My friend and well known shoe designer Reed Evins
rescued these beautiful Illustrations as they were being discarded. I was so excited when he gifted them to me. He knew how much I'd love these. I can't thank him enough.
Until the 1960's advertisers employed illustrators for newspaper advertisements. These particular illustrations were used in the New York Times for Bergdorf Goodman's advertisements.
In the 1970's photo's pretty much took over.
I love these because they were working images. You can see all sorts of notes like what issue they will be in and dates etc.
You can also see where the artist was testing the different colors of the ink on his pen.
I have been pouring over these images
to learn as much as I can how the illustrators treated
shadows, shine, and how they handled perspective.
Notice the images above. The illustrator was able to show Patent leather and it's high gloss shine.
The Image below uses cross hatching to show shadow and creates
the three dimensional effects.
I learned to draw on my own.
Drawing wasn't a passion of mine but shoe designs were.
The only way I was able to get my ideas and images out of my head was to get them on paper. I learned to draw to see if my ideas could actually work.
To this day I only draw shoes. I never draw anything else.
Without any formal education in drawing I developed my own style over the last 30-40 years. I think I was influenced by my drafting courses in school. When I went to Polimoda we had to take an illustration course.
They tried to teach me to be more gestural and emotive in my sketches but I just couldn't. Though they did love my sketches. When I left school they asked for some of my drawings to show students there are many styles of illustrating and drawing.
Below are my sketches.
The first group of three are examples of ones i don't put any limitations on myself or imagination. I use these first images to inspire me and filter these ideas into a collection that is more accessible but still different and unique.
The images below are drawn for the factory.
