How It's Done — Chinese painting-style T-shirt
In 2024, War Robots returned to the Chinese market. To commemorate it, we decided to make a T-Shirt with some cool art. Here's how it was created.
The goal was to create a T-shirt in a Chinese style while avoiding stereotypes. I aimed to honor the traditions of Chinese painting while integrating our robot into the composition. I studied three art styles that served as the foundation for this work
Xieyi – The main idea of this style is to convey meaning and ideas through imagery. It can be described as "Chinese abstractionism"
Gongbi – A technique that requires meticulous attention to detail. It is based on ink outlines, which are then filled with multiple translucent layers of color or diluted ink
Traditional Landscape – One of the oldest genres in Chinese painting, blending the techniques of Xieyi and Gongbi. A key feature of this style is the use of cun – distinctive brushstrokes, of which there are dozens of types
For the artwork, we chose the robot Ophion because of its textured appearance. Its shape resembles a massive serpent, which, in my opinion, fits perfectly into Chinese stylistics and environment
The initial version leans more toward a graphic style. I focused on the distinctive features of Chinese graphic art. At this stage, the sketch prioritizes composition, with the graphics shown conditionally to illustrate the idea
In this version, I aimed to convey the robot's power in contrast to humans and nature, adding more "air" in the best traditions of Chinese painting. For colors and graphics, I planned to follow the Gongbi style to emphasize the image's detail
This version offers a different compositional solution: two perspectives and elements of Chinese architecture. I also wanted to express the idea of how we "arrived" in China. Hence, the robot is positioned in the background, resembling Godzilla
Version in-progress. It was created to give a sense of what the picture might look like, particularly in terms of the color palette. I still need to refine the clouds — two different attempts are presented here and on the next picture
The mountains also need work: I’ve only outlined their general shape for now but plan to adopt an ink style (or at least attempt it) to make them look more organic rather than like simple line art
Pre final, just a few more tweaks remaining: mostly on mountains and louds
And here's the final version of our new art, ready for print