News — Angelus Tutorials

While you might be familiar with the process of customizing leather sneakers, canvas sneakers are great for customizing too. @sneakerqueenscustoms stopped by Angelus Direct to show how she does her swirl design on a pair of classic Ward Low canvas Vans.

Follow these steps to create your own.

Supplies:

-Masking tape

-A shoe tree, tissue paper or something else to give the shoe structure

-Angelus White Paint

-Angelus Purple Paint

-Angelus Light Blue Paint

-Angelus Pale Blue Paint

-Angelus Lilac Paint

-Angelus 2-Soft Fabric Medium

-Angelus Paint Brush - #6 Filbert

-Leather Preparer and Deglazer

-Flat 4-Coat

1. Prep

Canvas shoes don't require as much prep work as a leather shoe since you don't need to do anything to the canvas to get it ready for painting. Simply remove the laces and tape off any area you want to keep from getting painted. @sneakerqueenscustoms likes to put a shoe tree inside the shoe to give a little more support since the canvas isn't very thick and can be hard to keep from moving. You could also fill the shoe with tissue paper or whatever you have on hand to make the shoe more firm.

2. Mix Your Paint

For this swirled design @sneakerqueenscustoms uses Angelus Lilac Paint for the purple base paint and an 80 percent and 20 percent mix of Angelus Pale Blue Paint and Angelus Light Blue Paint for the blue base color.

Both base colors get a one to one ratio of the Angelus 2-Soft Fabric Medium added to them so they properly adhere to the fabric. When you add Angelus 2-Soft Fabric Medium make sure you heat set your design with a heat gun or hair dryer for three to five minutes.

 3. Paint

Using an Angelus Paint Brush - #6 Filbert @sneakerqueenscustoms covers the uppers with her base colors. Don't be surprised if the canvas soaks up more paint than leather shoes normally do. Be careful not to put too much paint on your brush, the the canvas can soak up a lot of paint and cause your design to bleed. Heat set each layer of paint. Touch up any areas that need more paint and heat set again.

While you can't fix any mistakes on canvas with Leather Preparer and Deglazer, you can use it to clean up any paint you get on the eyelets.

4. Swirls

For the purples swirls @sneakerqueenscustoms uses a fifty-fifty mix of Angelus Purple Paint and Angelus Lilac Paint. For the blue swirls she uses a seventy-five and twenty-five mixture of Angelus Light Blue Paint and Angelus Pale Blue Paint. She doesn't feel the need to add Angelus 2-Soft Fabric Medium to this paint as it's not going to cover as much of the shoe.

She paints on an abstract swirl design using a combination of thin and thick lines for variation.

5. Finishing

Finish with a layer of Flat 4-Coat to keep your design protected and there you have it, your own custom canvas Vans!

More Custom Tutorials

If you want to see more custom tutorials like this one, make sure to subscribe to the Angelus YouTube channel to learn tips and techniques.

Also, make sure to follow Angelus on Instagram and check out our online store to grab the materials you need to create your own custom designs!

Just because a designer bag or wallet is already covered in logos doesn't mean you can't find a way to make it your own. The real concern when customizing something as expensive as a designer wallet is making mistakes, since the item you are customizing won't be cheap to replace. This tutorial shows step by step how to paint a new design on a wallet, while minimizing your chances for error.

Supplies:

1. Creating Your Design

To ensure your design fits on the wallet either draw it on an iPad or laptop, or take a photo of your drawing. This allows you to resize the image so it fits the area on the wallet you want to customize.

2. Create Your Stencil

Once the design is the size you want, tape over the screen. The design should still be visible through the masking tape, allowing you to trace around the design. When the design has been traced, remove the sheet of tape and place on a mat where the design can be cut out to create your stencil. You can use the tape to create a stencil for the main outline of design and another for more detailed parts of the design. 

3. Deglazing and Applying the Base Coat

With the main stencil outline down, it's important to deglaze the area and apply a base coat in flat white for the design. 

4. Tracing in Fine Details

Use the more detailed stencil to trace in the hair and face with a pencil, then do the same with the eyes and lips.

5. Outline Line Work

Use a fine brush and black paint to start on the line work. This will help create clear areas where you will add color.

6. Add color

When painting skin tones it can be helpful to start with a white base and add color slowly, so that you achieve the correct tone. Skin tones are usually made up of browns, oranges and pinks, but adding grey can also help with making it look more natural.

Once all the color has been added, go back in and thicken the black outline to help clean up the design.

7. Add a Clear Coat

When you're finished painting the design be sure to seal it with Satin 4-Coat. This will protect the paint from water, scratches or any other wear and tear the wallet might face.

More Custom Tutorials

If you want to see more custom tutorials like this one, make sure to subscribe to the Angelus YouTube channel to learn tips and techniques.

Also, make sure to follow Angelus on Instagram and check out our online store to grab the materials you need to create your own custom designs!

With Squid Game madness taking over everywhere Angelus Tutorials is bringing you some Squid Game custom Vans so you can get in on the trend. Sponsored artist Sophie Saldana walks us through everything from fading to shading on this pair of customs.

1. Base Coat

Since these are canvas customs start with two coats of Angelus Flat White Paint. This will create a screen print like texture that will be easier to sketch and paint on.

2. Sketching the Design

Using pencil you can free hand sketch the design onto the toe of the shoe. The white background from the base coat should make it easy to see the pencil markings when you're ready to paint.

3. Painting the Blues

Inspired by the blue playground room on the show, @sophiesophss mixed three light blues to use for the background. Starting with the lightest blue, she builds up coats of paint to create the background. She then goes over the light blue with a slightly darker color using a scribble motion, to create that crayon drawing look from the show. She uses the darkest blue to outline the white clouds in blue and scribbled more blue onto the clouds themselves.

4. Painting the Guards

For the guards @sophiesophss recommends creating three or four different reds using the same base color. She did this by creating one main red and then adding grey to create a second red and white to create a third. This will allow them to blend well together. 

Start by color blocking the red areas with the main red. Add shadows with the darkest red and highlights using the lighter red. To really give definition to the design, add some black to the base coat for the darkest shadows.

Add black to finish off the faces the guards themed shoe.

5. Painting the Candy Design

The other shoe features a candy design inspired the dalgona game from the show. Fill in the blue sky background to match the other shoe and then paint whatever Squid Game inspired shapes you want for your candy, just be sure to use shading like you did with the guards to give the candy some depth.

More Custom Tutorials

If you want to see more custom tutorials like this one, make sure to subscribe to the Angelus YouTube channel to learn tips and techniques.

Also, make sure to follow Angelus on Instagram and check out our online store to grab the materials you need to create your own custom designs!

Recently Miles Costales dropped by Angelus to demo just how to create a smooth gradient. Whether you're using a gradient as a background or the main effect, doing it in an even way will give your customs that professional look.

For this tutorial he's showing us how to create a gradient on some summer themed slides. An airbrush is an easy way to make sure the finish is smooth, but Miles is going to show us how to achieve the same effect with paint brushes. 

1. Prep

Prepare the shoe for painting by removing any finish with Leather Preparer and Deglazer. Once the finish is removed, tape off any areas that you don't want to paint.

2. Base Coat

Miles uses the Angelus Paint Brush #10 Shader and Angelus White Paint to create a base for his design. It takes about ten to twelves coats of white paint to get a solid base.

3. Tape the Lines

More tape is used to tape off the lines for this design, so there are white lines in background.

4. Painting the Gradient

Just as many thin layers were used to create the base coat, thin layers are key to creating an even gradient. Miles mixes his colors, in this case reds, oranges and yellows for a sunset, then applies them from left to right, working quickly while they are still wet to help them blend. Use the brush to blend between each color.

5. Palm Tree Design

To add the palm tree design over the gradient sunset use a stencil or paint your own design in black. Use a fine brush for this kind of detail work.

6. Finish

Protect your work with some Matte Acrylic Finisher and remove the tape to reveal a custom pair of sunset themed slides with a smooth gradient.

More Custom Tutorials

If you want to see more custom tutorials like this one, make sure to subscribe to the Angelus YouTube channel to learn tips and techniques.

Also, make sure to follow Angelus on Instagram and check out our online store to grab the materials you need to create your own custom designs!

With the release of Space Jam 2 a pair of custom Bugs Bunny Lebron Witness 5s is a no brainer. Tommy from @BearGallery is breaking down all the steps for creating these Space Jam 2 customs. 

1. Deglaze

To prepare the shoe for painting it has to be deglazed. This can be done with Angelus Preparer and Deglazer. You can also sand lightly with a high grit sandpaper first to ensure the surface is rough enough for the paint to adhere.

2. Draw Bugs Bunny and Tweety Bird

Tommy uses the existing design to inspire this custom, drawing Bugs holding the golden swoosh over his shoulder like a carrot. Tommy has a few drawing tips, including squinting when looking at your design inspiration so you're not overly focused on one detail and break the design down into shapes. For example the head and feet of Tweety Bird in this image are about the same size, but that's not obvious at first look. Squinting helps you see the overall proportions.

3. Mixing Angelus Paint

Now it's time to mix your custom colors. Tommy uses flat black, flat white, red and black for Bugs Bunny. He also adds Angelus 2-Hard since he'll be painting on plastic film. For the outline on Bugs he adds some flat white to the black so the line doesn't look as harsh. To finish he mixed yellow and blue to paint a green carrot top to the swoosh.

Tweety Bird is just orange and yellow, with white and blue eyes. First he paints everything yellow and then goes back in to paint the whites of the eyes.

4. Painting the Midsoles

To give this pair that Space Jam feel he adds a splatter design. First this requires taping off the midsoles with Red Vinyl Tape. He mixes violet, blue and white to match the purple accents, then creates a neon green with yellow, blue and white. He creates the splatter pattern by applying paint to a brush and then tapping it over the surface.

Remove the tape and you have your own custom Space Jam 2 Lebron Witness 5s!

More Custom Tutorials

If you want to see more custom tutorials like this one, make sure to subscribe to the Angelus YouTube channel to learn tips and techniques.

Also, make sure to follow Angelus on Instagram and check out our online store to grab the materials you need to create your own custom designs!