Have you ever wondered what goes into making a piece of art? Every piece is different, but here are the steps I took for my Mt. Daly graphic. (Note: I designed these shirts in 2018, so I'm recounting my design process based on Photoshop files.)
For many years, I have designed T-shirts for my immediate family as Christmas gifts. Some years, I have an idea, and other years I struggle. My initial idea was to create a line image based on the Maroon Bells. However, I quickly pivoted to Mt. Daly because it is the iconic mountain that overlooks my days in Snowmass Village. Mt. Daly's distinctive stripe makes it recognizable even when depicted in a simplified, abstracted graphic.
I had an idea, but my initial attempt fell flat. I took a photo from the internet and attempted to determine the lightest areas of the mountain to color them in white blocks.
Moving away from digital design, I returned to hand drawing. I printed the photo and got out my tracing paper. I meticulously traced Mt. Daly and its distinctive stripe. Then, I traced any additional features I wanted to highlight.
Next, I scanned the tracing and started playing with the contrast and saturation to make the image more of a black and white logo.
However, I didn't end up using that version and went back to pencil and paper. I took the scanned tracing, skewed the image vertically so Mt. Daly appeared taller and looked as grand as it does in real life, and then printed it out. I added darker lines and a circular border.
After scanning the new image and increasing the contrast, I created fully white blocks on the white areas of the design and played with different sun ray shapes for the sky.
For my family's Christmas gifts, I carefully hand-cut the stencil and screen-printed on black t-shirts. To create the shirts, I first printed out the logo in the correct size. Next, I taped the paper to a piece of cardboard so it wouldn't move as I cut out the stencil. Using an X-Acto knife, I cut out all the white pieces of the graphic.
To ensure clean printing, I taped the stencil securely to my screen, preventing any movement that could cause paint leakage around the edges. I placed a large piece of cardboard inside the T-shirt so the fabric would not move around. Flipping the screen, I positioned the stencil between the T-shirt and the screen. I put paint on the screen and used a squeegee to evenly distribute the paint and push the paint through the screen.
Finally, I lifted the screen off of the T-shirt revealing the graphic. However, on this shirt I learned the hard way that you have to let the paint fully set. I wore the shirt immediately and then washed it the next day. While the paint was dry enough to wear it wasn't dry enough to wash and most of the design was washed off.
