- And a razor might not be the perfect antidote.
- I might've forgot that fabric is not only absorbent
but takes time to dry.
- Hii.
(upbeat music)
- Hi, my name is Radhia Rahman.
I'm an illustrator from New York city.
And today I will be painting on these pair of overalls.
- I'm an artist.
I've been creating art basically my entire life,
but I've been running my own business
doing it for the last three or four years.
- The medium that I normally work with is acrylic paint.
From time to time, I will use ink, maybe some pens.
I'm kind of a portrait artist.
Most recently, I have been drawing a lot of my inspiration
from the skateboarding community here in LA.
- I mainly work in a digital format.
However, for instances like these, where paint is involved,
acrylic and gouache is my best friend.
My illustrations are influenced by my experience
as someone who is a first generation
Bengali American woman of color.
I would describe my work as embracing femininity,
culture, fun and playful colors and things I enjoy
like plants and cats.
- I'd say my main medium is watercolor.
I do what I like to call space babes.
They're body and sex positive portraits.
And I do them in these really fantastical color schemes
because I find it lanes kind of like a blank canvas,
so that anyone can kind of superimpose themselves into them.
- I don't think I've ever customized
any of my belongings before.
This is gonna be a very significant first for me.
- The thing I am the most nervous for in this process
is that it's a very big, full body, white garment.
This is about as much white as I wear.
My home, very colorful.
Me, all black, maybe a little red or oxblood.
- I think the most challenging aspect for this project
is working with the structure of these overall,
since there's a front and a back.
Worst case scenario, I accidentally smudge the paint
or make the wrong mark.
Best case scenario, I'm able to clean it up
before the paint dries.
- So, contouring is kind of a phobia in a way for me.
And when you're working with fabric ink,
kind of like melts out.
- When Buzzfeed reached out to me,
I was very excited to work on this project.
I was able to ask for a pair of overalls in my size
that were secondhand.
So not only are these getting a make-over
but they're getting a second chance at being well loved.
- I have a serious thing about the amount of clothing
we waste in the world.
It's terrible for our environment.
It's terrible production wise.
So if I'm going to make something or customize something,
I want it to be something I'm going to get a lot of wear of
or that someone in my life can.
So let open these overalls and see if they work for us.
- [Kimi] I love them.
This is a great white,
it's very much akin to canvas that I would paint on.
- God, that's so much weight.
Oh, it's just a big expanse of white fabric.
- [Kimi] One of my concerns is kind of the ridging.
I'm very bad with fabric terminology.
- The only thing I'm nervous about
is I'm very short in the torso.
I have a sneaking suspicion
I'm gonna have to shorten the straps
even beyond what they're able to adjust,
but that's an easy fix.
So I think we can handle it.
(frame whooshing) (happy upbeat music)
- Just to get an idea of the vision brewing in my mind,
I have sketched out some designs on my iPad.
I'm planning on grabbing graphic elements
from my illustrations as the blueprint for the overalls.
- And I definitely want to do something,
Keith Harring inspired.
This is sort of the idea I have in my head so far,
something that's been very impactful to me.
I'm actually Ugandan
and coming here has been quite a challenge,
but I have found a great family through skateboarding.
And one thing that I definitely want to keep
in line with my previous art work,
with kind of like the art aesthetic that I have,
is that I wanna feature members
of the skateboarding community in LA.
And not just anyone but the people that I skate with
and with whom I've built a family.
- So I bought a wine colored fabric dye.
So I'm gonna dip dye them,
so they're still technically white overalls.
They won't be all wine colored.
So I think I'm going to make a stamp
or a couple different stamps
and do an alternating fabric paint, all over printing them.
Maybe also paint them.
- Okay, I think it's time to get started on these.
(frame whooshing) (upbeat house music)
- Just wanna see if I like the proportions of everything.
The size of the heads, the negative space between the heads.
I actually really love this already.
So I think I'm actually gonna go
with the floating heads concept.
The only challenge that's gonna come with that though
is talking to people and convincing them
to allow me to draw their face,
and representing a healthy amount
of the people that I skate with.
The next challenge that I have to overcome
is getting in a little bit of practice with fabric,
fabric paint and fabric friendly markers.
So what I have before me is a pair of white pants
that I'm gonna use as a test
to see what the outcome's gonna be
if I put these pants in the washer and dryer.
I'm gonna use the paint to my heart's content.
I painted out some color schemes
that I think I actually wanna settle for.
I'm not too mad about the representation
although the maroon is really murky.
Another thing I noticed about fabric paint
is it dries so fast.
So I wasn't even able to get all of the paint out in time,
to paint the square 'cause it had dried so fast.
I might not use as much fabric paint with a brush
just because it might fail me, as it did there.
(upbeat music)
- [Radhia] Since I'm working with a limited color palette.
I think the smartest method
is to actually mix the color in batches.
And that way it'll be consistent
throughout the entire project.
I'll be using a combination of acrylic paints
with this medium that will protect the artwork
from being washed off afterwards.
I'm also attempting to draw out the bigger shapes
on sheets of paper and then cutting them out,
so I can save myself time from drawing directly on these
and constantly sketching and erasing.
I think I have successfully sketched out
and traced the larger areas right here.
This is what the back is looking like.
I think the smartest method is to actually paint one color
at a time.
Before I continue, I completely forgot.
I should probably put a piece of cardboard
or extra paper between the legs,
so the paint doesn't bleed through to the other side
or cause the fabric to stick together.
- I'm gonna start by dying my overalls.
I'm just using my mop bucket and some gloves.
Got my dye, of course.
Please be careful that you don't splash your feet.
Maybe wear shoes.
I have a supervisor, huh?
Next, we need about a tablespoon of dish soap.
I could measure but I'm gonna.
And then about a cup of salt.
Our potion a good mix.
Keeping in mind if you're using anything porous
like this guy, will no longer be food safe.
All right, I saw this on the internet
so it must be true.
I'm going to use a piece of paper towel
to test the color of my dye.
It's not red enough for me.
So we're adding the whole dang bottle.
So I've got my overalls here
and I have already soaked them in water,
and gotten them nice and wet and wrung them out,
the best I could.
So let's start dipping them.
I want an Ombre.
Yeah, we're getting kind of a medium tone here
and then the darker down here.
So I'm gonna keep dipping it so we don't get a harsh line.
All right, so I want the very bottom to be the darkest.
We'll leave it this way for a little while.
Coming in and stirring it and agitating it fairly often.
I'm really liking it so far,
so let's give it a little time and come check back in.
- All right, so I hand washed the test pants
and we'll check back when it's really bone dry
and see how we've done with the ink.
And this is what it's gonna look like after the fact.
I'm not mad at the contours, seems pretty decent to me.
Only thing, yeah, is the fabric paint
is not looking the way I would have hoped it would look.
And maybe that's just my technique, being a novice to this.
So right now I'm about to take the overalls
and I'm gonna just sketch out some pencil sketches.
Unfortunately, some people will have to be
in unpreferable regions,
but hey, we're all in this together.
(upbeat music)
The quote that comes to mind when I'm working on these,
is that art is long and time is short.
I'm kind of having a battle between adding a lot of detail
versus kind of rushing through it.
And I know the moment I rush through it,
it's like baking a cake incorrectly,
the whole thing is just gonna collapse.
And I'm also realizing that it's really hard for me to focus
because this is a monster of a task.
Focus is a luxury that you buy with the gold of discipline.
I wish I had that focus, I wish I had that discipline.
Let's work on that.
I am nearing the end of the sketching portion
and I'm about to complete the last and 57th portrait.
I'm really excited to just get this pen down
and then the rest should kind of be a breeze.
I'm gonna leave this part bare
because I think I want to have
just a symmetrical feature here.
So I have begun the lining out of these pencil sketches
with a green marker.
So we've only just begun, only about 50 more faces to go.
- I am running out of daylight,
which I was afraid would happen.
But, I will probably touch up some spots on the pink,
where the paint is sparse.
I will take this to my desk and work in sections
under my desk lamp.
I might've forgot that fabric is not only absorbent
but takes time to dry
So I think I'm going to pull out my hairdryer
and run that over some parts so we can speed up the process.
Here is my current situation.
I have the rest of this long boy, to go.
Some of the stars on the back,
this checkered pocket right here,
the rest of these little sprinkles along this belt
and these straps.
- So I wash the overalls and let them completely dry.
And they're pink,
they're definitely pink
which is not a color I was expecting them to turn out
based on my dye color.
The gradient turned out really beautiful, but they're pink,
which is not very me in color.
So, I took a couple days of a break
to just kind of noodle it around
and decide what I wanted to do.
I figured I would embrace the pink.
We're just gonna go full like pastel goth.
So I made a couple of cute little designs
and let's make them into stamps
and hope this turns out kind of cute.
So, after all that I'm completely done
one side of the overalls.
I think they look way cooler, I'm way more okay with pink,
now that they are covered in black fabric paint.
So I'm going to put my head down, throw on a TV show
and see how much of this I can get done,
since it's already 10:30 at night.
- [Kiki] Something I've noticed
is that drawing noses on fabric
is an absolute nightmare for me.
I usually like to use shading to determine where a nose is.
It's just really hard to show that depth with this one.
So I'm trying not to ruin people's faces.
Another thing that I want to remind myself,
that I try to remind myself is just to keep having fun.
Have fun with it.
I'll be done really soon and then I'll move on to adding
and introducing the other colors.
But for now I'm just gonna focus on laying down
a flat color of a marigold, yellow.
Paint the front pouch, front pocket and the back pockets.
(upbeat house music)
Ah, last but not least, you got to sign it,
because that's sort of the thing you do
when you're an artist.
And we're done, yay.
(frame whooshing) (upbeat music)
- I finished painting on these overalls last night.
I've also put on these earrings.
These are actually sculpted by me
and they were a Valentine themed, limited drop
for my shop in February.
As you can see, I've matched my makeup
with the color palette of the overalls.
I'm also wearing this lilac, lettuce trim top.
I definitely think these overalls reflect my interests
and how I speak visually.
This makes me so happy just to look at
and the fact that these are mine
and I can just wear them whenever I want.
It feels really great to customize or revamp clothes
and give them a second chance.
- Here's the full look,
basically went like pastel goth vibes.
Blue eyebrows to match the hair,
some pink to match the overalls
and a black lip for good measure.
Well, I added some of the pins that I design and make.
Some chunky earrings, stripey black top,
chopped it all off with my combat boots.
I think in the end, I'm super happy with how they came out.
Despite the fact that I was rather upset
that they turned out pink.
- All right, here is the finished look.
I've got on white sneakers, tie dye blue socks
by my friend, Precious.
I have these African print earrings.
I just love to always put a dash of African print on.
It's an ode to 90s, Hip Hop.
And this is kind of what I wanted,
was a very subtle print like look with the portraits,
but I am super, super pleased with the outcome.
And I'm happy that I completed it.
And would I do this again?
If I had the right materials for painting on fabric,
I would love to try an actual painting.
It's making me so happy,
the whole process has made me so happy.
It's taught me a lot about myself.
It's taught me a lot about my friends
and like how beautiful they are.
- I love that I'm able to mend my style
across different mediums and even on fabric
while maintaining the fun shapes and lines.
- Well, I'm really happy with the process.
I've been customizing my own clothes for forever.
So it's definitely something I'm gonna continue to do.
- 10 out of 10 would recommend,
try it at least once if you're an artist,
try customizing some cloth.
♪ Hey ♪