How I designed my Lady Berry Sweatshirt and Hoodie
A blueberry-inspired vampire design in a Hoodie?
When I first had the idea of making apparel, I was really lost about the design. I’m an illustrator, but my main focus up until now has always been more directed towards editorial and narrative, instead of something like clothing design, where there are different objectives you have to meet to make a good illustration.
That’s when I thought, why not use something I’m already familiar with? Last year, I made illustrations featuring a new character I designed to decorate my table at cons. Still, it had grown on me, and it had become an original character I really loved. I made illustrations, stickers, and even gave her a whole group of friends. That’s how Lady Berry came to be. An elegant vampire girl inspired by blueberries and blueberry aesthetic.
THE DESIGN
The original sketch or idea came from a small sketch I drew in my sketchbook. It wasn’t really made for this design, but when I was thinking about how to draw what I had in mind, it was a perfect starting point!
I know, I know.
You almost can’t see it or make out what is going on here, but I swear this is the actual sketch!! I just like sketching with really soft and light blue pencil lol
After selecting the base sketch, I headed to the digital world and started to design the actual illustration in Clip Studio Paint. I started with a simple sketch to outline where everything was going to be and what colors I wanted to use, and I also did a really quick sketch with the sleeve designs that I wanted to add to the final product.
Since I was using Printful as my print-on-demand service, I checked along the way how the design was gonna look on the final garment on their editor, where you can see your design on a mock-up. This honestly made the whole ordeal way easier, since this is my first time designing clothes. By doing this, I had a better idea of how every element would have looked when the product was finalised!
I also tried different colors for the garments, as well as different variations of the garments. At first, I was going to use only a simple sweatshirt, but I ended up using a heavyweight oversize sweatshirt in a cream color, and a white hoodie.
THE FINAL DESIGN
After being happy with the sketch, I finally started the whole ordeal of finishing the design. I wanted to make it look finished and look cool, but I didn’t want to render it the same way I usually do with illustrations! I had to make something sharper and more recognizable in a garment. That’s why, even though I don’t usually do it, I worked with a well-defined lineart and kept rendering to a minimum.
In the end, it worked wonders, and I was really happy with how everything turned out! You can even see my complete process in the speedpaint I uploaded to my social media!
The final design is now available in my online store, and you can check the products below!
