How has it been almost a full month since Christmas? I feel like it hasn’t even happened yet. And 2014? How did THAT happen?
Now that the crazy holiday season is over and things are getting back to normal, I should probably post my sister’s shoes that I finished just minutes before 12:01 Christmas day. After taking so long on the Who Converse shoes, I thought I would never finish these Who Vans. There was 5x as much work to do on them and I had 5x less time to do them. I mean, I didn’t even have the shoes a week and a half before Christmas day. I went hunting through all of the shoe stores in the mall looking for white slip on Vans, but none had them. One store did have black slip on Vans, and they said I could order white ones from them that would come in a few days. I thought it was better than nothing. I would have my sister try on the black ones and then I would order that size in white. She got the shoes on and then I had a thought. Wait. Won’t a galaxy be easier on a black background? Duh! Why had I been so stupid? So I bought the black ones and got to work.
The hardest part was definitely the galaxy background. I had gotten a small black canvas so I could practice the technique I had youtubed so many times on. I finally got a method I liked, however applying that technique was much harder to do on the actual shoe. It completely failed. I had to discover a new galaxy method on the actual shoe. That was terrifying. I would lay water on the shoes with a big brush and put a dot of color in the water with another. With gravity working with me (ironic isn’t it?) the paint ran down the shoe giving an unpredictable look. I actually quite like it now! Once the galaxy was done, life became easier. I gessoed out where the suits would be and started laying down the base colors. One thing after another and the shoes were coming together. I wanted to finish so bad that I would often forget a few details. I would say, “So how do you like it?” My sister would say, “Looks good. But there will be the stripes on his jacket right?” “Oh yeah, whoops.”
The shading actually turned out better than I had hoped. The few classes I have taken in painting helped me to accurately mix the right colors together. I painted all the Gallifreyan words, as well as the English ones and finally I was done! I sprayed them with the sealer and wrapped them up with a TARDIS blue bow and threw it under the tree. Just in time!
In summery, my gifts to my siblings this year were not really a surprise. They knew what was coming, and they knew exactly what they looked like. However, they were exactly how they wanted them, so no complaining! I better start thinking of this year’s Christmas present. How am I going to top Who Shoes?
Photos by Fotos From Felicia.
REBEKAH WISNIEWSKI DESIGN 