Recreating a Shirt I Painted When I was 8!
Tie Dye, TMNT, and puffy paint… need I say more?! Watch me recreate this shirt I handmade as a kid in the 90’s!
So, my mom was going through some of my old childhood stuff when she came across an absolute gem from my childhood.
It was a shirt I made when I was just eight years old. Being as it was the 90’s, it was a no-brainer that I created this work of art with puffy paint and that the subject would be none other than the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Now I won’t say I was the biggest TMNT fan, but… I did attend their Coming Out of Their Shells Tour. So….
As soon as she texted me a photo of it, I knew I had to recreate it! She even mailed it to me for a little inspiration.
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And look, I know I was eight, but I’m not that impressed if I’m being honest. (My wife gets offended on behalf of my eight-year-old self every time I say that.) So, after analyzing the shirt, here are the important details I wanted to carry over to the new shirt.
For some reason, I painted Leonardo. So, obviously, I needed to paint Leonardo again. No hate towards Leo, but Michaelangelo was my favorite Ninja Turtle so that’s still a mystery to me…
The 90’s version featured a full body, weapons-drawn pose. I had been considering some poses that did not focus on his swords but figured I should stay true to the original.
The original shirt has some green swirls which I believe represents the ooze. For my take on that, I decided to go with some tie-dye.
Alright, with the very thorough analysis completed, the first thing I needed to do was tie-dye a shirt.
Since I bought a six-pack of t-shirts, I figured I would tie-dye them all. Why not get six tries at making a cool design? Honestly, you really can't mess up tie-dye, but I wanted to make sure the colors and pattern would work well with my proposed Leonardo painting.
I wasn’t a fan of many of the tie-dye folds so I ended up going pretty heavy on the bullseye pattern—though I did mix things up here and there with a side bullseye. As for the dye colors, I went with shades of green and blue. I felt like that would sum up turtles, ooze, and Leo’s bandana.
No surprise, a lot of the shirts turned out pretty similar but I ended up choosing one with a centered bullseye that could frame out and surround the Leonardo painting nicely.
With the tie dye complete, it was time to start painting the shirt.
Since loose fabric isn’t the easiest thing to paint on, the first thing I did was fasten it to a wood panel and attached it to my easel. It was a little tricky making sure the fabric was pulled taut enough to paint on, but not tight enough to permanently stretch out the shirt, but …mission accomplished.
Now, I have to admit I’ve upgraded my paint just a bit since I was eight. Instead of painting with puffy paint, I went with my Arteza acrylic paints.
Painting on textiles with acrylic paint can make the fabric feel stiff, so in an effort to make the shirt wearable, I mixed in a little Angelus fabric medium in a 1:1 ratio. Honestly, it works pretty well as long as you don’t layer the paint on too heavily…which I may or may not have done.
In the end, it may not be the most wearable shirt, but I love how it turned out and can’t wait to find a way to properly display it.
I’d love to hear about your fabric painting experience. Drop me a comment!
DON’T FORGET TO PIN IT! ↓
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