We all Fear something, but Teary is fearful of everything....

Name

Fear is a monster that lives within us; when it detects even the slightest hesitation, it takes over our lives for the rest of the day.

For this shirt, I wanted to present a new mascot Teary. Teary was supposed to represent Envy, however he seems more scared than plotting revenge on someone.

Therefore I wanted to illustrate the way Teary approaches situations while dealing with his greatest adversary, Fear.

Concept

So while I was moving to Ohio, one of the things that clouded my mind was the Fear of moving. To be away from my friends for a few month, to enter a state where I have friends, and to be trapped in a house until I go back to college; I wasn't really in the most positive mindset regarding with this situation. 

I then was thinking back what is something that I feared the most as a kid. And I remember there was this tall diving board that was present in an indoor pool. I remember seeing this 8 year old kid jumping off of it and having fun, while telling me to try it. I climbed up, saw how tall I was, and climbed back down. I was scared.

Therefore I wanted to illustrate that experience in place of Teary, the embodiment of my anxiety.

With my first mock-up, I was trying to imagine what a diving board looks like.

Basically I drew a ladder with a board attached, however it clearly violates a lot of safety procedures, therefore I had to research what a diving board looks like.

So essentially there are supposed to be railings attached to the diving board. However, I didn't feel it was necessary to build it if the diving board is short, thus I went for a staircase design, rather than a ladder design.

With this 2nd mock-up, I wanted to showcase the reality of the situation. That it is only a few steps tall, thus shouldn't be too scary to jump off of.

Progression

Learning from what I said previously, I wanted to go for a more abstract staircase design.

I wanted to create a simpler version to Schroeder's Staircase was designed because that is terrifying.

If I ever walked around in this sort of contraption, my nausea levels will skyrocket.

With that in mind, this 3rd mock-up utilized the elements from Schroeder's in order to complicate the reality Teary is analyzing in this situation.

Sometimes Fear can adjust the way we interpret reality, making it much scarier than it actually is. 

I first designed the back of the shirt because it will be easier to design. As you may have noticed, there are two other characters presented in this story. They don't have a name yet, however they are the siblings of Teary.

They are meant to give him Moral Support to symbolize that people are willing to help you conquer your Fear.

For me personally, I talked to a few friends my discouragement to go away for a few months. They ended up helping me confront my issues and resolve my anxiety, thus the Fear went away.

I then tackled the front design next and wanted to create a visual indicator that what Teary is imagining is unrealistic.

By increasing the size of the staircase from the bottom to the top, it creates a visual that this is a rather tall diving board.

You may notice the small smudges at the bottom. Those are meant to represent Teary's siblings since his Fear is overcoming their encouragement given to him.

This illustrates the concept that only we can conquer our own fear, despite the amount of support we gain along the way. 

All that is missing is adding color to the rest of the design, but how should I approach it?

Execution

Similar to how I colored Teary and his siblings, I went with a more Brash style of coloring. I want to point out that between both designs, the size of Teary and the board is Consistent.

This is because the reality of things you don't focus on will not be skewed by your imagination.

Originally I just wanted Teary to have a stand alone design, similar to Chompy, however I think many people would be confused why he cries a lot. With the context of this diving board serving as one of many things he fears, it helps illustrates the personality of Teary.

This was a design that had me think multiple times in ways of approaching the staircase, to symbolizing what Fear is.

With the final product, I feel satisfied with the accomplishment of showing who Teary is and why he cries a lot.

With this shirt, Fear will chill the backs of many, reopening the locked memories of the Boogieman.