This is my cat.
This is my cat on Spoonflower.
Even though I worked at Adobe for over 20 years, I am not a Photoshop expert. I can tell you a whole bunch about the technology inside the software, but I am like most folks who own Photoshop or Photoshop Elements and use it occasionally rather than daily. I know how to do a few things well, but am generally lost when it comes to doing any task besides those few things. I use Photoshop to prepare photos for the web or to print. I do not use it as a graphics art tool very frequently.
So when it came to creating some sample files for printing onto fabric, I knew it would be best to consult an expert. I pulled out my dog eared copy of Design Essentials by Luanne Seymour and thumbed through, looking for an easy and fun technique. Luanne Seymour is a great designer, teacher, author, and quilter. When we worked together at Adobe she gave me a copy of the first edition of Design Essentials with the inscription “Show me what you create”. Needless to say, Design Essentials is one of my go to resources for Photoshop and Illustrator techniques. I located her straightforward step-by-step instructions for “Warhol-style images” and presto, I transformed my cat into a pop-art portrait.
The posterize technique is a good one for textile printing because it results in distinct shapes of flat solid colors. You can easily execute this sort of thing with traditional textile silkscreening methods, so I wanted to have a sense of what a digitally printed textile would look like. I think it came out great. This method is much faster than making screens, getting out the paints and squeegees, etc. and not nearly so messy. Not that I object to messy when it comes to art.
I recommend Luanne’s book, but there are other great tutorial resources for posterizing in Photoshop on the web too. Here’s one. Try it out.
Wouldn’t it be great to have a quilt made with brightly colored pop-art images of your pets or your kids? Maybe gerber daisies? There are so many ideas for projects using this technique and printing the results to fabric.