Hand-Drawn To Digital: Creating an Original Repeat Pattern for Fabric

What pattern comes to mind when you think of "punk" fashion? For me, it's tartan!

When punk was first developed, tartan was used as a symbol of rebellion from the UK government. The aim was to take something patriotic and royal and to carelessly infuse it into outrageous anti-government inspired outfits. Read further about the history of tartan in fashion: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20170912-why-tartan-is-a-symbol-of-both-rebellion-and-sophistication.

I have always adored and been drawn to tartan, particularly bold red and black with hardware features, so there is absolutely no way I could exclude my favourite pattern from my showcase range! As an illustrator, I love to get creative - so to mix things up, I really wanted to go for a messy, non-uniform, hand-drawn look, rather than purchasing pre-woven or printed plaid/checks.

Here's how I turned my original hand-drawn experimentation into a finalised digital print:

In the very initial stages, I experimented on paper. I used acrylic paints to create a tartan layout and look I like. Then, I painted directly onto my very first toille, to see how the paint (mixed with fabric paint medium) would turn out on black fabric. I found the result to be quite stiff and crisp, with minimal vibrancy in the red tone. I had to keep painting over the red parts, and didn't trust it would maintain an appealing level of saturation. No go zone.

My next step was painting onto a whole few metres of white fabric I obtained from school. As expected, I found the paint and medium applied much easier and was far more vibrant. When dried, the fabric once again turned quite stiff and crisp in texture. As a result, I decided not to use it in my final design but to utilise it on my mannequin and toilles for the purpose of visualisation.

Draped design featuring my hand-painted fabric

Due to the undesired result the paint had when used directly on fabric, I figured it would be wiser to try digital printing instead. Besides, I was eager to learn a new skill and technique!

So...now for the tricky part! Turning my hand-painted design into a digital repeat-print!

I began this process by painting my tartan design across 9 sheets of A4 paper by hand. I then waited for them to dry and scanned them onto my laptop, where I joined the images together on Photoshop. By shifting the images around and using the appropriate tools and blending techniques where neccessary (e.g. clone stamp tool, bandaid tool), I ended up with a cohesive and seamless pattern. I re-scaled my tartan pattern to various sizes on Illustrator and printed them on A3 to determine which scale I preferred (I wanted to match my hand-painted white fabric scale), and decided I liked it at 250%. I then set up the file on Illustrator as 3 metres x 140cm (the maximum printable width, as determined by the printing company), on the diagonal (as I want the pattern to sit diagonally on my garments).

Next thing you know, I was ready to send off my design to Next State Printing in Abbotsford, Victoria!

So there you have it folks! My print, finalised, on 3 metres of luxuriously soft scuba fabric. The red tone came out quite unexpectedly fluorescent (which doesn't really show in the photos), but you know what? I'm okay with that. It's a bold design after all.

Hope you like it as much as I do!

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