coloring my clothing (and maybe yours, too)

i’ve never said this before, but if you can, read to the end. there’s something really exciting waiting down there 🙂

i mentioned in my last art post that i had something special to share that deserved its own post.

this is long overdue but there’s a type art that i’ve been exploring these past couple of months, and i’m *finally* ready to show it to you all.

i’ve seen beautiful hand-painted shoes and jackets on pinterest for years. and, as usual when it comes to art, i continually say to myself, “oh, i’m gonna do that soon. that doesn’t look too hard.”

but, as usual when it comes to art (again), i procrastinate. and procrastinate. and procrastinate. until finally one day i went onto ebay and bought a pair of black hightop converse with the intention of painting them.

but (hahahahaha) i still procrastinated. i wore them around for a couple of months until finally sometime during early 2020 i picked up a paintbrush and dragged my box of acrylics out from under the bed and unscrewed the cap from the yellow tube and painted something that looked vaguely like a yellow petal on the shoe. the texture of the shoe material is definitely not your typical smooth acrylic canvas, but it was still much harder to work with than i expected. add to that my unfortunate choice of paintbrush, lack of general direction, and the-fact-that-i-hadn’t-touched-acrylic-in-months— and the beginning was a bit rough.

but sometimes things just seem to work out, somehow? like when i caught sight of my twenty one pilots hoodie with the floral pattern on it, and the design i wanted for my shoe finally clicked? and when i began to get the hang of mixing the paints, and using my paintbrush correctly? i’m not sure why, but in the end it worked out. and i loved every second of it.

here’s the process it took to paint my shoe:

before

during

after

this shoe turned out beautiful. I was so, so proud of and in love with the results!

of course I couldn’t just stop there – except for the fact that I didn’t have any more canvas high tops. so instead I pulled out my old, dirty white faux-leather high tops. they were falling apart just a little bit but I cleaned them up and they were ready for a makeover in no time.

out came my acrylic paints, and a new friend – a sharpie. I had seen a look on Pinterest that I fell in love with and it involved some black sharpie – but things didn’t go exactly as planned. I needed a fine liner sharpie to get the detail I wanted, but all I could find in the house was a thick-nibbed, almost-empty pen. it took everything in that pen to finish one shoe, so my only option was to adapt and overcome. which I did, and I ended up with a one old-school-basketball looking shoe, and one cartoony-sharpie shoe. but somehow they belonged together.

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despite being so much different from the last pair, I loved these just as much. and the new type of shoe was so much smoother to paint on as well!

next was something totally different.

my much-loved jean jacket was finally too small for me, and it was time to hand it down to my sister. but something deep down inside told me to spice it up before I gave it away.

so I dug deep into my camera roll and found a beautiful picture I had taken of my sister a couple of years ago in Florida. I love using original reference photos instead of finding something online, because then my work is truly unique.

I took that photo as inspiration and a night-and-morning later, this painting was birthed:

here’s some shots of my sister modeling her jacket 🙂

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the jacket looked amazing. the little details all ended up falling into place and my sister loved the end result. (so did i, because i may end up stealing it sometime in the future if i can still squeeze into it 😉

last one! a dear, dear friend’s birthday was back in February, and as a gift I decided to paint a pair of converse for her. she picked the style and the design and I found a very-lightly-worn pair on ebay at an amazing price.

you can only imagine why it took me 3 months to finish them, but finished they are. last night I sealed them up and today Dinneen and I had a mini photoshoot. they looked GORGEOUS on her!

on our car

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and of course, being girls, we couldn’t help taking a couple shoe pictures together 🙂

ok- at this point you’re probably wondering why I asked you to wait until the end.

so, here’s the deal:

I’ve run out of things to paint.

no one else in my family has canvas sneakers or jean jackets.

but SCHOOL IS OVER so I have tons of time on my hands – and I want to keep on painting clothing and improving!

so here is the exciting part: I am expanding my art to the internet, and opening up my shoe-painting talent to all of you!

and here is the EVEN more exciting part (at least for me … i hope this is exciting for you? XD) … the first five orders i receive i will paint for FREE!

that’s right. if you have an old (or new) pair of shoes lying around, waiting for a paint job, or a jean jacket that needs a pop of color… I can paint it for you for FREE! the only cost involved would be shipping.

i’m not kidding – i am dying to get my hands on more things to paint. it doesn’t matter what type of shoe, what size of shoe – or if you want a small or large design – i will LOVE to paint it for you!

so please – don’t hesitate if you have anything you’d like painted. i can work with you on any design, and i’ll try my very best to paint it exactly how you want it to look.

and if you don’t want anything painted, tell a friend! it would mean the world to me if you would spread the news!

here’s how to contact me: you can either fill in the contact form on my blog, or DM me on instagram! my account can be found right here.

so if you have anything from a jacket to a hat to a pair of shoes that you’d like customized, please reach out! i would literally love to paint something for you. and if you don’t, tell a friend who would! the first 5 orders are free, and the rest i will be happy to price very reasonably 🙂

i am beyond excited to start painting something special for you guys. it means the world to me to have such lovely people as my readers, and it would mean even more to be able to make some beautiful for you in return!

❤ ❤ ❤

painted by jul in acrylic