rants and whatnots about art and my creative process
My AM90: WTRMLN’s got another feature on FORMATMAG.COM. Though the custom process wasn’t easy by any measure, all this press definitely warrants consideration for doing another pair. Check the MISC tab at the top of the page for the sneaker pics.
However, Steph so graciously bought a watermelon so that we could do a second photo shoot. Here’s the best of the bunch (no after effects):
Here are pictures from the latest (Friday) Blue Sky gig:
And here’s the finished product from last time:
And one for scale:
Since I don’t have the time to hold a steady job, I constantly have to hustle for work. One of those hustles include painting gigs for Blue Sky. On August 29th, Paul and I painted their logo on the bottom floor. Enjoy.
And a sexy pose…
*side note – I had the assist in spilling that paint on Paul’s shorts.*
When summer began, I applied for an art staff position at soon to open Blue Sky Family Club in Emeryville. While I didn’t end up taking the position, I somehow managed to make enough of an impression that they requested me to do some of their building graphics. Point of this post, heights suck, but not enough for me to not suck it up and get the job done. Yes… this graphic is easily 25+ feet high!
Total time – 11hrs 15min. This includes prep work, paint mixing, and painting. Here are some notables:
- I should have used spray paint on the soles (would’ve saved time).
- Decided to not paint “Air Max”. Thought it might be overkill.
- I was going to use red for the final panels, but stayed true to pink. I’ll continue shopping for the right laces.
Anyways, the following pictures can all be clicked for hi-res. Additionally, none of the pics have undergone any Photoshop aftereffects. I shot the pics in today’s light – so what you see is what you get. Any suggestions or thoughts, please leave a comment!
I finished painting the soles and picked up some laces. Here are some notables:
- Using acrylics on the soles requires 2 coats
- I won’t be painting the soles further, deviating from the original idea. Also, the green on the soles is more saturated than both other greens, however, it seems to work out better (no kidding!)
The red laces are really red. I was going to paint the remaining panels exactly the same hue as the laces, but instead, I’ll use a desaturated red. Click on pic for hi-res.
Here’s what I’ve done since my last update:
- Painted the contrasting watermelon green stripes
- Painted the soles white (except for the part that’ll have the watermelon colors)
I went shopping for laces yesterday and decided that pink won’t work. At least not the hot pink that’s widely available. I’ll likely go with a light red. The laces color will ultimately determine the red hue for the final panel to be colored.
Bonus: Click on the pictures for hi-res
Finished painting the tongues. During this process, I manipulated the tongue a few times to cover every visible area. At one point, I had established a severe crease at the base of the tongue. When flattened back out, the paint had cracked off inside the crease. I’m not sure if this was due to the excessive temporary creasing or not allowing enough time for the paint to set. I’ll have to figure this out, as I want to actually wear the shoes in addition to them being art. The creases were repainted.
Both shoes now have the base green color. I haven’t colored the tongues yet because I’m tired of painting already! However, I colored the inner of the checks black. I’ll have to reline the outer check (and a few stitches) with white, due to the imperfections of the check stitching (the touch up will help round out the hard edges). The decision to color the check might be questionable, but I’m confident that it’ll work out ok.
And here is the updated mock-up
Prepping took 45min. This included stripping the paint, sanding the soles, and masking the air bubbles. The soles didn’t respond well to sanding, but I think I can just paint them with acrylics without having to worry about cracking.
The remaining hour and a half was just painting ONE of the shoes. Weaksauce. Here’s what it looks like so far:
When I resume, I’ll paint the other shoe, and then the tongue on the first. As pictured, there’s a spot where I used the acrylic on the sole. Updates throughout the day.
