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| Party Shoes 8" x 8" on deep cradled ampersand board |
My friends and I were waiting for a restaurant to open for lunch and we spotted a thrift shop. Well, we simply could not pass up that opportunity! I was poking around and spotted these fantastic, high heel red shoes with a "rose" on the toe. I just had to have them.
Now these are shoes I have always dreamed of wearing! So pretty with the open toe. They were made of silk-like material with a silver lining. And oh such a high heel! My feet ached just looking at them. But some gal wore them. They probably hurt her feet so badly that she gave them up to the thrift shop! I wonder what she was like, the girl who wore these shoes. What story she might tell of her adventures in these shoes!
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| Value Studies in pencil |
I set up my light box in my studio with a spot light to one side to show the highlights and shadow pattern on the table top. I began by making some pencil studies to get the feeling for the values and their shape.
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| Photos of the shoes in my light box. |
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| First stage in the painting process |
I toned my board with red, wiping off most of it. This was just to give a little color to the background and to cut down the white glare.
I next drew the shoes with burnt umber to get their shapes right. Then the real painting began. I started with the bright red. I found red is a difficult color to work with. If you want a light area, you can't add just white as it turns the red pink! So I had to darken the areas around the bright red to make them show off.
Below are my finished paintings.
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| Red Shoes 6" x 6" on cradled ampersand gessobord |
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| After the Party 6" x 6" oil on cradled ampersand gessobord. |
