Tulip Graphic Reveal!

Alright, as promised, I have revealed the tulip-themed design on Wednesday. It is now 12:02 am, Pacific Time at the moment I'm typing.

So, the saying "Nuke the Tulips" isn't in any way my creation--it is a local phrase that has been uttered since the day locals despised Tulip Season. Also, the idea of making shirts with this phrase has been done before, according to Google-ing "Nuke the Tulips".

[Of course tourists bring economy and all that, but a lot of locals still sigh heavily, and lock up their doors for all of April anyway.]

I haven't seen this image on a shirt before, so this is why I did it; as well as for the anti-tulip-sympathizers in the Valley.

I don't mean disrespect to anyone that likes tulips--I myself think they are awesome colors and inspiring in those huge fields (red especially)--but I also whisper "Nuke the Tulips" when the first batch of tourists drive in.

And so, I proudly announce my new graphic for T-shirts!!
[None of the graphics are expandable,
you have to wait until the shirts/other products]

Now, the graphic might not be available for print as you read this--it is 12:09 am, and I work this morning--but it will be available definitely before April. (I can't promise before tulips bloom, because I don't think anyone can guarantee when that will be this year) I will include links to said items once they're available.

EDIT: Here is the link to said items. This will be available through orders to my email, as running a CafePress shop wasn't worth it with low volume sales. It has also been slightly edited to look better on shirts.


Short version of the process:

I first sketched out a very basic explosion and tulip field from the angle I wanted. I didn't sketch with pen, it was entirely my tablet and stylus from start to finish this time. I used a transparent brush on GIMP (Free/awesome version of Photoshop) to start off the sketches. From here I roughed out the lineart for the nuclear explosion. The tulips were later and on their own copy-version. I kept the explosion in the background so I knew how to space everything.



The tulips were definitely harder to finish lineart for. I had many layers going with different parts of the plants and everything. It was a mess, but I knew what I was doing, and I don't want to bore people. At first they looked like moosh (above), and then once I had lines and colors sorted out they looked good (below).


From here, I took the JPEG versions, and threw them over to my awesome (and also free) vector graphic software: Inkscape! Each of the colors above were on their own layers, so I could load them in separately. This may be time-consuming, but it's the way I found works for me. (The layers went as follows: Yellow, red, purple, white, green, dark green, pink, and lineart).

The reason I used Inkscape was to get all the edges very smooth and curved, so they'd look nicer as a final product. Also, each color is its own shape, so I could control the end result for each color very well.

The same process was used for the background: the explosion and sky. The layers used were: blue, cloud shadow, orange, yellow, dark gray, and lineart. The red was added on the final product.



I put everything together on one Inkscape document, lined it all up, tweaked, and voila! Now it is finished, and I am off to bed!
(12:39 AM)