designing for kids – cute little frog by terry hill

7/29/2019 Designing for Kids Cute Little Frog by Terry Hill

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Airbrush Action Tip N Tricks

Designing for Kids Cute

Little Frog by Terry Hill

http://www.airbrushaction.com/567/designing-for-kids-cute-little-frog-by-terry-hill/

A big part of being a T-shirt artistor being in any business is knowing your market and how to capture itsattention. This article focuses on young children. It isnt about the average spring-breaker we have plenty of

designs for them. This is about their little brothers and sisters, whom we hope will grow up to be

party-animal buyers.

The kid market is potentially the most stable-remember, many parents have a hard time saying no. The

point is to capture children as customers now and ensure that they stay customers. Im at a considerable

disadvantage when it comes to designing for kids, because I have none. I dont have any idea what the

hottest doll or collector card or video game is at any given moment, so I listen closely to my customers.

Through them I stay aware of whats happening. Ive determined that there are basically two types of kids:

sweet, passive innocents or loud, obnoxious terrors. This standard appears to apply to both girls and boys.

In this article I present a design solution for each type. For those angels theres Cute Little Frog, and for

the terrors, Aggressive White Shark. Ill also discuss proper stenciling techniques and offer advice on how

to choose color properly to create more impact.

To be successful in the T-shirt business you have to keep abreast of trends and react quickly to events. For

example, a savvy artist could have a design worked up and painted within hours of an extreme weather event

such as a flood, hurricane, or earthquake (I survived etc.)
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Teenagers are also an important, but fickle, market. Airbrushed T-shirts may be cool one month and totally

out the next. The mid- to late 1980s-when the preppy look was popular, followed by the grunge rocker look

were the low point. You couldnt give teenagers airbrushed shirts.

Thankfully things have changed, and for the past seven years, sales have been up in both our local and

traveling businesses. Younger kids are the one group that will probably always buy airbrushed products.

Focus a lot of effort on designing for them, and you will see returns. Display your kid designs at their eye

level. Often, children will fall in love with a certain item and wont leave without it, no matter what the parents

do.

The average price of a childs airbrushed shirt is $16 to $24, including the shirt, and the designs featured in

this article r6ughly represent both extremes. Thats not to say that you shouldnt have things available for

$10. You have to cover all the bases and make sure you have something for every budget. Offering a large

design on the back of a shirt and suggesting customers put a small pocket name on the front is a nice way

to build sales. Youll be surprised how much this option can make you in a day. Its a lot like going to a

fast-food restaurant and being asked if youd like to enlarge your order for 29 cents. People usually say

yes.

A salesman at a state fair taught me a valuable lesson once: If you come out here and ask for quarters

youre going to go home with a bag of quarters. If you ask for dollars, youll go home with dollars. I choose to

ask for twenties.

Cute Little Frog

Step 1:

I usually begin the design process by creating rough sketches. Ive found that sketching with a light blue

pencil is liberating. It removes some of the pressure and allows me to stay loose when you miss a line or a

perspective its easy to correct. I started this sketch with two basic shapes: an oval representing the mass


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and angel of his head, and a V shape to create the flow of the legs.

Step 2:

After Im satisfied with the rough composition its time to refine and correct. I use tracing paper for this. I

simply trace the parts that are correct and redraw anything thats bothering me. A neat trick is to flip the

paper over and look at your drawing from the opposite side. If it looks good from both sides, your drawing

has balance.


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You may sometimes feel something is wrong with your drawing but cant put your finger on what. When you

flip it over and look at its mirror image the mistake will usually be obvious.

Step 3:

I

f youre cutting your stencil by hand then you are ready to start creating your stencil. Spray a little adhesive

on the tracing paper stick it to your stencil material, and start cutting. If you have access to a computer

plotter, you can ink your lines to make them easier to scan.


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Ive been cutting my stencils with a plotter for about seven years and am not ashamed to say that Im totally

spoiled. The thought of having to cut a stencil by hand makes me cringe. If you have a computer I suggest

that you make your next art-business purchase a plotter.

Step 4:

After scanning my inked image into a sign-making program, I adjust the drawing by manipulating the vector


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path for the best possible combination of negative and positive shapes. A negative shape is generally

understood to be a void into which you paint and a positive just the opposite. Spraying around a positive

masks the area underneath. A good way to remember the difference is to use the phrase a positive is

positively in your way.

Step 5:

My Allen Datagraph plotter in action. Another nice thing about using a plotter is that you can make multiple

copies at the same time. Here I cut four frogs at once in minutes, and they will all be exactly alike. If

someone likes this design but wants it, for example, painted smaller for a hat, I simply adjust the size in my

sign program, push a couple of buttons, and presto- new hat design!


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Step 6:

The stencil is mounted to a piece of Pellon with spray adhesive. Many shops use Pellon as an inexpensivealternative to painting. This stencil is predominately a positive shape, even though negative shapes are cut

out of it. Note: Ive sprayed colors on the stencil so that you can see where the edges are. Theres no paint

on the background at this time.


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Step 7:

I start this image by picking up the pthalo blue. Write the name across the top then fill in the negative

clues on the arms, legs and feet.


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Step 8:

Spray a fairly heavy line around the positive shape of the frog and a tight pinstripe around the lettering.


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Step 9:

Blacken thepupils and the remaining lines in the face, leaving a light area to represent the tongue. Ive also

added a touch of black to the top of each letter in the name. Fill in the tongue with hot pink.


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Step 10:

After you remove the positive, theres a nice negative shape to fill in.


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Step 11:

Using pthalo blue, I outline the major shapes and use soft shading to create shadow and dimension. Dont

be afraid to use a lot of blue shading here. It will be helpful in our next step.


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Step 12:

Using fluorescent yellow, I spray the entire frog except for his eyes and tongue. The blue shading applied in

the previous step creates a beautiful fluorescent green. This combination actually ends up brighter than if I

had used hot green and also saves a step.


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Step 13:

The final touch: Highlight the eyes and body with white, as well as the tops of each letter.


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designing for kids – cute little frog by terry hill

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