Here's a tutorial for how to draw on your clothes! AKA: how to make your own BG3 fanmerch
Like these:
First hoodie is inspired by @barbatusart's BG3 fancomic [1], [2], [3] Gale hoodie is from @verawhisk's hikikomori gale AU [1], [2] Go check them out!
I’m going to focus on using fabric markers because they’re what I use! (since I have hand tremors haha) Please note that while the general steps are the same, you should check that the brand you're using doesn't have contradicting instructions. (Like recommended fabric material, ironing/oven instrustions, etc.) Check the marker description on the website if you're unsure!
I also heavily relied on Procreate to workshop and edit images to study the designs. This tutorial will make use of editing software, so fair warning; you might have a harder time following along without some sort of editing tool.
Material List:
Fabric markers
Binder clips
Flat solid item - to prevent the ink from bleeding to the front of shirt
Additional flat solid item to lift cloth - optional, recommended for thick garments
Testing cloth - optional, recommended for dark or unusual coloured fabrics! Get a similar colour (and material if you can)
Something to practice drawing your work on beforehand (tablet/PC/paper - anything goes, just as long as you can get comfortable with the design)
And whatever fabric you're drawing on
For the 3 jackets above, these are the markers/protective flat items I used:
Step 1 - Preparing Materials
This is step is only necessary if you're working on something fairly complicated, like the Emin hoodie. If you're going to work with multiple colours on unusual background colours, I highly recommend taking some time to test how your colours will look together.
Find a testing cloth, and try to match the colours and materials as closely as possible. Colours take priority over material, so focus on that! Here's a comparison of the OG comic page, the testing cloth I used and the marker on the jacket itself:
You can also make a mock up of your final design to help with understanding the scale of your piece. I used Procreate to help me with this step:
Step 2 - Studying the Design
Gale Gale's Orb was the easiest to examine. I separated the strands into different parts and just traced it a few times to understand how to draw it. I also used a mod to find a reference of the parts of orb scars trailing up his neck. I drew the basic orb scar first, and added the neck parts at the end:
Astarion For Astarion's scars, I separated the piece into 3 parts. The most important parts being the green markings to help me understand where everything is in relation to each other. I also gave shorthand names to the infernal letters so I could understand them better. If you're planning on drawing Astarion's scar, I really recommend familiarizing yourself with the letters!
Emin For the Emin hoodie, I knew I had to draw the pink parts first, for the colours to pop best. I traced those parts a couple of times and made little notes of what went where. I also used the panel lines as guidelines in the final piece.
Step 3 - Clipping and Aligning
You'll need your board, binders and fabric for this step. The most important part is ensuring that the fabric is parallel to the board! I messed up aligning the back of Gale's hoodie. The design came out noticeably crooked 😭
Make sure you stretch the fabric so that it doesn't fold onto itself when you draw on it. It's much easier to do with fabrics like denim, but if you're working with a cotton shirt, the material will drag in whatever direction your marker is pulling towards. Clip it tight! I drew over everything once to make sure it looked solid. Both the Emin and Gale hoodies are thick enough that they didn't bleed over. The denim for Astarion's did bleed, but because of the board, it didn't seep through to the front. Please use a board for double-layer textiles!
Step 4 - Drawing
This is the most "practical" part. To be completely honest, if you do Steps 2 and 3 right, this is the easiest step. I'll be splitting this step into smaller parts. If you don't agree with the order of how I do things (understandable, I've only been doing this for 5 weeks lmao), draw it in any way that makes sense to you! Your prep work in Steps 1 and 2 should be carrying you through this! The most important part for this is to LOOK AT YOUR REFERENCES. REFER TO THEM OFTEN AND ALWAYS!
Part 1: Guidelines
Draw out what you've marked as your guidelines. Your guidelines should help with spacing and and size. Refer to your annotations and references often!
If you're right handed, start at the top left. Vice versa if you're left handed. This will prevent smudges <3
Go slow. I marked out the middle of the jacket (and the comic) with the black rectangle. I also used a rule for the panel lines and tail of Astarion's scar. I used my monitor for a full sized reference and my iPad to scan through things in detail.
Part 2: Fill it out
Whatever practice you've done before, you'll need to repeat. My best advice for this part is you'll start to feel confident enough to not always look at your references. Continue to go slow. Fill it out line by line. Because of the limiting size of the board, I drew the middle of the piece first (the first picture) and then I moved the board and filled out the rest. I also added small touches like Astarion's neck scar to the collar.
After I drew the panel lines, middle rectangle, and the pink light portions in Part 1, I waited for an hour for the pink parts to dry. Then I drew the red irises, and waited another hour for it to dry. Afterwards I drew Emin's outline, then his facial features and other fine lines.
Part 3: Go over it again (optional) I draw over my fabrics at least once, because I don't like the untidy mess it of only shading over once. This step is purely up to you though. For pieces with multiple layers like Emin's hoodie, finish your second drawing of a layer before moving on or you'll have the colours mix.
You should finish step 4 with the product visual complete! We just need to heat the garment so that the ink stays! At this stage don't worry if the texture of the ink really stands out. Most of it goes away after Step 5.
Step 5 - Dry and Heat Setting
Drying My markers' websites recommend leaving the garment to dry overnight. I’ve seen videos online suggesting a full 24hrs. I personally just do leave it for at least 12 hrs. Leave it on a hanger somewhere.
Heating You can set the ink by ironing the print, or putting the fabric into an oven. I prefer to use the oven since it’s much faster (and wayyy easier), especially for bigger pieces.
When ironing, I set my heat to cotton and iron for 3-5 mins. Make sure to iron it inside out! You can also place a piece of cloth above the fabric to prevent the ink from staining your iron.
For the oven, you'll want to preheat to 150°C, and leave it in there for 8 minutes.
Step 6 - Care Instructions and miscellaneous
No fabric conditioner
Wash inside out
Continue to iron either through a cloth or inside out - never directly onto the painted surface.
Step 7 - You're done! Enjoy your merch <3
