Shoes!

I just now finished the above painting and boy, are my fingers tired! This was actually my second attempt: I will spare you the first one as it was horrible and all wrong and embarrassing. Anywho, I painted this for my friend Dana for her birthday, which was earlier this week. I'm almost positive she doesn't look at this blog (and she's not on Facebook, where I posted a link), so I feel pretty good about writing about it even though I have yet to give it to her. If you know her, SHHH!

My first attempt was terrible in many ways; the shape of the front shoe was all off (not tall enough and too wide where it shouldn't have been) and I had a lot of trouble making any straight lines. I spent a day or two thinking about that and why I had those issues, so when I sat down earlier tonight I had a plan of attack. I decided to use a lot of water with my acrylics, which would give me a nice, smooth, inky edge. It worked quite well. I used a very small brush to achieve this, so my fingers are sore now from gripping it so tightly and from being so tense and focused on making things straight. It took me quite a while to finish, but I'm really QUITE happy with how it turned out and I can't wait to give it to Dana!

Materials: 9 x 6.5 x 1 inch beveled wood, acrylic paint, lotsa water