Showing posts with label Museum of Modern Art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Museum of Modern Art. Show all posts

Friday, 23 May 2014

Total Pollocks tee tutorial

Jackson Pollock - Autumn Rhythmn, 1950
I've always loved the work of Jackson Pollock, so when I saw these rather fab t-shirts in Uniqlo who are doing a Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) NYC collaboration I was inspired.

The Pollock t-shirt design I liked the best was in the men's collection and having tried the smallest size (way too big) figured I would have to make my own version instead.

It's much more fun this way!
Uniqlo MOMA Jackson Pollock Men's t-shirt £12.50
What do you need?

  • Cotton / cotton blend t-shirt
  • Fabric paint
  • Newspaper
  • large plastic bag / sheeting
  • Paintbrushes / toothbrush
  • Iron


I used a range of brushes to create the effects you see on my finished t-shirt. The smaller brushes create a more even splatter; whereas the large brushes can carry a decent amount of paint and you can get the more heavy splash effects with them.

Depending on the consistency of the fabric paint you use, I found the best effect was achieved by making a quite fluid paint by adding water to achieve a 50/50 solution. I used berol fabric paint. 


To vary the types of paint texture I used a small paint brush for the medium splatts, a toothbrush brushed against a scrap of plastic / card to create the very tiny spray and the large paintbrush for the heavy splats. I also used the small paint brush to free-style the larger blocks of paint - which had the added benefit of using up some of the large blobs of fabric paint.

I left the t-shirt out in the sun to dry and then ironed it as per the fabric paint instructions to fix the dye into the t-shirt. So, there you have it - the Pollock tee.


Give it a go - it is liberating!