Painting Tutorial: How to DIY Galaxy Sneakers
In this tutorial, we’re going to be doing a custom that is out of this world—galaxy sneakers.
I’m going to walk you through the entire process and show you how to paint on shoes and how to paint a galaxy to make these Nike galaxy shoes, so don’t be discouraged!
Most people doing galaxy customs are using a spouncer or a sponge and they throw random things everywhere, but this custom is going to be very controlled. We’ll be using both a foam brush and a paintbrush.
Without further ado, let’s get started!
Tools and materials:
- Leather paints
- Foam brush
- Paintbrushes
- Painter’s tape
1. Mix your paints
The first thing to do is to mix your colors, and this is going to make or break your custom, so this is the most important step.
Feel free to mix whichever colors you want, but here’s what I’m using: My first color is the base coat, and I’ll be using the collector's edition Royal 5 for 80% of the mixture, light blue for 5% of the mixture, and flat white for 15% of the mixture.
My second color is a mixture of 60% pale blue, 25% Royal 5, and 15% flat white.
My third color is very similar to the last color, but just a little lighter, so it’s about 80% pale blue, 5% Royal 5, and 15% flat white.
My fourth color is 70% lilac and 30% purple.
The fifth and final color is 20% petal pink and 80% flat white.
2. Paint random shapes with white paint
After you apply painter’s tape to any area you don’t want to be painted on the shoe, grab your foam brush and some flat white paint and begin creating random shapes on the shoe.
Add about two coats of white before you start laying on the color.
3. Apply the base coat
Take your first color, as well as any paintbrush, and cover the white blob with your base coat. Apply about 2-3 coats, with drying time in between.
4. Draw on the ring and blend
This entire custom consists of a ton of blending. If you’re unfamiliar with blending, just take a lighter color and make a ring shape within the base coat.
Then, drag the color out from the edges, leaving the middle a little bit saturated.
This will create the effect of rings in an actual galaxy. This is easier to do on this type of shoe, but it takes a lot of practice, so you might need to try it a couple of times before getting it right.
5. Draw the galactic center
To make this blob look like an actual galaxy, take the light pink paint and make an oval in the middle to create a galactic center.
Blend by dragging the paint out from the sides, while leaving the middle saturated which will give it a cool halo effect.
Add purple around the galactic center to give it dimension.
6. Create a halo effect around the entire galaxy
Spread the paint out from around the galaxy to create a halo effect
7. Paint the entire shoe
Keep repeating these steps until you’ve covered the shoe. The custom may look messy at first but will come together once finished.
Add spots of purple and blend to add variety to the galaxies.
Blend in the pink color to create spots of light.
As you paint, make sure to leave spaces of black in between galaxies. You can use flat black to clean up the edges around the galaxies.
8. Paint the Nike swoosh
Use flat black to paint over the Nike swoosh.
9. Add a star effect
Use flat white and a detail brush and create small and evenly spread dots around the shoe to create the star effect.
Using this method will give you more control than flicking with a brush.
Galaxy sneakers
Here are the finished galaxy sneakers. Let me know how your own DIY galaxy shoes turned out down below!
For more DIY shoe content, check out my posts on How to Make Unique Glitter Sneakers and How to Make Sneakers White Again.
The author may collect a small share of sales from the links on this page.
Comments
Join the conversation
What brand of leather paint did you use? Would fabric paint work? Your project is so cool!