Creating and Experimenting

First Painted Shirt 

Date: April 11, 2020

Today, I spent my night painting on one of the t-shirts that I last thrifted. I originally made it for the purpose of matching it with an outfit I put together earlier in the week. I chose a forest/pine green to match my Jordans. I didn't think much of the design other than associating a word/meaning with a color. In this case, since I had green, I thought plants, and later, led to luck and the four-leaf clover. To give some deeper meaning, I suppose I thought about this chaotic time of COVID-19 and quarantine/social distancing and how lucky I am to still be alive and fortunate to indulge in resting, being home, and being healthy. 

I, first, started out with choosing a font. (I liked "Harlow Solid Italic" on Adobe Illustrator) Then, I tried printed it out for reference and tried to trace the lettering on the shirt with marker. It wasn't the best because, frankly, my craftsmanship needs work. However, it captured the "bubble" and "curvy" type of font I wanted. After, I started painting! The first layer was in white acrylic paint. Then, I waited the first layer to dry, then paint with the green. I mixed using fabric paint and acrylic paint. Lastly, I added the shadows/highlights to the letters to give them a little depth. 

Aside from paint, I wanted to try out embroidery/stitching. So, I did a simple line outline of a four-leaf clover. The process itself was okay; I'll be able to get better with practice! I started it off with an outline in market. Then, sewed the clover with green thread.

I felt like the shirt still needed more. So, I thought of what it would look like to combine textures of paint and thread. So, I started to do line stitch on some of the letters with both green and white thread. I chose to do it on 3 letters and even extended the thread off of the letters to add a "flowy" and dynamic effect. I felt like doing that covered more blank space on the shirt and contributed to the "curvy" aspect of the letters.

At the end, I did not like the messiness of the edges; but, that is the effect of paint. Overall, I feel like it was not bad for the first try, and looked kinda cute! Some more pictures of the shirt and actual outfit will be posted soon!