Red pandas

I created jiu jitsu some red pandas sparring for my client Tatami Fightwear. The result is this rashguard.

Here's how I put the artwork together:




At my suggestion, I pitched to Tatami Fightwear for the red pandas to be the sequel to the 2013 design Beijing Panda design I did for them. They agreed it would be a cool subject for kids and adults alike.

So I quickly began sketching in Manga Studio Pro (MSP):

 

I really love using the pencil tool in MSP and combined with my Cintiq, it saves the hassle of drawing on real paper and having to scan the image into my computer just so I can then email it to the client. Drawing digitally cuts out a whole big step and saves me immense time, while not sacrificing actual drawing quality. I mean, for roughs like the above image, it is not necessary to draw really neatly anyway.

Moving on. Next stage after approval was to ink the black lines properly. For this, I used MSP again. The brush tools in this program really are unbeatable and are the best for the job of simulating the furry body of the animals.

Once the main inking is completed, I saved the image as a png file with transparent background. PNG is a lossless format so it's the best chance of giving me a fairly decent chance at livetracing it faithfully in Adobe Illustrator - which was my next stage.

Once in Illustrator, I worked using a CMYK colour space and played around with gradients, fills and brush strokes in order to achieve the final image.

The rashguard is available from Tatami Fightwear now, and all their worldwide retailers from next week.



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