stamp carving...the sequel

penny for your thoughts...and maybe another penny for these little loafers?  for days and days i have dreamt of clearing my "life's list" so that i could get back into the studio and do some more stamp carving.  and then those days somehow turned into weeks, so today i found, or i should say, i took some time to carve this little shoe stamp.  in my world of favorite classic shoes, this penny loafer is definitely a must have!

other classic shoes can be seen here and here.

saddle oxford into a stamp

several days have gone by since i carved an image of my beloved mary janes, and to continue on with the theme, today i decided to see if i could do the same thing with my drawing of the classic saddle oxford.  

it took a little longer to carve this one because of all of the tiny details...but i was so happy with the results that i decided to make a card using my new stamp!  i don't currently own a pair of saddle oxfords, but they're so cute that i may just have to invest in a pair!  have a fabulous weekend!!   click on image for larger view

shoe encore

my sweet daughter, melissa, put in a request for shoe note cards a while back...and here, finally, is the result.   i took four of my drawings from a few months ago to make this set.  of course, now i have all kinds of ideas for new shoe series...what i really need to figure out is how to squeeze three or four more hours into my day so that i can finish all of my projects!

scanner 101

firstly, an enormous hug and thank you to my fabulous husband, walther, who surprised me with a new scanner for my birthday!! while i still consider myself fairly electronically challenged, i would have never dreamed that i could be so excited about a scanner! there is nothing more disappointing than to spend a lot of time on a piece of art, and then not have a true image of it.

this image shows a scan of a drawing that i did in black ink (remember my josef siebel shoes?). the "before" image was scanned on my previous scanner...the HP C3180 all-in-one. the "after" image was scanned on my wonderful new scanner...the HP Scanjet G4010. the difference is amazing...the "after" image is a true representation of my drawing and i couldn't be more thrilled! the all-in-one scanner is a great scanner for documents and other basic scanning. but, if you're looking for a scanner that will give your artwork and photographs true color accuracy and high quality images, the G4010 gets my vote!

(for better comparison, click on the image)

saddle oxford

you're probably getting tired of seeing shoes, but i couldn't leave my footwear series without including the simple, fabulous, classic saddle oxford. my challenge here was that i no longer own saddle oxfords, so i had to rely on a photo that i found online. to me, this drawing looks flatter, and maybe lacking a little "spark", probably because i wasn't able to see the actual shoe, only an image of one.  this turned out to be a great experiment...i didn't realize that drawing from a photo would make such a difference in the final outcome. perhaps i should go out and purchase a pair of saddle oxfords, draw them,  and then compare the two drawings.....just kidding, walther!

checkerboard vans

i noticed that i didn't have any "lace-up" shoes in my footwear collection yet, so i decided to visit walther's side of the closet and borrow his checkerboard vans.  those of you who know me well won't be surprised to hear that my favorite part of this drawing was shading in all of those little checkerboards!

date night

when i wear these shoes, it usually means that walther is taking me somewhere really special and really fun...which definitely puts this footwear on my top five list! i must be honest, though; i have more fun wearing these shoes than to draw them. i really struggled with the proportion, but i learned a lot in the process. and, i know that i've said before that i'm going to start using ink with these, but for some reason it just works better with pencil...

josef siebel shoes

here is the latest in my footwear series. these shoes are not only cute, but also very german and very comfortable.  i have really been enjoying working with pencil, even though i end up smearing graphite all over the place!  and, of course, my scanner has missed out on most of my light shading...so, i have some ideas rolling around in my head that involve using ink. i think it will be less messy than the pencil and hopefully be more "scanner friendly". we'll see how it goes...

mary janes

it seems silly to get attached to a pair of shoes, but i must confess that i'm totally head-over-heels about my mary janes. i've probably walked around the world three times wearing these shoes...they have been with me during some of the greatest adventures of my life. so, when stephanie suggested that i continue on with my "footwear series", drawing my mary janes was a given. (sorry, again, for the poor scan - i'm still working on that!)