Shirt Design: Sketches (Patreon)

Lots of different sketch steps!

The previous WIP showed this first sketch, but you can see it again. Bigger this time!

I wanted to show the rough thumbnail I was working on up close as well, you can see how the design changed between it and the cleaner sketch. I originally had the snake filling up the whole canvas but swapped to having flowers fill the gaps in instead.

Here is the fun part: I was struggling with the snake's body. Not shown here but I redrew and inked it about a dozen times before almost giving up. Luckily there are a ton of resources for brushes that emulate scales and tubes, and I was kind of hitting myself over the head for not thinking of using one of them sooner. For all struggling artists out there: don't be afraid to use your resources. Someone out there has made a tool that can help you!!

Finally the rough and more cleaned up sketch of the design on the front of the shirt. I am pretty indecisive about where I like my prints to be. Back design for big space? Front design for layering? Why not both? So I did both.