March 29, 2011

     They say that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery - and this is certainly that. One of my favorite sketches is Amy's sketch of her son's tennis shoe fresh from the wash. With the toe slightly tilted the way they come out of the washer, you can tell it's a little stiff but clean smelling... and has so much graphic punch! 
    At any rate, ever since she posted it, I've been wanting to sketch shoes too! I had to dress up for a function today, so I had on these much loved but rarely worn wedges. The suede front of them reminds me of shar-pei puppies... no wonder I like them!  
    I used a black Prismacolor pencil and a graphite pencil. Normally, I dislike mixing them because the two seem to me to amount to different actual colors. The Prismacolor causes the graphite to be redefined by the eye as grey, so darkening parts of something with the Prismacolor makes it look disjointed and patchy to me. 
    Here, however, I used the graphite over the Prismacolor to give a sheen to the heel and insole, and used it alone for the metal while I was at it, since the different material could take the different color. I was interested to find out I liked mixing them (under these circumstances)!