Shoe Torture

Here are the results of my recent bouts of shoe torture (which is way too fun to be legal btw). I went to Famous Footwear and bought four or five pairs of shoes on clearance to play with after my last experiments. The top pair is done in ShivaPaintstiks (not sure how I'm going to heat set them, maybe in the dryer). I did them with stencil brushes. They are not symmetrical. I put ribbon yarn in as laces and added beads to the ends (they are merely decorative, not meant to be tied). That was a very fast, fun pair to do. I like the soft, easy airbrushed look.

The bottom pair I call Spring Bling. They were a semi-ugly floral print. First I pained them with Lumiere Emerald Green (big improvement already). Then I glued on dichroic cabochons. Next I glued on little sparkly gems (used E6000 for all gluing). Finally I glued on beads--leaf beads and round green Czech glass. Well, I used too much glue for the cabochons and didn't let them dry enough. So after the first test-wearing, I peeled off all the ones that weren't tightly bonded (six of them), peeled off all the glue, and re-applied with about 1/3 to 1/2 the amount of glue. Then I let them dry for three full days. Now they are stuck on there good and tight. Just goes to show you that more (glue) is not always better.

Finished!

I put the last touches on Julian today, and although as usual I see some imperfections, I am overall very pleased with him. Given that this is my first ever representational acrylic painting, and that it was done on fabric, I think it turned out well (if I do say so myself). I'm definitely going to try this again, both on fabric and an canvas board.

This whole experience has been a great confidence booster for me as I really have very little painting experience and was pretty sure I couldn't do it. I found that having the right brushes makes a big difference. Right doesn't have to be expensive in this case; my brushes were from Hobby Lobby, bought at half off, and did the job just fine. The crucial thing was to have a variety of sizes and shapes.

Now I'm off to go torture some more shoes!!!

Julian Update

I've been working on him slowly for about the last week or so, hampered by some health problems. But today I finally felt better and got quite a bit done. Next I will shade and texture his mane. While I do the mane, I will have time to contemplate what to do with the horn.....

Sorry it's so glar-ey....but it's metallic paint which in my experience is always hard to photograph.

More Fun

I am on a big clothing-altering kick and having a blast with it. I was reading Altered Couture magazine and read the article about altering shoes with PVA glue. Something clicked, and I HAD to have shoes to alter. So I went out and bought ballet flats because I figured they would be less subject to wrinkling through bending than regular shoes. I also figured it would be simpler to alter something without laces. So for my first two pairs of altered shoes, I did one in Lumieres and one with batik fabrics from my stash. The one in Lumieres was very easy and fun to do. I painted it all over (except the upper edge) with Indigo Metallic Lumiere. Then after that dried, I did swipes in Blue Pearl and Purple Pearl (not sure of those are the exact color names and too tired and comfy to go look right now, but it's something very close to that). I was excited but knew I wasn't done. I wore them to school that way. The kids really liked them. One of them suggested I add green. Now to me that sounded ugly for about 30 seconds, and then I thought, wait, it might really pop against the darker/cooler colors. So that evening I added Interference Blue (which I think they call Hi Lite Blue) and Emerald Pearl. I put the Emerald Pearl on in small spots. My student was right, the color really popped. It totally made those shoes.

The second pair of shoes was also easy to do. I cut up some batiked cotton fabric into ovals and circles and applied them to the shoes with PVA glue (if you need to know how, let me know and I'll explain). I let that dry. Then I had a flash--what if Lumieres were compatible with PVA glue? So I took a piece of leftover batiked cotton and put PVA glue on it. I let it dry for 8 hours. Then I painted it with the Lumiere Indigo paint and let that dry for several hours. It melded very nicely with the PVA'd fabric (could not be peeled off or separated). So then I went ahead and painted the shoes with Blue Pearl, going over the parts of the shoe not covered by the fabric (except the upper edges and the bow). That looked great to me; the color went nicely with the batik. I let that dry for a day or so, then cut out some other batik fabrics in circles and ovals and adhered them with PVA. When it was dry, I decided I liked the look and stopped there (though I may yet add more to it if inspiration strikes).

I went to Famous Footwear looking for another pair of shoes to alter and came home with four! They were having a great clearance, and I got four nice pairs for $30 or so. These have better soles than the ones I got at the other store, which is good because I found the original ones were a bit hard on my feet because of lack of padding and arch support. I have already started altering one of the new pairs (with Emerald Pearl paint), so most likely I'll have more to post in awhile.

Calling It Done

I am going to call Twickie "done" now. I added a bit to the background, including some lines for texture in the pink. Whew, what a slow but worthwhile colored pencil journey. I can't wait to pick the right mat and frame and hang this one up in a prominent place, despite its imperfections. What a great learning experience.

More Julian

Here's where I am with this now. I know it's kind of glare-y (not a word, probably, but you know what I mean), but I am using Lumieres on this and they are shiny. I think adding the rim of black around the eye really makes it pop, but it does make him look more like Julie Ann rather than Julian. Oh well. The wrinkles on the painted part of the neck smoothed out when it dried.

Julian's Debut

I have been drawing unicorn heads for the last few days. After awhile I decided to paint one on the back of one of my shirts. On Saturday I was having what I call a "good drawing day"....one of those days where my hand does wonderful things with a pencil or pen and I hardly have to think about it. So I came home from a horribly boring seminar and drew this unicorn, nicknamed Julian, on the back of one of my T shirts. Why Julian? Dunno. Just looks like a Julian to me. The first drawing shows the black fabric pen outline (drawn over disappearing purple fabric marker). The second one shows what I've done with the eye so far. So I will be doing a WIP for this one, too. BTW it's being done on a 100% cotton T shirt with Lumieres. So far I have used halo blue, gold, and emerald green on the eye. Tonight I'm going to try to do the lids and lashes.

Are we there yet?

Well, this is the "dress rehearsal" for Twickie/Daphne. This is the preliminary finished version. I went lightish on the background knowing it is far easier to darken a light background than lighten one that is too dark. I know there is one area along her chest that certainly has to be fixed; other than that, what do you think? Do you think she needs more contrast? I feel like I'm getting close....