Last pair I customized was the [Air Max], a very different approach compare to this one. While I perceived the Air Max as a piece of footwear, I saw the vans as a sheet of canvas (both figuratively and literally in this case) – more like creating an Art work than throwing-on-colors-to-match-with-my-outfit type deal.
I used to design a lot of Chucks and slip-ons since they both have a wide area to work on.
This pair of vans provides limited space and have quite some uneven curves, but I like the way it looks and that’s all it matters. Anyway, time to do some damage.
These belong to Josh, a friend of mine met awhile back. He handed me these a couple months back and I haven’t been able to finish it up till recently (Sorry, Josh!) 
↑Canvas is probably the best medium to work on (except you can’t wear these in the rain – with or without art work.) It also save me a lot of time without the pre-process like ridding the ink for leather shoes and post-process like protecting the shoes with 3 coats of varnish, all I needed to do is draw on them.
Time to draw on them..with the right tool.
↑Oil based permanent markers (excluding the sharpie) I got from Taiwan when I used to paint a lot of hats and shoes. Water resistant, but don’t soak these, and color stays for a good while.
Josh gave me a lot room to figure out what to put on the shoes, under one premise – Samurai. 
↑ Thumbs up = good to go.
First stage: Pencil it up, son.
Just lightly, because it sucks pretty badly to try to erase them after. 
I don’t like too much fancy colors, so I decided to stick with black and white for this one. With an accent of Red, which will be introduced in a bit. 
Tada! A TIZ stamp/seal.
Detailing the graphic. 
Final product:
I wanted to recreate the Samurai armor look for the shoe, yet keeping it clean and simple. 
It’s always fun to create something tangible.
’til next time,
-Benson|| Twitter || the movement|| The Imaginary Zebra website || Shop of Imagination ||
