Bonus Sketchbook Material

I'm working on several more pairs, but I won't have them done for a few days. In the mean time, I figured I'd show some behind the scenes stuff out of my sketchbook. These are all preliminary drawings I did while I was thinking of design ideas. In the case of the Catiator, the preliminary drawing turned out to be exactly the same as the final design.

Cubist Greek Architecture

This is a departure from my normal style of representational imagery, but it's nice to get a chance to flex my graphic design muscles. The recipient of these shoes wanted something influenced by the architecture of the Greek Isles but didn't want a simple drawing of buildings. We talked for a while and I finally came up with a modernist cubist abstraction, utilizing the classic white and blue color scheme.

Giant Fly Vs. Deadly Mantis

Inspired by 1950s B-movie posters, I present the saga of an epic insect war. The battle between the Giant Fly and Deadly Mantis leaves charred bones in its wake. Panicked 1950s people flee in terror. It's shocking. It's terrifying. It's thrilling.

Tropical Beaches

For this pair, I was given a specific list of things to include rather than a vague theme. Fitting everything together in some sort of fluid design is always a fun challenge. These turned out pretty well. Night scenes are really difficult in marker because the color palette is limited to blues and purples for the most part. To my relief, however, the one on the right shoe actually resembles a serene twilight beach.

I've got 4 weeks left in Oregon--get me orders soon!

This morning I woke up and realized that I've only got four more weeks in Oregon before I go home to the Southwest for the summer. ArtKicks is going to be an ongoing project this summer, but for anyone in Oregon who wants a pair, it will be much easier (and cheaper) if we don't have to worry about mailorder. So if you want a pair from me, get me your order in the next week or two. I'm going to really push myself to get as many pairs done before June 14th as I can.

Flying Death Unicorns From Space

I think the most hilarious thing that could ever happen to humanity would be the destruction of civilization by unicorns. From space. With rainbow death lasers that shoot out of their eyes. Not so cute now, are they? We would never see it coming. We're too busy being scared of the obvious, non-mythical animals like bears and tigers.





If anyone has a better camera and more photographic skill than I, please let me know. I'd really like to photo these in better quality because I think a lot of the detail gets lost with my point and shoot.

Leaves, Trees, and Vines

These are probably the most time-consuming pair I have ever done. Lots of tiny little details and repeating patterns. Also experimented quite a bit with blending colors this time around.