Professional ballet dancers wear Pointe shoes so they can dance on their toes. Try your hand at drawing this set of delicate dancing shoes.
Step 1: Draw an elongated oval as shown for the front foot/slipper. Slightly higher and to the left, draw a smaller elongated oval with a circle above it. Notice the distance between each shape.
Step 2: Connect the shapes drawn in step 1 to create the feet and legs. This is done with the curves and lines shown.
Step 3: Draw the shoes. The front shoe should have a “U” shape with lines forming an “X” above it for the front shoe. The back leg will have part of the bottom (soles) shown. A circle will be under the heel and an oval on the toe of the rear foot. The top of the shoe and straps should be indicated with slightly curved lines.
Step 4: Add a light layer of tone to each shoe. The soles will have a rim of darkness to show depth.
Step 5: Blend the tone to smooth it. Add more tone to lower parts of each slipper and areas of strap that meet the shoe and overlap. Add a light layer of tone to the legs, keeping in mind the right side is in the light.
Step 6: Blend tones again. Add more tone to indicate shadows on legs (shin on front leg, shadow on back leg), rims of shoes where shown to indicate thickness and at the toes of the shoes. Use an eraser to add highlights to shin and shoes.
Extra time: Smooth tones further. Add wrinkles in leather near left toe and broken lines for stitching on the soles, back, and opening of shoes. Use an eraser to add highlights to the edges of the dark parts of the toe wrinkles, heel. straps, and legs to create contrast.
