Everybody Loves Draymond

After building the YaniMade brand since fall, selling the Curry sublimation tee and tank on Etsy, in person, setting up a popups on the sidewalk, and pinning it to the back seats of my car hustling it while Uber driving,  "Everybody Loves Draymond" comes as the sophomore project.  As a lifelong Warriors fan, watching the remarkable 73 win season unfold, there was no doubt I wanted to continue the series of work on the Warriors. 

Energetically I was sapped, as heartache and a period of personal growth took course over winter while I continued to push YaniMade forward.  At times, it felt incremental or all together destined to be a hobby.  In late April feeling I needed a follow up done before the season, I scrapped my idea for a Plasticine modeling clay caricature of Klay Thompson and his dog Rocco (which I planned on photographing and sublimating on to tee shirt).  Because I was experimenting with wire armature and sculpting the Van Aiken clay, I simply felt to do it justice I needed more time experimenting with the medium.  So seeing the Warriors' season was drawing to a close, during the first week of May, I got cracking on a Draymond pastel drawing.  I found an image that really moved me, and felt the symmetry would make a fantastic shirt.  I chose the white home uniform to contrast the darker blue road color of the Curry drawing, and the following few weeks was incredibly focused, exhausting, anxiety provoking, yet ultimately rewarding. I completed the drawing on on three hours of sleep on Saturday morning May 28th, in time to photograph it with my friend Todd, do 10 hours of background edits to extend it for tee shirt bleed room on Monday the 30th, to flying at 5am to Phoenix the next morning, where for 3 days I did test prints at the sublimation department at American Printhouse. 

In seven days, I went from having committed for flight and hotel for a 3 day trip to the Phoenix with the Warriors down 3-1 in the conference finals to OKC and Draymond facing suspension, to the Warriors heroically winning game 7 on the same evening I finished my final edits.  It took until the 3rd day of test printing to get the color balances correct, and I returned at 1am Friday morning to Oakland with 20 tank tops in my bag for the Crush boutique in Rockridge and the Warriors a 1-0 series lead against the Cavs.  Then it was a mad dash to get model shoots, photos up on Instagram, Etsy, the website and the main order quantities placed and delivered.  Overall, for a one man show, things couldn't have gone any better, even given the slight inconveniences of waiting for product.  I'm exhausted, but I feel I got exactly what I wanted, and hope people enjoy what I came up with, and the quality and vibrancy that dye-sublimation tee printing produces.

Update: On 2-2-19, the perfected limited edition, artist numbered and signed tee on premium fabric, and fine art prints made their debut in the Oracle Arena Court Side club VIP kiosks! They sold out and were a huge success, proving the chance the Warriors retail team took on my concept, and allowing me to having a display inside the exclusive VIP area.