Wake Forest student Kyan Patel builds business by painting portraits of North Carolina's biggest athletes :: WRALSportsFan.com

By Pat Welter

“It’s very simple, I’ll draw it out first, kind of get a rough sketch of what it looks like,” Kyan Patel said from a Wake Forest University art studio. “I’ll start from the head and go down and work on every little detail.”

The detail he’s working on right now is getting the color burnt orange correct on a portrait of new Texas receiver Isaiah Bond who transferred from Alabama. Bond is one of many college and pro athletes who have been the subject of a Patel portrait.

“It’s always kind of hard the first time you’re using a specific color the school is known for,” Patel said as he mixed some orange next to his canvas.

Patel is a freshman art and economics major at Wake Forest. He’s on scholarship thanks to his art, a talent that runs in the family.

“My mom was an artist, my grandparents are artists, my mom went to art school in New York,” Patel said. “I kind of always just thought of it as a hobby and a passion that I was naturally good at. When I got to high school I started seeing it as a way to form new opportunities.”

One of those opportunities arose when he helped out his high school friend Andre Greene plan his commitment. Greene was a four star wide receiver prospect with offers from schools like Clemson, Georgia and Oregon. He chose UNC, and a painting by Patel of Greene in a UNC jersey helped him reveal it.

“It was on national news, a lot of attention was brought to it the days after,” Patel said. “That’s kind of where it all blew up from there.”

It didn’t take long for UNC head coach Mack Brown to get word of the creative commitment. He was at St. Christopher’s School three days later. The football coach introduced Patel to Brown. Patel ended up painting a portrait of Brown next.

“He invited me down to North Carolina, took me on a tour of the football stadium… facilities everything like that. So he was super cool, super nice guy,” Patel said. “From there I started to realize I was doing something different. I started doing research and realized there’s not many artists who are painting athletes.”

Patel started direct messaging and emailing hundreds of athletes. Next he painted Clemson running back Will Shipley, then former UNC receiver Josh Downs.

“They would put it on their social media, I would put it on mine,” Patel said. “My social media grew, I got a lot more attention and a lot more athletes started reaching out to me wanting pieces.”

The first dozen or so were free, but now Patel’s work is commissioned by the athlete. He hopes to continue growing the business to a point where he could make two paintings for each athlete, one to keep and one for them to sell and profit legally via NIL.

“Really trying to take advantage of NIL in a way that the athlete is getting paid and I’m also getting paid if we are to sell a piece of the athlete to some college, university or fan,” Patel said.

Social media offered Patel his big break, but make no mistake a lot of time and sacrifice goes into his craft.

“I’m in the studio everyday four hours, I’m always here, you have to be committed, you have to be constantly working,” Patel said.

He’s done portraits for about fifty athletes and counting including UNC’s RJ Davis and Armando Bacot, Duke’s Jeremy Roach and Tyrese Proctor, even NFL receiver Deandre Hopkins. His portfolio is on his website Kyanpatel.com and on his Instagram @Kyanpatel.

“It’s just really cool being able to work with these people I’ve watched my whole life,” Patel said. “Be able to work with, meet them, talk with them. It’s been definitely a really cool experience.”