DIY acrylic paint pen sneakers

The first step is to remove the laces and prepare the surface by cleaning it. If you are using canvas shoes you can paint them straight away. In the case of Vinyl or leather, you can use hand sanitizer as a prepping agent. Ensure it has 75% Alcohol. Use a paper towel to apply this.

Once the shoes are dry we use the fine tip on the Black Paint Pen to draw a line down the centre of the tongue. You might like to print out an example of Piet Mondrian’s painting to give you some guidance, but basically all of the lines intersect to form squares and rectangles and smaller sections lie in between these shapes.

The paint in Acrylic Paint Pens dries very quickly but it still takes a few minutes to become touch dry, so to avoid smudging, lay the vertical lines in first on one side of the shoe and put it aside to let it dry. Then, do the same side on the other shoe.

Once the vertical lines are in, to create the sections on the tongue close the shoe and follow the lines from the side of the shoe to the centre line on the tongue. The sides of the shoe can then be held back and the partial lines on the tongue can be extended across. 

Once all the vertical lines are laid in follow the same process with horizontal lines. Then create smaller areas in the ones just created.

Mondrian used Red, Yellow and Blue in his artwork so we start with the Red at the toe of the shoe. When using a paint marker it has to be well mixed so give it a good shake and prime the fine tip. Then the perimeter of each shape can be laid in and then the interior can be blocked in with the broad tip.

If you are right handed a good practice is to work from left to right so you don’t smudge any paint with the back of your hand. Obviously if you are left handed then you would work right to left.

Follow the same procedure of finishing the colours on one side of each shoe and while it is drying, work on the side of the other shoe.

Once all the red areas have been painted in we can follow the same steps but with the yellow.

The yellow is in and we can now add the blue.

The final step is to relay in the black lines in to clean it all up.

Now we just have to put in the laces and we’re good to go.