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THE BIRTH OF A SHIRT! Part Two: Completed Illustration

2008 July 11
by Ben

birth_02.jpg

Welcome to another addition to “The Birth of a Design” where I’m taking you on a journey from the concept phase of the design all the way to finally printing it on a shirt. If you haven’t read part one yet, check it out here! Otherwise, read on for another addition….

After our last discussion about the Zombie Vs. Shark design, I let Jeff go off and do his thing with the illustration to see what he could do with my comments. A week or so later I received an interesting email from him :

“Ok so I was like more than half-way through the coloring of zombi vs shark last night…when the most horrid thing happened.
I REALIZED IT SUCKED!

Well, the drawing as nice I guess, but not as dramatic as it SHOULD have been, SO I had a quick freak-out, and RE -DREW THE WHOLE THING!”

I had to laugh because the initial sketch was exactly how I pictured it in my head. But then he showed me his re-worked version, which was this….

zombi_vs_shark-bw.jpg

Yeah, that’s what I’m talking about!

He did it…he made it even better. We both agreed that this was the way to go so now it was on to final color and text. A day later, he sent this over:

zombi_vs_shark-txt1.jpg

At this point, I was undecided on whether or not to include any text on the shirt. I just felt that the illustration was so good that any text would compete with it. But one thing I knew for sure….the text would have to be much more dynamic than this if we were going to have it as part of the design. So, I decided to try my own hand at it and show Jeff what I was going for:

zombi_vs_shark-txt2.jpg

Although my idea was just a guide to let him know what I was going for, he still had reservations on some of my choices like the blue drop-shadow, and typeface. I encouraged him to go for it and try to whip up something sick. And Jeff, as always, did not disappoint:

zombi_vs_shark-fnl.jpg

And there you have it, the finished design! But wait, how does that exactly get onto the shirt you are wearing? Stay tuned…much more to come!

THIS SHIRT IS NOW AVAILABLE! CLICK HERE TO ORDER!

32 Responses Post a comment
  1. Ed Mazerski permalink
    July 12, 2008

    Great Shirt Ben, will be getting one.

  2. metalac88 permalink
    July 12, 2008

    Awesome! This shirt looks fucking great. I’ll be sure to buy this when it comes out.

  3. July 12, 2008

    For the record my thinking with the text for SHARK was something reminisent of the logo for JAWS…one of my all-time favorite movies…but yeah…it looked weird.

  4. Randroid permalink
    July 13, 2008

    Awesome! Great looking shirt, but I won’t be able to wear it to work because of the nudity.

  5. Ben permalink*
    July 13, 2008

    @ Randroid – Actually, there is no nudity in it. The woman scuba-diver is wearing a wetsuit.

  6. zombz permalink
    July 14, 2008

    ur a f**king idiot… if youve seen the movie youd know shes naked ben.

  7. Ben permalink*
    July 14, 2008

    @ zombz – Thanks for reminding me. To be honest, I haven’t seen that movie in several years so I forgot that she was naked…I just remember the zombie standing on the ocean floor and then trying to attack the shark by biting him in the side.

    I actually bought the DVD a couple weeks ago (I had a VHS copy) so I’m looking forward to seeing it again as soon as I get a spare minute.

  8. Dustin permalink
    July 17, 2008

    movie is almost 30 years old and thats still one of the most real looking scenes I’ve ever seen. Love the shirt! Any word on when this will get released? Course I figure it won’t be till part 3 comes out :)

  9. July 18, 2008

    Great design, I’ll buy this shirt for sure

  10. Zac Habit permalink
    July 22, 2008

    I hate to be that guy, but did anyone else notice that the zombie is missing his right arm and yet it’s his left arm that is in the shark’s mouth? Other then that the design is spectacular!

  11. July 30, 2008

    Amazing shirt!! Definitely not Fulci’s best film but it is by far one of the best zombie scenes ever.

  12. Ben permalink*
    July 30, 2008

    @ Zac – Yeah, we noticed this at the end of the design stage. Rather than risk the look of the piece by re-doing it, Jeff and I decided it was better to leave it alone. We figured in most cases people probably wouldn’t notice, and if they did, it’s kind of a quirky little Easter Egg (for lack of a better term) :) But seriously, we really thought it would have ruined the artwork had we messed with it just to fix that flaw.

  13. Windy permalink
    July 30, 2008

    I frickin’ love it! Only TRUE horror fans will know where this comes from!
    I want one NOW!

  14. Zac Habit permalink
    July 30, 2008

    Completely understandable and like I said, I still love the design. And if this is any inclination, I can’t wait to see the next round of shirts!

  15. Jordan permalink
    August 2, 2008

    This shirt went from kind of lame and confusing, to a shirt I will hopefully be wearing soon! Amazing.

  16. Bennie "the Gift" Gavin Jr. permalink
    August 4, 2008

    HEY ZORNOW, If you ever get tired of doing it all, and you’re looking for a great artist get at me. I would love to do what you do but i’m a rapper and you’re a rocker but we’re both artists…. sounds like the best of both worlds! Anyway, i’m a great here in indianapolis in the “HOOD” but i’m beyond drawing for the hood and want to get to where you are so to speak! If you can just give me some advice it would be cvery much appreciated, Bro! Keep it up, homie!

  17. Zack Sawicki permalink
    August 5, 2008

    wow that looks effing badass

  18. October 15, 2008

    Woah! Sick shirt man! Rock on!
    http://www.nakedshirts.co.nz

  19. Deserie permalink
    October 16, 2008

    Wow…looks sick. Much better then the original in pt 1 of this blog!

  20. Nate permalink
    March 2, 2009

    Got this design as a tattoo.

  21. Michael permalink
    June 2, 2009

    Wow, that was amazing. Watched all 4 videos for the process. Simply amazing, keep up the good work. Plan on picking up many more!

  22. Chuck You Farely permalink
    August 21, 2009

    Bravo.. My favorite horror movie of all time! and I just ordered that shirt! anyone who gets that reference has great taste in film..
    did i mention the quality of your shirts is awesome?

    you guys are my heroes!

    -chuck

  23. Candy permalink
    November 21, 2009

    This is my absolute favorite shirt! I’ve already ordered one for my son, and one for my brother’s birthday. And I still need one of my own! Keep up the great work guys. Your shirts are brilliant.

  24. Steven permalink
    December 13, 2009

    Nice article, always cool to see the creation of something.

  25. Eddie permalink
    January 12, 2010

    This design is so awesome my head exploded like in that scanners movie when i saw it. I think the girl needs bigger boobs thoe.

  26. Dan permalink
    January 24, 2010

    bigger boobs are always good

  27. March 18, 2010

    Jeff is awesome!, wish I was half as talented as him!

  28. Adam permalink
    April 29, 2010

    the final design looks amazing,
    jeff did such a good job with it

    i prefer the text designed by ben
    with the blue drop shadow
    stands out much more
    which i really like

  29. July 2, 2010

    Ha if you can you should totally make the first drawling up there like a sticker you know?
    that’ll be hella fresh. just plan black and white you know. wit the naked chick in the back. Hella

  30. Jenocide permalink
    July 31, 2010

    WoW! That is an awesome design from an awesome artist. Jeff’s work is amazing and so vivid. Looks like I have another T-Shirt to order.

  31. June 13, 2011

    This is awesome! Thanks for sharing. Would love to see more Lost Boys creations. :-)

  32. Gein permalink
    October 9, 2011

    Cool stuff :D

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