07/21/2014 Top Picks – Daily Shirt Designs

Two of my favorite artists and they are both Game of Thrones designs to boot!!

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07/21/14 Top Pick; Hound’s Red Ale

“You lived your life for the king. You gonna die for some chickens?”

“Someone is.” What a bad ass quote for a bad ass Hound!

star Composition – Awesome bilateral symmetry. The type fits in nicely with the rest of the composition.

star Lines and Forms – Nice clean descriptive strokes. I can’t find a single area in this design that isn’t interesting!

star Color – Wonderful gradations of grays. Interesting pops of red and yellow are well-balanced throughout the design.

Thank You Jimiyo

Buy This Shirt! Hound’s Red Ale

 

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07/21/14 Top Pick; The Incredible Imp

“Perhaps you should speak to me more softly then. Monsters are dangerous and just now kings are dying like flies. ”

star Composition – Wonderful grounded triangle composition with Tyrion at the apex. This creates the visual illusion of transforming from Dwarf to Monster.

star Typography – Awesome comic book typographic treatment. Fun re-imagining of Incredible Hulk #1!

Thank You Olipop

Buy This Shirt! The Incredible Imp

07/14/2014 Top Pick – Daily Shirt Designs

Hey guys!! Sorry for the long hiatus, but I am back from vacation and ready to share some awesome shirt designs!

7/14/14 Top Pick; Hot Wheels to the Future

“When this baby hits 88mph… you’re gonna see some serious shit.”

star Concept – Wonderful mash-up of the Hot Wheels toy cars with the Delorean from Back to the Future.

star Composition – I really enjoy the combination of the well rendered vehicle with the altered Hot Wheels logo. The motion conveyed by the shape of the banner with flames describes the speed of this infamous time traveling machine.

Thank You Victorsbeard

Buy This Shirt! Hot Wheels to the Future

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7/14/14 Top Pick; Revenge is Coming

star Texture – Wonderful hatching used to articulate the wiry wolf fur. The short thin strokes also create nice complexity in the design.

star Color – The different shades of gray nicely describe the shape of the wolf head. The textures also create wonderful variations of color by using different stroke lengths.

Thank You Dark Choocoolat

Buy This Shirt! Revenge is Coming

7/14/14 Top Pick; The Racoonateer

star Color – I really enjoy the contrast and transition of the warm oranges and yellows in the bottom to the cool blues and grays in the top of the design.

star Composition – The design is tilted on its vertical axis creating wonderful dynamic excitement. The swipe like stokes help exaggerate the tilt and create action.

Thank You NinjaInk

Buy This Shirt! The Racoonateer

07/01/2014 Top Picks – Daily Shirt Designs

Good and evil. Light and dark. Positive and negative. Day and night. Any of these dichotomies could describe the relationship between adoptive brothers Thor and Loki. I present this conflict today in the form of two designs.

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It’s not hard to imagine Loki embracing his power and status among the ancient civilizations is it? With that charm, wit, and cunning one couldn’t help but feel the presence of a god.

07/01/14 Top Pick; Loki-Tut

star Composition –  Bold, well-balanced render of this God of Mischief.

star Texture – I love the repeated horizontal lines in this design creating dynamic patterns. The small intricate lines create a variety of textures throughout the design. I especially enjoy the circular lines in the horns.

Thank You Jimiyo

Buy This Shirt! Loki-Tut

 

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The metaphorical “light in the darkness” comes through here quite literally with the God of Thunder, Thor! While he may not be able to match Loki’s brains, he makes up for it with his formidable brawn. He also has a great butt, just ask Natalie Portman. 😛

07/01/14 Top Pick; God of Thunder Returns

star Composition – Beautiful and dynamic angle. The figure is also in a great action pose.

star Color – Wonderful use of positive and negative space. I really enjoy the teal thin outline around the negative space figure. The bright stark thunder bolt creates a wonderful contrast against the dark scene.

Thank You Six Eyed Monster

Buy This Shirt! The God of Thunder Returns

06/23/2014 Top Picks – Daily Shirt Designs

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06/23/14 Top Pick; Guardian of Gotham

“The Hero Gotham Deserves”

star Composition – Wonderful dynamic angles. I really enjoy all the complex geometric planes.

star Color – Nice expression of space using a simple mono blue scale.

Thank You MAGMATA

Buy This Shirt! Guardian of Gotham

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06/23/14 Top Pick; Guardian of Metropolis

The Man of Steel substitutes a man made out of steel.

star Composition – Great use of geometric planes giving the design a deco aesthetic.

star Concept – This design is very similar to the original Metropolis design only the robot is appropriately altered into Superman.

Thank You MAGMATA

Buy This Shirt! Guardian of Metropolis

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06/23/14 Top Pick; Spinner of Spells

“The princess shall indeed grow in grace and beauty, beloved by all who know her. But… before the sun sets on her 16th birthday, she shall prick her finger, on the spindle of a spinning wheel – AND DIE!”

star Composition – I really enjoy the large dragon image behind the beautiful villain. The heavy purple areas nicely balance Maleficent’s figure.

star Lines and Forms – Great use of positive and negative spaces to render various details within the design.

star Color – I really enjoy the bright purple with the small bright green accents.

Thank You Harantula

Buy This Shirt! Spinner of Spells

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06/23/14 Top Pick; Wildling Encounter

star Concept – Interesting mash-up of characters.

star Lines and Forms – I really enjoy the cute little anime style render of both characters. I also really enjoy the negative space that details the trees in the background, also creating a nice field of depth.

Thank You TeeTurtle

Buy This Shirt! Wildling Encounter

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06/23/14 Top Pick; Gamma Rays

star Concept – Interesting design which visually portrays the smaller Bruce figure trapped within the larger Hulk figure.

star Color – I really enjoy the limited amount of color use to portray the infamous Hulk. The negative space figure within needs no introduction.

star Lines and Forms – The long thin refracted hazy lines are a great way of visually showing the rays. They nicely delineate the Incredible Hulk.

Thank You Steven Lefcourt

Buy This Shirt! Gamma Rays

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06/23/13 Top Pick; Watch the World Burn

star Composition – Wonderful compositions on the front and back of the shirt! The front has a great sense of dimension. Joker seem to pop out of the background. The back of the shirt in beautifully intricate and balanced and nicely relates to the front of the shirt.

star Lines and Forms – Wonderful amount of line work. Delicate and complex, the devil is in the details ;). Joker’s long grin is jaw dropping.

star Typography – If I didn’t follow this awesome artist of Facebook, I wouldn’t have seen her hand drawn sketches. Her letter forms look this good in her sketches!

Thank You Medusa the Dollmaker

Buy This Shirt! Watch the World Burn

06/20/2014 Top Picks – Daily Shirt Designs

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06/20/14 Top Pick;  Super Freeze Fighter

(Inserts Coin)

“Round 1, FIGHT!”

star Concept – It would be interesting to see these match-ups since they all have similar powers.

star Lines and Forms –  All characters are nicely rendered in pixel form. The fighters are cleanly organized in the rounded corner square grid. I enjoy that some characters slightly pop out of their square.

Thank You Ryan Astle

Buy This Shirt! Super Freeze Fighter

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06/20/14 Top Pick; Where the Colossi Are

“Let The Wild Rumpus Start!”

star Lines and Forms – Wonderful dark hatched strokes that give this design a similar style to the Where the Wild Things Are.

star Concept – Brilliant mash-up! Interesting that Wander and Max both enter a forbidden land and encounter large creatures.

Thank You Louis Wulwick

Buy This Shirt! Where the Colossi Are

06/18/2104 Top Picks – Daily Shirt Designs

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06/18/14 Top Pick; Bete De L’Apocalypse

Great design depicting Hellboy as a prancing demon, labeled with his real name Anung Un Rama (“Upon his brow is set a crown of flames”).

starColor – Nice creamy light yellow paired with the deep crimson red creates a nice contrast.

starConcept – Interesting concept of having Hellboy look like the infamous French Quina Imp Poster.

Thank You Spicy Monocle

Buy This Shirt! Bete De L’Apocalyse

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06/18/14 Top Pick; Headlight Glasses

His side slicked hair, light gray suit, and bright red tie make Pee-Wee easily recognizable.

starComposition – Wonderfully balanced frame around main figure. The horrors of the forest seem to surround poor Pee-Wee.

starLines and Forms – Each animal is nicely formed and rendered in an etch like quality. I really enjoy the bear in the top right. His open mouth and glowing eyes look amazing.

Thank You Dave Quiggle

Buy This Shirt! Headlight Glasses

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06/18/14 Top Pick; Dark Fiction

Both seductively appealing and horned, this is a match made in hell.

starConcept – These two super villains would make an awesome evil team! These two would definitely “shepherd the week though the valley of darkness”.

starLines and Forms – Nice, clean simplified render of both characters.

Thank You Zerobriant

Buy This Shirt! Dark Fiction

06/17/2104 Top Picks – Daily Shirt Designs

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06/17/14 Top Pick; Alien Queen of Spades

starLines and forms – Wonderful line render of  the Alien Queen.

starComposition – Great balance, up and down and side to side. The outstretched arm and tail counters the large cranium.

Thank You Five Finger Tees

Buy This Shirt! Alien Queen of Spades

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06/17/14 Top Pick; One Man Army

starComposition – Wonderful circular shield drawn behind our heroes head. It creates a great radiating effect, making him appear larger than life. While his hands shine bright showing might.

starColor – Justly rendered in red, white, and blue this patriot is ready to defeat the evil Hydra.

starTexture – I really enjoy the striated pattern running up and down, giving the design a dynamic feel while mimicking the flag.

Thank You Karmazero

Buy This Shirt! One Man Army

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06/17/14 Top Pick; None Shall Pass

starComposition – The frame nicely wraps around the knight. He stands balanced in the center as the branches lead the attention to his head and upward to the grail.

starLines and Forms – Wonderfully detailed frame and ornamentations. The thin dark lines give the design an old etched quality.

Thank You Mathiole

Buy This Shirt! None Shall Pass

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06/17/14 Top Pick; Kong

starConcept – Wonderful mash-up of King Kong and Donkey Kong.

starComposition – I really enjoy that the design is tilted on its vertical axis giving the design excitement and a dynamic element.

starColor – The gray field gives the design an old nostalgia appearance. While the red gives it  a nice splash of color pop.

Thank You Djkopet

Buy This Shirt! Kong

05/28/2014 Top Picks – Daily Shirt Designs

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05/28/14 Top Pick; Close Encounter

Where’s my pump-action shotgun? “I like to keep it handy… for close encounters”.

starTexture – Wonderful dripping wet effect.

starColor scheme – Awesome dimensionality developed with color. The bright green gives the design an acidic look. While the bright white teeth against the black background almost shine like metal.

starAppeal – The bright colors on the dark background really make this design pop. The large size of the Alien head coming towards you is definitely eye-catching and a little scary.

Thank You InkOne

Buy This Shirt! Close Encounter

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05/28/14 Top Pick; Def Loki

“Hypnotized, I’m shakin’ to my knees”

starExecution – Wonderful translation of the original Def Leppard album cover.

starColor Scheme – Great selection of colors. They all harmoniously glow. I really enjoy how the Loki helmet shines brightest in the center giving the design a 3-d effect.

starComplexity – The wonderful dynamic angles keep the eyes moving throughout the design.

Thank You JuanFoo

Buy This Shirt! Def Loki

05/22/2014 Top Picks – Daily Shirt Designs

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05/22/14 Top Pick; Sons Of Mischief

It’s true, some girls love bad boys. Just look at this rendering of Loki. What’s not to love about this mischievous supervillain? Everything about this design is perfect. I’m speechless! This shirt leaves me in awe. I love the color choices. I love the composition. I could almost kiss Loki’s face (sorry Thor!). Medusa, I would love to see your process!

Thank You MedusaTheDollmaker

Buy The Shirt! Sons of Mischief 

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05/22/14 Top Pick; Ken & Ryu’s Street Fighting Academy

Hadouken. Shoryuken. Tatsumaki. These are some of the moves you will learn at this Shoto academy! I really enjoy the warm color palette on the navy blue shirt. By substituting the whites for a light cream color it keeps with the same family of colors and the overall design appears warm. The arrows create a nice texture for the circular frame and illustrate the move inputs. The gradation along with the bold light lines convey the motion of the dynamic upward moving fist. All in all, this shirt scores a total KO!

Thank You OdysseyRoc

Buy The Shirt! Ken & Ryu’s Street Fighting Academy

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05/22/14 Top Pick; The Sleeping Rose

One of my all time favorite Disney movies! Yes, I already bought my ticket to go watch Maleficent on opening weekend!! Wonderful romantic design. Aurora aka Briar Rose, is lovingly placed on a soft pillow as she slumbers. The many delicate folds of her covers are soft and decorated with roses. Her frame is wonderfully detailed. It shows the balance between the evil bright poisonous green enchantment and her good pink blossoming roses. My favorite part is the bright glowing green, pink, and blue spots in the center. They nicely represent her loving Fairy Godmothers Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather.

Thank You Nados

Buy The Shirt! The Sleeping Rose

05/10/2014 & 05/11/2014 Once Upon A Tee: Review

Once Upon A Tee is a weekly t-shirt site which offers designs for 7 days, unlike the daily sites. Once Upon A Tee offers a collection of designs which are usually part of a theme or franchise instead of the daily design model. You can either buy the whole lot for a reduced price, or pick any individual designs that catch your eye.  Each design is something an independent artist created and submitted. Because of this, the styles and subjects can vary wildly and add to the excitement of buying these unique shirts. Once Upon A Tee offers their shirts in 3 styles: Men’s, Women’s, and Youth. They also offer hoodies, phone cases, and mouse pads if that’s your thing.

I recently purchased Tom Trager’s “Justice” design from them and I was thrilled when it arrived! Ordering my Women’s style shirt was a cinch. Creating an account takes only a minute of your time or you can simply check out as a guest. They conveniently offer payment via PayPal or major credit card. I recommend creating an account in order to accumulate “Rupees”, a form of currency which can be redeemed later for a discount on future orders!

I placed my order on April 20th and the shirt was shipped on April 26th. That’s 6 business days to print and ship the shirt which seems about right. From there, USPS snail mail took 4 business days to arrive at my doorstep. That’s 9 business days from purchase, to shirt-in-hand. My experience may have been faster than usual because I ordered my shirt on the last day of availability. Your time may vary based on when you order. If you order as soon as the design goes up, you’ll have to wait for the week to end before the printing process begins. Just a fair warning!

Now, onto the shirt itself.

First off, Once Upon A Tee did an extremely good job separating the ink colors. Each color seems to have been printed where each color was intended. I don’t see any unintentional bleeding of the colors or smudges. The edges are clean and crisp. The lines are even and straight. The colors themselves turned out very, VERY close to the digital image of the design. This is very impressive considering colors may vary from one screen to another. The half tones used in the background turned out very fine in the shirt. Last but not least, the output does look like Chris Evans!

The shirt used for the print is a Gildan brand “Ultra Cotton” tee, 100% cotton composition. The women’s medium fit me just fine. It was “straight cut” and not tapered like some women’s shirts. This leads to a somewhat loose but comfortable fit. Perfect for lounging around the house, showing off to your friends, or maybe even fighting crime!

My only nitpick or regret is I didn’t order the hoodie too! I love this design!

In the end, Once Upon A Tee is a fantastic site for patrons and artists alike. They offer many different designers an opportunity to share their work for an extended period of time and deliver those designs faithfully to their customers. If you’re on the fence about purchasing from this site, I highly recommend you do so. Once Upon A Tee didn’t just sell me a shirt, they ensured I would enjoy my purchase happily ever after!

 

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04/29/2014 Top 3 Pick – Daily Shirt Designs

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04/29/14 Top 3 Pick; Avengers of Shield

“Earth’s mightiest heroes”. The design is a nice circular badge-like composition, segmented with a character in each compartment. Together, they form the shield. Each hero is nicely rendered using positive and negative space. The small white details make them pop and give each hero their identity while giving the design complexity.

Thank You Alecxps

Buy This Shirt! Avengers of Shield

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04/29/14 Top 3 Pick; Great Scott!

“There’s that word again. “Heavy.” Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth’s gravitational pull?” A deliciously clever mash-up of Back to the Future and Scott Pilgrim! Scott Pilgrim is portrayed here by Marty McFly as he performs his “Go, Johnny  Go!” scene from the end of Back to the Future. Wonderful line and color render of the figure. I enjoy the typography treatment of the letter forms especially the thunderbolt T’s. The large white letters nicely balance the colorful figure underneath.

Thank You Coinbox Tees

Buy This Shirt! Great Scott!

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04/29/14 Top 3 Pick; ESCAPE

When the president or his family is trapped in a major U.S. city surrounded by savages, who are you gonna call? It’s gotta be Kurt Russells’s one-eyed, warrior persona “Snake”! Wonderfully distressed, this figure is rough and ready to rumble. I very much enjoy the unnecessary, but much appreciated detail to the figure’s hair. The design’s bottom is very nice balanced to the top. Although they are similar, I enjoy that they are not entirely identical.

Thank You CS3INK

Buy This Shirt! ESCAPE

04/28/2014 Top 3 Pick – Daily Shirt Designs

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04/28/14 Top 3 Pick; Attack on Dinosaur – Red

“T-Rex doesn’t want to be fed. He wants to hunt.” Just like the titans, this dinosaur is busting through the wall and ready to eat some unsuspecting humans! This red monotone design captures the terror, the fear of the moment. I enjoy the large T-Rex head dominating the top center. Having both the dinosaur’s head and the main human figure both in focus creates tension. The rest of the design, including the T-Rex’s body is out of focus and hazy which creates depth and is wonderfully descriptive without taking away from the emotion between the man and the dinosaur. The small highlight of white also nicely leads the eye between both figures. I also enjoy that the wall motif is not forced upon this design, but is a natural part of the design and occurs in the film. Kudos!

Thank You  Justyna Dorsz

Buy This Shirt! Attack on Dinosaur – Red

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04/28/14 Top 3 Pick; Yellow King Coming

“Do you wonder ever if you’re a bad man?” “No. I don’t wonder, Marty. World needs bad men. We keep the other bad men from the door.” Wonderfully intriguing spiral pattern, both to the detectives solving the cases and as a pattern on a shirt design. I enjoy this “dream catcher”-like composition. The wild strokes resemble sticks and twigs used to create this intricate handcrafted frame. The color gradation nicely shows aerial depth. The mysterious, yellow-colored haze hovers above calling attention. This”yellow king” looms above Rust and Marty, casting a shadow over their domain.

Thank You Dr Simon Butler

Buy This Shirt! Yellow King Coming

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04/28/14 Top 3 Pick; Braille Devil

Hey, justice is supposed to be blind right? I very much enjoy the circular waves behind the figure. They appear to be sound waves, which Daredevil’s heightened senses detect as a sort of “echo location”, due to his blindness. Wonderful braille pattern incorporated in the design fits the character’s motif. Very clever!

Thank You TeeMinus24

Buy This Shirt! Braille Devil