Add Dimension To Enhance Clip Art

Learn how to turn stock art from ordinary to interesting using a few simple techniques to add dimension and details.
July 31, 2009

By Dane Clement, Contributing Writer 

Clip art is a handy tool that allows apparel decorators to minimize the cost of artwork while still offering high-quality, professional- looking work. It also enables a decorator who might not be a trained graphic artist to produce a quality design quickly when time is of the essence.

Just because a printed piece is based on a pre-designed piece of art does not mean it has to look canned or boring. There are a variety of ways to enhance clip art so that it can look original. With a few special techniques, you can make clip art unique for your customer.

It’s common for a decorator to buy a piece of clip art, fill it with solid color, drop a name on it and present that as finished artwork. You will find that it can be fairly easy to take a stock design a step or two further by adding airbrush shades, highlights and textures.

To enhance clip art, you simply put the line art on one layer in your image-editing software and paint in the layer beneath. This allows you to keep the good black outline of the clip art, even as you add depth and dimension to that image. In a couple of minutes, you can turn it into a nicer rendering.

The good news is you do not need sophisticated skills or an in-depth knowledge of computer graphics programs to add dimension to clip art. You really can’t screw up because as you add various effects, you can evaluate how they look and, if they don’t work, simply undo them.

If you don’t think you can draw, you may surprise yourself with this great, easy lesson. Don’t worry! It is not necessary to “really” draw. I will demonstrate how to paint a piece of clip art, so it looks like you did.

The steps presented here were done using Adobe Creative Suite 3 — some Illustrator and mostly Photoshop. You can do the same thing in CS4 and also using some of the recent older versions of Illustrator and Photoshop, keeping in mind that some menu selections will be different.

You also can use PhotoPaint and Corel- Draw in the CorelDraw Graphics Suite to add dimension; though you’d apply the general concepts shown here, rather than duplicate the actual steps. 

Step 1: Open the clip art file in Illustrator. Click-drag to select the entire image. From the top menu, choose Edit > Copy.

Step 2: Change over to (or launch) Photoshop. From the top menu, choose File > New. In the dialog box that opens, size dimensions default to the pixel size of the image currently copied in the clipboard. Check that the Resolution is set to the number of pixels/inch that you want, and that file type is either CMYK (or RGB, if this is for inkjet-to-garment printing). Click OK and a new blank Photoshop window opens. From the top menu, choose Edit > Paste (or use the keyboard shortcut: Cmd-V on MacOS or Ctrl-V in Windows). A small Paste dialog box will open, and you should choose “pixels” from the Paste As… list. Click OK and you will see the Illustrator image appear in the Photoshop file with a big “X” through it. Double-click anywhere inside the image to accept it; the “X” disappearing confirms it.



Step 3: Now I’ll give the image a little breathing room by expanding the Canvas. Select Image > Canvas Size and, in the dialog box that opens, be sure to check the Relative box. Type “1” in both Width and Height boxes. Be sure Anchor: shows the shaded box in the center; this adds space equally around the image. Click OK.


Step 4: Click once on the Layer with the artwork. From the top menu, choose Select > Color Range. Click somewhere on a black area in the image. Click OK. The marching ants should be visible around the black in the image. From the top menu, select Edit > Copy (Ctrl/Cmd-C) and then Edit > Paste (Ctrl/Cmd-V) to put the black outlines on a separate Layer.


Step 5: Drag the Layer with the black and white image to the trash can icon. There now should be two transparent Layers in the document. One has the outline artwork, and one below, which should be empty. With the bottom Layer selected, click on the Magic Wand Tool in the toolbox. In the Options bar across the top, make sure “Sample All Layers” is checked.


Step 6: Using the Magic Wand Tool, click inside an area of the image. Now go back to the Tool Palette and click once on the Foreground color square to bring up the color box. Select a color. For this example, I chose a medium blue. Click OK.


Step 7: Before we fill the selection, it needs to be expanded in order for it to fall under the black lines. Go to Select > Modify > Expand. In the dialog box that opens, enter “1” and click OK. Repeat these steps until the entire image is filled with solid colors. Change colors as necessary.


Step 8: Now the image is filled with all solid colors. Choose the Magic Wand Tool and click on the blue area. This will select that area and allow painting inside.


Step 9: Click on the Foreground Color box again and choose a darker color than the first one. In this case, I’ll choose a dark blue. Click OK.


Step 10: Choose the Brush Tool. In the Options bar across the top, click on the Brush Preset Picker. Select a soft brush and double click on it.



Step 11: Press Ctrl/Cmd-H to hide the selection. The marching ants will disappear, but they are still selected. You want it selected so that area will act as a mask, but hiding the marching ants is much less distracting when painting. Begin painting some shadow areas with the dark blue and soft brush. This can be done with a mouse, but it’s much easier to use a digitizing tablet, such as a Wacom tablet.


Step 12: Repeat the same steps for all of the other solid-colored areas in the image. Just use a darker color than the one that was there in the first place. It should look similar to mine.


Step 13: Press the “D” key on your keyboard to set the foreground colors to the default black and white. Now press the “X” key to switch the two. Now, white should be set as the foreground color. Click once on the section to add white highlights. Start painting white. You might want to reduce the Opacity in the Options Bar across the top of the screen.


 
Step 14: Create a New Layer by clicking on the New Layer icon at the bottom of the Layers palette (or select Layer > New Layer). Place this new Layer at the top of the Layer stack. Select the Brush Tool. In the Options bar across the top, click on the Brush Preset Picker and choose a hard-edged brush. Click on the Foreground Color box and choose a bright, fun color. Paint some small spots to add some detail.


Step 15: The finished design should look something like this. What do you think? It’s a far cry from the original black-and-white clip art and will definitely impress your customer.


Dane Clement, well-known for his expertise in computer graphics and color separations, works as an application specialist at SPSI in Minneapolis. Dane also is the founder of Great Dane Graphics, a supplier of high-quality stock artwork, and author of “T-Shirt Artwork Simplified” books for Adobe and Corel users. For more information or to comment on this article, contact Dane via greatdanegraphics.com or tshirtartworksimplified.com.

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