How It (Was) Made: Star Jacket
So, some of y’all have seen the star coat I gave @thegreenleavesofspring for Christmas. I wanted to make a post to show the process of painting the star on the back, because I was excited about & really enjoyed doing it, I haven’t gotten to share the process of making it with anyone yet (and wanted to!), and I thought this post might be helpful for anyone else looking to do a similar project.
If you’ve read the Sons of the Star series and/or the spin-off Annaáuchiwee, you probably know that the Ways, along with anyone under their protection, each have a leather jacket with an eight-point star on the back: their family symbol. So, my idea was to give Bri her own jacket with the star :)
Now, I hadn't done anything like this before. I’ve painted before, but not frequently or on fabric, let alone any kind of leather. However, I was confident I could do it with a bit of planning and research. It came down to the following steps: 1) acquire jacket 2) acquire other necessary materials (paint, finisher, etc.) 3) figure out what size to make the star 4) prep, paint, and finish the jacket.
Actually, let me back up a little: the real step 1, or pre-step 1, was surreptitiously finding out as much information about the jackets from Bri as possible. Fortunately, this was largely achieved by simply sending her an ask about the Ways' jackets. Quite easy and not suspicious at all XD It served a double purpose: learn more Sons of the Star lore *and* learn what I’d need to do for the jacket.
Step 1: Acquire jacket. This step involved a lot of online window shopping, lol. I am SO glad I had this idea right before Thanksgiving week, which meant there were lots of Black Friday sales on jackets. I had been hoping to find a genuine leather jacket, but a) even with sales they were all really expensive, and b) there was a plethora of faux leather jackets that were more within my price range. I decided, alright, faux leather it is. After ordering one in hopes of proper sizing and discovering it was way too big, I went to a few stores and found one that seemed appropriate: cool but not too stylish (the Ways are pretty badass but don't attempt to be the trendiest, flashiest guys on the block XD), slightly rugged, and comfortable.
Step 2: Acquire other materials. As I said earlier, I don’t paint much, and I’ve never painted leather before. So, I did a bunch of research on painting leather jackets (specifically faux leather jackets) to make sure I knew the best types of paint and what to do, at least in theory. I learned that Angelus brand paint is highly recommended for painting leather (whether real or faux), and I found I would also need to prep the leather (which means to rub off the manufactured finish from the leather, so that paint will stick better) with acetone before painting and then finish it (which means to apply a transparent finisher that seals the leather for durability and protection) once I was done painting. So I got 100% acetone nail polish remover, Angelus white leather paint, and Angelus standard gloss finisher. I also discovered my craft store had some small packs of leather scraps, so I decided to get a pack in order to test out prepping and painting before doing so on the actual jacket.
Here is the plain jacket (though with cutout stars resting on the back; I realized later that I didn’t end up getting a photo of it all by itself, lol) along with lots of materials on my bedroom floor, on top of a plastic tablecloth I use for potentially messy art projects.
(Okay, yes, this was slightly staged. The papers were covering up most of the other stuff, and for the photo I wanted all the materials to be visible, so I rearranged a little XD)
Step 3: Figure out proper sizing for the star. There was absolutely no way that I was going to risk painting the star on the back of the jacket freeform. I know from simply drawing stars on paper that I cannot for the life of me get proportions of the points right on my own. I figured that the best way to get a nice-looking star on the back would be to make and use a stencil. Thankfully when Bri answered the ask I sent her, she said that the design for the star is the one she put in her moodboard for Max, so I just had to figure out the best size for it on the back of the jacket. (To print it, I inverted the color so I didn’t have to print out a whole pageful of black ink; only the star was black, lol.) I printed and cut out multiple stars (as you can see in the photo) to figure out good sizing for the back of the jacket. I wanted the star to be big, because it is big! The star is supposed to stand out so that people—specifically, Wolfriders or other opposing gang members—can see it. I ended up printing the star slightly too big (intentionally) on a piece of 8x11 paper, tracing it onto a large piece of stock paper, and then cutting out the star from it so I would have a stencil.
Step 4: Prep, paint, and finish! I knew I would need to attach the stencil to the jacket to keep it from sliding around, so I used some bag clips to clip it on and pull any loose material back. I also used some tape to stick the stencil down (which wasn't terribly successful; it didn't stick well to the faux leather). As mentioned earlier, the first thing I needed to do was prep the leather. I didn't really like that I had to do that because when I prepped part of a leather scrap, I saw that it radically changed the color of the leather, and I was terrified I'd get the acetone on too much of the jacket. However, I did have the stencil, so I simply applied the acetone as carefully as possible to not go outside the lines. Here's a photo of the prepped section of the jacket with the stencil clipped on:
Then, once I had prepped the leather, it was time for the most exciting part: painting! I listened to the Sons of the Star playlist while painting, as well as a few songs I associate with Annaáuchiwee. It was so enjoyable, and I was so excited to see how it would turn out. After painting the first layer using the stencil and letting it dry, I pulled off the stencil. All 3 photos below are of the first layer of paint on the jacket.
Something to know about me is that I am all about being as precise and neat as possible with art projects; I will use rulers to make sure I have straight lines and that everything is even. So naturally, when I pulled off the stencil and saw bit of roughness around the edges of the star, I was like "noooo, I was trying to avoid that!!" Then I realized that a) it really doesn't look bad from even fairly close-up and b) the slightly imperfect/scuffed lines actually fit the rugged style of the jacket more than if they were perfectly straight. I also found that once the paint was dry, I could scratch off tiny bits as needed, and that helped too. So, I ended up being pretty dang pleased with it, even with the slight roughness around the edges. I recalled from other art projects I’ve done that the first time doing a new type of art (or new anything, really) is usually not the smoothest, and I hadn’t had the chance to practice fully before this, so all things considered, I was doing fairly well.
After I took the stencil off, I simply painted over what I had already done. I think I ended up doing 6 or maybe 7 layers of paint in total, letting the jacket dry in between each layer. Close-up of the star, one layer of paint and finisher away from completion:
(This was about how close I was to the star while painting it, lol.)
Around the 5th layer, the main brush I'd been using to paint started shedding its fibers, and I panicked a bit about fibers getting stuck in the paint. Fortunately, I had a few different brushes (I'd gotten some for another painting project a while back), so I was able to use another smaller one to do the last layer or two. Then, I put finisher on; when I had been looking at finishers, there were a few different Angelus ones to pick from. I had chosen the standard type, which is glossy (but not super glossy), because I wanted the star to shine :) The finisher isn't just for the look, though; it sealed the star for protection, so the paint won't wear off (at least not easily or for a long time).
Here is the finished jacket, star shiny and complete:
I was quite happy with how it came out! The star is bright and easily visible against the black jacket, and I think I made the star a good size.
Here's a photo I found online of a model wearing the jacket as sold in the store, and then a photo of the finished, painted jacket hung on my closet door:
I definitely think it looks cooler with the star :)
(Also, when I had been looking for a good jacket at the start of this whole thing, I discovered a faux leather that I liked for myself, and since it was on sale, decided to get it with the possibility of returning it if needed. I’ve pretty much decided to keep it; the return-by date has quite possibly passed by now anyway, lol.
If/when I end up painting the eight-point star on the back of the jacket I got for myself, I have two things to try/do differently:
Use tape to outline the star on the jacket—if it will stick—instead of a stencil. This should provide very neat lines without the risk of the stencil moving at all.
Paint the jacket on a table instead of on the floor, so that I don't have to shift positions every couple of minutes to be more comfortable XD)
Anyway, I was so happy that I succeeded in making a star jacket, and that Bri has it now! It was so fun to figure out and then execute each step of the process, and I'm really glad I did it :D