JTO t-shirts

I went on a field trip last January to Newark Print Shop, and you can say it changed me. We learned how to silkscreen t-shirts, and I was so inspired. I wanted to take you through my screen printing journey in chronological order, so let's go !!

My first t-shirt was this one:

When we were learning how to print shirts, the man taught us two types of prints: positive and negative. A positive print would be like right side of the shirt, where the main composition of the subject matter is printed onto the shirt. Whereas, a negative print would be like the left side of the shirt, where the color is around the main composition of the subject matter. He told us to choose one, but I had to be obnoxious and incorporate both into my design. The employees there were trying to tell me I was being too ambitious, but with art, I only know how to be over-the-top. 

That first design progressed into this shirt, which is probably my most iconic piece of art to date:

After I wore my first shirt to school, people kept asking me about it and expressing interest in owning one. So, I started selling them and made a whole bunch at home. I sold over 60 shirts with this design on it in varying colors. It was definitely way more successful than I ever imagined. 

This newfound successful gave me a confidence boost to try out more designs, which led to these two shirts:

I wanted to keep some sort of consistency with my shirt designs, so I continued to incorporate insects and eyes. I consider these three designs to be the "generation one" line of t-shirts. I liked the insects, since they look super intricate, even though it wasn't too difficult to cut out. All of these designs, by the way, are cut out of laminated paper by hand. The top shirt has a butterfly with eyes on the wings. It was the second design I made, and I'm still proud of it. Actually, fun fact,  I wore it to a Harry Styles concert last Summer. The bottom shirt is probably my favorite design I've ever made. It's a two toned shirt, with a moth with eyes on the wings. For this shirt, I cut two t-shirts in half, sewed them together, and the printed the design on top with the alternating colors. I love this one so much, since it's so unique and probably the coolest print I've done. 

My parents found my new hobby to be really exciting, so they wanted shirts as well. Although, my dad isn't super into the bugs, he is deathly afraid of bugs. So much so that we own a contraption called the "Bugzooka", which is like a two-foot long vacuum specifically made for eradicating bugs. How niche. Anyways, I wanted to make him a special shirt, so I made him this one for his birthday inspired by one of his guitars. 

He wears band/ music t-shirts all the time, and he really likes the little details. Specifically, he expressed to me that he loves shirts with a little graphic on the back. So, I painstakingly cut out the intricate front design of the guitar, and then incorporated the broken heart both on the front and back. The guitar this shirt is based on has a small broken heart sticker that I put on it when I was about 5 years old. My dad kept it on ever since, so I thought it would be cute to add that little touch. 

For my most recent design, I decided to go really hard. Pop art is one of my favorite art styles. Roy Lichtenstein is an amazing artist who mainly focuses on the pop art genre, and he is a big inspiration of mine. So, for this t-shirt, I wanted to try my hand at a pop art style portrait, as well as a multicolor print. 

The two pictures show the same design with a slight variation, the top shirt has tears, whereas the second one does not. This was a bit difficult to cut out from paper, and it was especially hard figuring out the positive and negative space. I think this came out super well, and I feel that the white highlights really make the graphic stand out. 

Making the t-shirts really got me thinking in a more design-centric way, which is good for me, since I'm majoring in Fashion Design. It also gave me some business and marketing experience as well. I'm still shocked and delighted over the reception of my work, since I wasn't expecting anyone to care that much. People actually wear my shirts, which is so surreal to me. It's so cool and crazy to see people walk around wearing something I made, it's really a dream.