Fresh&Fly Customz

Well well well so im back with part 2 of this tutorial. The painting process can differ in time depending on the complexity of the design. The kicks below took about 12 hours over a 3 day period not counting the prepping time.

1) First you gotta put your design down on paper, this will allow you to see if the design you have in your mind actually looks good. I use templates of sneaker (sample pic below), if i feel like the design is gonna come out well i just use paint to fill in the template, if im not sure about the design i use Photoshop to make a more realistic rendition to help me see the kick.

2) Second i choose the colors im gonna use and the brushes im gonna need.

I will be using Bone or a really light gray and Silver for the base color, i also used a mix of my own silver not pictured below.

And im using a Volt Green and Neon Yellow for the design, both colors I mixed myself.

3) Ok lets start to paint, like i said above i will use Bone as the base for the first 2 layers. I use this color because you do not want to paint silver right on top of white because it will not come out looking as natural as it should and it will take 3 times more layers to fully fill the color in. I will paint the silver on top of the Bone to make it look more natural. Remember that you have to use really thin layers of paint for it to stick better to the leather and to have a more factory look to the painted areas. Also the first 2 layers of the paint will look uneven do not worry after a few thin layers the paint will look filled in.
So here is the first layer of paint and you can see how it is uneven and you can see through it.

4) Here is the second layer of paint and im still using Bone as the base. As you can see the color comes out more solid and even compared to the first layer. Remeber Thing layers of paint do not use blobs of paint because then the sneaker comes out really sloppy.

5) Now im gonna layer the silver on top of the Bone, like i stated before this will make the silver look more natural and will take less layers to fill the color also. As you can see the silver does not shine too much and it looks like the bone just became more glossy but after the second layer you will see the difference.

6) This is the second layer of silver, as you can see the color is more solid and actually is starting to look like silver.

7) This is the third layer of silver. Its more solid and has a good shine to it.

And here is a pic of the last layer of silver, and this is the silver that i mixed myself. This coat puts the finishing touches on the base color.

Now comes the design part of the process. Im gonna be using a print called “Safari”, this print consists of oval, round, and rounded out shapes closesly put together, and small dots inbetween the larger rounded shapes. This print has been used on many Nike kicks, you can search for this print by just typing it in Google.com.
I will be using a blend of Volt Green to Neon Yellow for the print, the pics below will start with Volt Green.
I will be using a fine tipped brush to do the design. Once again please use really thin layers of paint, just lightly dip the tip of the brush in the paint and apply to the sneaker. Since this is the design u will only need 2 layers of paint to make it look solid.

9) At this point im gonna start to blend the Neon Yellow into the Volt Green, this is a hard process and i do not recommend beginners to do this until they have some comfort with the brush and how to use it properly. This process was the most time consuming.

10) Im gonna continue to paint in the dsign around the lace panels and connecting it to the toe panel.

11) Im gonna do the same steps mentioned above to finish the sneaker.

12) Here is the small detailes on the swoosh. I used the blend of Volt Green to Neon Yellow, you can use tape to seal off the areas you dont wanna get paint on. Once again i do not recommend this to beginners because blending is not that easy and should be practiced a lot.

13) I will be using a matte Acrilyc sealer to dull down the paint. This also makes the paint water resistant, UV protected, and also makes it easy to clean dirt off.
Below i have a picture of a Matte Sealer and a Gloss Sealer that i prefer using. There is also same sealers made by Krylon. The gloss sealer is good for making shiny leather such as the Tiff Dunks or if you apply like 3 layers you can get a patend Leather look.

14) So here is the finished product. You can see that the colors dulled down and became much more factory looking, as you can see the original texture of the leather was also kept and not over painted.

Hope this helps up and coming customizers and makes it a bit easier to understand how to start making one of a kind kicks that break necks.

Peace and Respect
Desp One

There will be a part 3 of this tutorial concerning a woodburning guide and a material/fabric application.