The Watercolour Shoe Series - Part 1

I love shoes. So, so much. I used to have a real problem when I was younger and didn’t have any bills to pay. I would look online for shoes for HOURS and became quite the avid e-bay shopper, especially when I was searching for the perfect shoe to go with my high school graduation dress. In hind sight, they were not the perfect shoe and I’m glad that my taste in shoes has evolved through the years.

My collection now is composed more of classic styles, with a few fun pops of colour and lots and lots of black.

So, naturally, my love of shoes inspired me to paint some styles in watercolour. They would be great as prints to add to a bedroom, bathroom, or walk-in-closet area and can be classic or outlandish in style. Since I’m in the works of opening an Etsy shop, I thought that shoes would be a great addition to my product offering.

I started out by sourcing inspiration on Pinterest. See my inspiration photos here, here, and here. For my inspiration stage, I was mainly looking for a good side shot of the shoe so that I would be able to sketch it accurately. For my first few paintings, I also wanted to find classic styles of shoes and then gradually work up to more complex shoes for future works.

So far, I’ve done three different shoes for the series. I really like the salt technique that I was able to use for two of the shoes. I think it gives them some really nice visual interest.

Clearly, Sev was a big fan as well. If you have a cat and there is a piece of paper lying around, you can guarantee that the paper will be occupied by said cat.

Or the cat may be trying to bat it off the table like Sev does with EVERYTHING in sight.

Anyways, this is what each shoe look like so far!

I was really happy with the way that these came out and love the texture and look that the watercolour gives them.

I’ve got some inspiration lined up for the next few shoes that I’m going to be doing, so look out for those soon! I’m thinking of trying to add some that work in colour wise with these shoes. Also, look out for my Etsy shop which will be up and running soon!!

Let me know what you think of these shoes, or if there is another style of shoe you would want to see painted!

xo, tess