Pure Contour Shoes

The subject of this drawing is three views of a Nike sneaker. Because the idea of this drawing is to use pure contour to represent a shoe with different views, I decided it would not be an effective use of space to add a horizon line and make the shoes line up. This would also mess with the angle they are being viewed from. Each of the shoes started with a basic sketch using a HB mechanical pencil, but as I found the correct proportions I was able to darken my sketching lines. Finally, I used several different sized pens to sharpen the drawing even more. I like to use pen when possible because it makes it easier to erase sketching lines. I choose to draw this particular shoe because I thought this would be a challenge—especially the laces. I used line to show shape and form, but I decided not to go into detail with the texture. I used the empty space around the shoe to draw the rough sketch. Thinking about it this way helps me avoid thinking about drawing a shoe, but a lot of the time I don't enjoy this kind of drawing as much because it can become repetitive. Each shoe started as a sketch which I refined and then penned it in. From here I thickened the closer lines and some of the shadows.

This artwork piece was good practice for duplication. This skill set will likely be helpful in other art where I'm using a reference. This was also good practice drawing from life which is not something I do often. I think this could be stronger in many different ways.

• I wish I made the sneakers bigger so they would take up more of the page and I could add more details.
• I wish I made the angles more sharp so the different views could be more easily distinguished.
• I think using black for the largest shadows messed up the drawing, but I'm not sure exactly what I should've done instead.
• I might go back and make the linewidth progression smother.