Fashion Graphics and Illustration

This week we’re going to look at, analyse and investigate various illustrative images… Then, pulling on the knowledge you’ve gathered over previous weeks, experiment with different methods of application.

Select several illustrations to investigate and ask yourself the following questions-

a. Why does the composition work?

b. How does it manage to focus the viewer’s attention?

c. How does the illustrator effectively communicate line, form, texture and pattern.

d. How do they effectively use colour?

e. How does the image balance detail and simplicity?

f. What mediums have they utilised to achieve specific effects?

Once you’ve answered these questions, look to your own work. Explore and experiment with various techniques and approaches in order to achieve similar outcomes. Ask yourself the same questions of your own work and be honest when answering them.

Here are a selection of illustrations to start the ball rolling. Please don’t restrict yourself to these images only.

Creating and Using Original Patterns

You will need two images. One which you are working on and one that you want to use as pattern. The two above can be downloaded for practice.

First, open both files in photoshop.

This is the image I want to turn into a repeat pattern. Using the marque tool (m) I select the area I want to use in the pattern (the pattern will be rectangular – if you use a circular selection the outer area of your selection will be blank in the final pattern – this will make sense if you try it).

Once selected go to Edit>Define Pattern (if the option is unavailable try reducing the size of the image – Image>Image Size). Give your pattern a name.

Back to your illustration.

You want two layers. One with the drawing – set layer blending mode to multiply and one blank white layer behind.
You need to define an area to which the pattern will be added. In this instance I used the lasso tool (L). Because the heavy black line will be above the pattern I didn’t have to be too careful creating the selection – the line will cover the rough edge.

Create a new layer beneath the line and fill this with a colour, in this instance white.

Double click the layer icon to open the ‘layer style’ menu. There are many options, you are looking for ‘pattern’.

Select pattern and from the drop down menu select your recently saved pattern. Use the slider to find a suitable scale (remember if you enlarge the pattern beyond 100% it will blur and pixelate).

Here is the image with the shell pattern. Note how using the layer style option alters the appearance of he layer in the layers menu. You can turn the layer style on and off by clicking the eye icon.

By right clicking on affected layer and selecting ‘Copy Layer Style’ you can then paste this and other changes to other layers that you want to change in the same way.

Here’s a way to change the colour of the pattern.

Using the same selection as before (hold CTRL and click on the layer icon of the shape you made, this will select it).
Create a new layer above and fill with colour. Set the layer blending mode to Screen. You can alter the colour of this layer by using Hue and Saturation CTRL+U.

Here I’ve created another pattern and added it to the two areas left and right, on a separate layer.

Separating Line from Page

Sometimes having your lines on a page isn’t ideal. Here I’ll show you how you can separate the two, leaving you with clean and flat line work only.

Make sure your image has nice contrast – use levels and/or brightness contrast. Go Select>Colour Range to access the tool shown. This tool selects colours in a similar range to those you select. So here select the black of your line work. The oddly named ‘fuzziness’ tool allows you to set the strength of the selection. Too high and you’ll select too much, too low and not enough. Experiment to find a good result – every image is different so there’s no universal solution.

Here’s the result of the selection above.

^{Create a new layer and fill the selection – I’ve used black but this is a great way of changing black line to colour.}

Create another new layer and fill this white. Order as shown. With this basic technique you can separate line work with ease. Now you have complete freedom to work in front of, behind or on the line without any one thing affecting another.

Creating an Illusion of Depth with Opacity and Blur

To keep it simple, we’ll use the same image as above. This time we’re going to create a sense of depth by using two very simple techniques. Blur and opacity – both work best when used sparingly and subtly.

_{To create depth, we need foreground and background. Our model is the foreground so we need something to be background – something to go behind her. To keep things super simple again I’m just going to use the drawing itself. Repeating and moving the image will give me some interesting lines and shapes.}

We only want the lines which appear behind the model. Select what you don’t need…

and delete it (there’s a button on the keyboard for that).

Because these lines are tonally identical to those of the drawing they appear on the same ‘plane’. In other words they appear to be neither in front or behind. We want them to look like they are behind.

The first step to putting these new ‘elements’ into the background is to blur them. This is where you get to use ‘Filters’. Filter>Blur>Gaussian Blur.
Use the sliding scale to blur the element ‘into the background’. Too little and it won’t work, too much and it will look a mess. You decide.

Second step is to drop the opacity. You’ll find Opacity on the top right of the layers tab. Here I’ve knocked it back to 50%. Now the ‘elements’ appear to be in the background. The contrast suddenly pushes your subject into the foreground.