to blend it out before using the magnetic lasso tool to delete any shading outside of the section.
Time to add some texture! I took some photos of watercolour and sketchpad paper, although the texture isn't very prominent... I'll give it a go anyway. I scanned them into photoshop and adjusted their brightness (I decided to just use watercolour paper) before putting it into the Mug document.
I deleted the areas outside of the template and started to play around with layer styles before moving it so that it was right at the top. Multiply seemed to work best, so I duplicated the layer and deleted the areas that cover the illustrations as I want them to have less texture.
I've noticed that the paper has made the colours a lot darker, so I hid the two paper layers and duplicated the original (the one that doesn't have the illustrations cut out of it) and adjusted the brightness/contrast.
This greatly improved it, as not only did it bring the colours to their near-enough original state, but the texture was easy to see as well!
Et voila, I'm done! That's until I spot something to change, of course...
Conclusion:
I've learnt a lot throughout the whole designing process, and one of the most important things is being able to work with vectors in Illustrator. I had been trying to avoid Illustrator when I first approached this project, but now I feel confident enough to do it again.
I'm really surprised at the outcome of this design as I thought it would be more 'cartoony', but I quite like it nevertheless. I'm also amazed at how well the colours work together... I never thought that they would do!
My next step is to take a break away from this a little bit so that I could look at it with fresh eyes in case anything needs to be changed.
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