Nandan Nair

One minute of second half stoppage time is added to the clock. Neymar finds Messi, Messi beats all the defenders, the goalkeeper takes Messi down, Barcelona have a penalty that could win them the Spanish Cup! Messi steps up to the penalty spot. He shoots… it’s in! Barcelona have defeated Real Madrid and once again clinched the Spanish Cup!!!!”

This match didn’t actually take place, although Barcelona have won the Spanish cup before. This painting is all about Lionel Messi, currently the best player in the world. It shows his cleat in the process of smashing the ball at the goal, with the keeper running toward his goal in an attempt to stop Messi (which will never work).

To make this soccer scene, I first copied a picture of a cleat hitting a soccer ball, and then changed the cleat into Messi’s cleat. Then, I added the field, goal, and bleachers. I then made a light undercoating for each object (except for the ball, which only needed one coat of paint). The field was the easiest to do since all I had to do was make it a nice shade of green and add patches of grass to it. The hardest part has to be the cleat, which is very detailed. I started off by making the shades of pink, blue, and yellow on the base, and a darker shade of yellow on the bottom than the top. For the studs, I made them dark red, with yellow lines on them to show dimensions. I also made a sharp border for each item on the cleat. The socks, in my opinion, is one of the only ways to recognize that it is Messi’s Cleat, if you just saw the picture and did not read this blog. To make it realistic, I made folds in the sock since no player can ever kick a ball and run without having a fold in the uniform. The logo indicates that he plays for F.C. Barcelona. Finally, I made the black lines on the center side of the cleat to finish off the painting.

You can see the photos on my Flickr album. I hope u enjoy viewing it as much as I enjoyed making my second sports painting. My first sports painting was Celebrating the Indian Premiere League.