A Creative Approach to Tennis Equipment with Andrés Bella

To see more of Andrés’ art, follow @andresbellaart on Instagram.

As a competitive college tennis player, Andrés Bella (@andresbellaart) used his rackets to smash shots past opponents on the court. With a pro career no longer in his sights, he’s gotten creative with the equipment he grew up with. “I’m still stringing rackets, but I’m stringing them to make portraits,” Andrés, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area, says. He has created art of tennis stars Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, musicians John Lennon and David Bowie and even comedians like Bill Murray. After creating a digital portrait to lay the groundwork, the rest of Andrés’ process happens by hand. “I’ll put the digital print behind the racket, then start bending the string, gluing it and cutting it in a certain way to make it come together.”

A few early concepts vs final animations for the little emoji people in Sticker Pals for Messages iOS 10.