Rawrrr

It was only natural I had to purchase one last pair of shoes for 2010 ... at least trying to end the year on a high. Therefore Friday's lunch break at work consisted of a run to Kurt Geiger !

For the past 4 months I've been eyeing up leopard prints. It's a look that I think is very hard to pull off, as it can either look very tacky, or quite glam. Kurt Geiger had a few leopard prints in this season, from printed leather to pony skin. Obviously the better the fabric, the price goes up !I saw both above pairs in the shop, each of which I found fault with. The first pair were a synthetic hair, however the colour and print they had been dyed with looked very fake and therefore cheap, not to mention the pathetic excuse for a heel !
The second pair looked like they should of been from New Look, they were a woven fabric. The print was also very poor and didn't look realistic at all ! Also yet again the heel is just a few inches too small.

Sooooooooo
I found a pair in with the tallest skinniest heel, patent front platform, full pony hair and most realistic print and colour ... and here they are .

After posting them straight on to my facebook page, a fellow shoe-a-holic friend spotted them immediately, and as of now there is a size 5 pair travelling to her via Harrods !
These shoes have been THAT popular that there were only 2 pairs of sizes 5's left in the entire company. But who can blame her for wanting a pair .... they are Fabulous !

"About half my designs are controlled fantasy, 15 percent are total madness and the rest are bread-and-butter designs. "

After looking at all these artists who are mixing traditional with contemporary in their artwork i decided to look at someone who uses just traditional techniques, someone who not only creates amazing sketches ... but amazing shoes ... Mr Manolo Blahnik.


Since 1972 when Blahnik first started designing he created the most fantastic sketches of his design ideas. His drawing were very fine pencil lines, very angular and elongated. This style of drawing has become so iconic to Manolo, and the designs are that greatly appreciated that a book was published with a archive of his drawings. Even now at the age of 68 he continues to design fabulous shoes.

I have always been a fan of both Blahnik sketches & shoes, I really like the shape he uses for the foot with the skinny ankles and smoothly curved arcs and how because they are drawn freely by hand each foot is a slightly different shape or tone.

Just your average night at Gusto !

Today I have been scanning my images into photo-shop and started editing them.
I started with this image as its a piece i did free hand from my own ideas ... ( and own Louboutins).
Its the average night out with the girls to our favourite place,Gusto with plenty of cocktails and girly gossip.
The original drawing once scanned in was very dull and undefined, therefore by using photo-shop I could adjust the contrast levels, making the white background brighter and the pencil lines darker and stand out more.
I then started adding texture and colour by using tools such as liquefier and smudge stick, to achieve similar looks to the real object but slightly more interesting, by qualifying the Biro lines round the cocktail glass all the colours in the ink were picked out giving a swirly effect, almost like when a liqueur is added to a spirit.
I have now filled in the rest of the shoe using the brush stroke techniques and using a range of styles layered up to create the rough effect of glitter from my shoes.
I also used the plastic wrap tool on the glass to give a more realistic look.
When trying to achieve the glitter sugar on the lip of the glass I used the noise tool as this gives a very colourful speckled effect however it didn't look quite right. I then found out my finding a simple glitter image from the internet I could turn this into a pattern template to then be used as a fill effect in photo-shop.By highlighting the rim of the glass with the magnetic lasso I was able to fill just this area with the pattern.

I am really happy with my first image created using photo-shop as I haven't used the programme since GCSE yet still feel the textures and patterns I managed to gain really suit the image.

Dozens of screwed up balls of paper later ...

This weekend I have been gathering a few drawings ready to put into photo-shop and edit at college. Hopefully they will all look a little more interesting when its finished.

The above image sums up my life :)
Pretty women styley.


A random image I put together from looking at a image of Victoria Beckham combined with a fabulous Louboutin.


Dedicated to the Best Friend ;) xxxx


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Sarah Jessica Parker ... I apologise !