Threadless t-shirts along with Kill Hannah is hosting a T-shirt design contest.

So I mean, how can I resist?

You're allowed three submissions, and I'm about half done with my first one. However, I wanted a little feedback and maybe soem advice before I go along with finalizing the composition and then the final 2% tweaking.



Simple concept. Crazy Angel is the name of a song from the new album. From the first time I heard the song title I thought about WWII fighter planes, "Crazy Angel" just seemed like something someone might paint on the side of one. That and the colored tips of a propellor tend to make a neat little halo.

If you haven't guessed, I traced two seperate things with Inkscape, a free vector art program. Do I consider this cheating? No. Should you? I don't care. I've gone as far as to use projectors in my paintings. I just want to point out that I don't care about what you think is cheating.

Besides, I changed alot of things for design purposes, and because I felt like it.



As for finishing, you're only allowed four colors. White is one of them, black doesn't count. The black is whatever color the shirt is. I think it would look best on black, but I've tested it on other colors and it looked alright as long as it was a darker color.

I was thinking about putting Gold on the tips of the propellors of the plane on the right, the P-51. So that when I drew in the after-image halo it'd have a gold ring around the edge, like an angel's halo. That in itself is a problem, because I just can't seem to come up with a good way of drawing the after-image halo. I think maybe I'll just do a series of circles with transparency I don't know yet.

I'll also be pushing the plane on the left further backwards, and probably bring the plane on the right further forwards.

The theme is "Until There's Nothing Left Of Us." So I thought war went good. The plane on the left is being shot down, and I thought instead of being on fire maybe I'll draw blood flying off of it. I mean, why waste two colors on fire?

Other than that I can't think of what else I might do. So if you had any useful suggestions I'd appreciate it.

The planes themselves are well done, but something bothers me about how they're arranged. It seems too spread-out and un-balanced to be good for a t-shirt, so I'd suggest either filling in the area under the right plane or changing the positioning so that the image looks more even.

I think you should write "Crazy Angel" on the side of the planes. Part of a band shirt's purpose IS advertising, and this would also ensure that everyone gets the idea of a WWII plane that you got.

Theres way too much thin detail, none of those small lines would ever come out in a shirt.

could you also make yourself a tshirt template and put it on that? Composition and size matter

Haha. The black is implied. Typical.

The planes are going to be HUGE on the shirt. Thats for sure. But I'll probably beef up the lines. I haven't printed it to see how big it comes out yet.

And yeah, that'd go on even the screen I have. And I could do it to, with photo emulsion. But that defeats the purpose of trying to win the contest.

I really don't like the afterimage halo on the prop.

And nothing else I tried looks good. Do you think it'd look alright if I left both of them alone?

What do you guys think of that?

The other plane is supposed to be crashing, so I think I'll leave it's prop after-imageless.

Baconfish suggested I squish in the right side of the propellor.

What do you guys think now?

It actually looks decent. Not that you care, because you loathe me.

This is what I have right now.

The front of the plane looks like a wang and the marks on the propeler look like rouge sperm. Your first design was the best one.

Completely disagreed. This looks 100% more stylized.

I'd do something with the wings of the crashing plane to give it some sort of blurred wing effect. Also, the organization of the planes is still hideous.

But I REALLY like the entire thing, so far.

Stylized? It looks like he couldn't figure out how to use flash so he used the line tool over and over. The first drawing looks really really nice and classy, the rest look like garbage some kid tossed out.

You'd know about the latter.

I'm using a free vector art program called inkscape.

I haven't moved the other plane yet because I wasn't finished deciding what details I wanted to change, keep or add from the source image I was going over. Like I said in my initial post, I don't care if you think that's cheating.

I didn't want this one to look cartoony, so I'm trying to do something different with the prop afterimage. I just wanted something that seemed semi-real.

And yeah, I use the line tools for alot of things.. Isn't that sorta how you're supposed to do it? I mean, correct me if I'm wrong.. but when you're doing vector art aren't you placing vectors with lines between them and then tweaking the lines?

I really like how this looks.

Because it's really simple, and doesn't create an emphasis where I sorta didn't want one.


You guys like that font on the plane? Roach helped me find a free domain fancy font.

Heres a bigger version of the picture.


I don't know, I might get rid of the text, and just call the shirt "Afterimage Halo."

maybe if the one plane is going down... break off a wing?

Yeah the plane doesn't look like he's going down at all. It needs to be torn to shreds, or smoke or miss vital parts.

The prop-halo-thingy doesn't line on the same line as the plane is traveling. I'd say its traveling downwards and to the right (relative to the direction of motion of the aircraft).

Thats just how a p-51 looks.

I think thats what I'll be going with for the prop halo. The only thing I have left to do is make the other plane look like it's bleeding instead of on fire.

Is that layout a little better?

I'd wear that shirt

Brutal Dissesction/Honesty follows!!!

The layout is weak. The objects aren't touching, which would be fine, but the angles of the two fuselages don't coincide or something. It would tie together better if you had the planes both radiating out from some vanishing point of your choice, and based on how you have them arranged now, the upper left corner or some imaginary box seems like it would work.

The linework on the planes is nice and precise, but the style of the prop doesn't seem to match the rest quite right. The last image is the best in that context so far, BUT the circle formed by the afterimage isn't correct in terms of perspective... Right now it appears tilted forward.

The text on the plane is mostly unreadable due to size... I'd reccomend separating it from the planes, making it its own object. You could do this in any variety of ways, from placing it flat on the image, or even by forming the letter into an object, such as the blood you spoke of earlier, or exhaust from each plane reaching back to that vanishing point I mentioned. It would make it more bold, visually, as well as more eye-catching (in terms of the name).

You could also put some basic rudimentary shading on the planes, just some cel-shading style stuff... Use some midtone to make it pop a bit more. As is, it has a nice technical look, if that's what you're going for.

I would love to see you win this, that would rock :D.

The tip of the plane seems too different from the rest of the plane, to stand out too much. My largest complaint is the halo, I personally just don't like it. Doesn't seem to go with the rest of the picture. You've got two planes in place, then the proppellors on one as a halo instead of propellors. Just doesn't seem to fit.

Cheater.

The prop on a p51 tilts a little. It's not straight line ----- prop. The plane is also tilting a little bit downard.

I might touch it up later, but technically it makes sense atleast. The beauty of the machine is obviously my highest priority.

I like the idea about the blood, I think I might run with that. But do you think it still fits the theme?

It's getting worse by the revision. The first is still the best. Bah.

Well, the other plane is crashing. So I thought it'd make sense for the propellors to be at a stop, as thats the normaly what would happen.

Put bullet holes in the one that is crashing, and the only thing that I really don't like about it now is the touch of yellow on the propeller. I think it was better as all B&W.

[Edit]: And by the way, I really don't see how that text is going to print out to be legible on the shirt. It's way too small, I've done screen printing before and I just really don't see how that would work out.

Actually what happens is the prop will rotate by itself due to the forward motion of the plane, not enough to propel the plane forward, but it'd still spin. Plus an undamaged looking plane like that will prob not do a straightnosedive due to the lift also generated by its forward (tho downward too) motion. Lest my understanding of aviation needs reworking......

I'm sure when people look for a shirt, they are going to be looking for the exact angle, speed, and way a plane should be falling.

Engines usually sieze up when they catch on fire.

Why can't they sieze up when they bleed?





I'm drawing in some holes, missing pieces, and blood on the second plane. I'll probably do some battle damage on the p-51 as well.

As far as prop goes, how is this;

I like the prop blur, fits the style nicely, but I'm not sure if I like how much the yellow in the prop tips fades against the black...

[edit - I just realized you received comments about how the yellow clashes too much with the B&W feel, but once you add the blood, I think the yellow will compliment it nicely, it'll bring the eye to the front of the P-51 so people will see the "Crazy Angel" writting.]

How should the people who see the shirt know it's crashing? I couldn't tell.

Edit: Ah..nevermind. Just saw your post on that.

But the prop blur seems too...cartoony. I don't know how else to put it.

finally, something we can make fun of Rob for >.>

Only advice I can offer is...work on the perspective, it looks off on stuff like the text, scoop on the bottom...edge of the prop and the canopy look weird and sloppy too :\

Well, you may run into an issue of number of colors...do the shades of the transparency count? If so, you're already at about 4, I think, without the blood.

i still suggest this