The concept of wearable art has intrigued me every since I saw an impressive collection of hand painted shirts over ten years ago.  The artist was Jason Ford of www.nosajauthentics.com.  We were both students at East Carolina University at the time.   His superior artistic ability made his works actually come to life on a wearable cloth canvas.  Inspired, I also started to paint these types shirts for my personal use and for friends.

 

It took campus by storm because fashion has always been a hit and miss for us small town college students.  You did not have to go far across campus before you ran into a person sporting nearly the same threads that you are wearing.  Wearable Art gave us all the opportunity to break apart from the crowds by creating custom designs considered to be “1 of 1”, surely not to be duplicated by the average mall surfing poser.

That being said, I was fondly reminded of how we used that creativity to make an impact at various events throughout our college careers.  Fast forward the the 2013 NBA All Star Game in Houston.  A perfect time to resurrect the captivating spirit of the All Star Game on a wearable piece of art.

Reference Photo.

I chose to paint the 2000 Vince Carter Honey Dip Dunk executed in the 2000 Slam Dunk Contest, easily one of the most exciting events in NBA All Star History.

Finished Product.

I chose a long sleeve white button up as the canvas, mixed some colors of Tulip fabric paint (mostly purple and skintone browns), and got started.  I didn’t have much time to complete the work, so there were no preliminary sketches, just freestyle hand painting.  Notice my professional studio, the carpet in my den!

Starting out, I established overall size of the work and added base uniform color and skintones.

Added complementary background colors.

Added the basketball shape and some of the initial details on the jersey.

Added more jersey details and began to work on Vince’s face.

Working on the basketball… This is where I rushed on the details… I could have slowed down to make the ball more realistic.

Finalizing details in the face, adding the net onto the rim, and signing the work.

Another view.

Here is the final work accented by my tickets and matching shoes.  Let me know what you think!