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Painting Sneakers!

In the process of writing Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist and creating the Alithia’s Art Angels website, I’ve become friends with Alithia’s parents, Jess Hernandez and Ryan Ramirez. Jess mentioned wanting custom Converse, two pair for herself—high-top and low—and one pair of high-tops for Ryan. I offered to find a shoe artist but didn’t have any luck, so I decided to paint them myself.

Finding shoes was easy. The best prices were at Journeys. I found some cool rainbow-y Converse high-tops that looked similar to the endpapers in Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist (above), and bonus, they were on sale! And I Chuck Taylors for Jess, the purple for Alithia’s Art Angels.

Shoe-painting research led me to Angelus Direct, from whom I ordered all of the paint supplies, including the masking tape that I used to protect the shoes’ white trim.

I used a white fabric marker from JoAnn to draw the curly scrolls on colorful high-tops for Jess and Ryan, and then drew and cut out little templates, replicating Alithia’s drawings which adorn the endpapers. From there, I penciled Alithia’s drawings onto the shoes, and painted several coats of white before adding colors.

The trick with painting shoes—at least canvas ones—is building up the color slowly. For example, painting the white Alithia’s Art Angels logo on purple shoes shown at the top of this post required 4-6 coats of white. Patience is required!

My husband and I live in Malaysia. We’re on an extensive summer trip. I painted these shoes while visiting my Dad in Missouri, both at his house and at our hotel. It was really nice to have a project to keep me busy!

This photo (above) shows the outer side of Jess’s completed high-tops. Ryan’s are similar.

Alithia’s drawings carry over onto the inner sides of the shoes. I think they came out pretty well. They certainly look similar to the endpapers!

The Book

Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist will be released on October 10, 2023. Jess, Ryan and I will be at a launch event in Uvalde…. perhaps wearing cool custom Converse! Other book events in Texas will follow, throughout October.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter to be updated about event details.

Tags: Alithia Ramirez Was an Artist, Alithia's Art Angels, amwriting, Angelus Direct, author, author event, book event, children's books, Converse, crafts, promoting your children's book, shoe painting, Violet Lemay

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Categories Alithia's Art Angels, books, crafts, Jess Hernandez

delicious irony

3 Sep

Last February I was busy making art for several duopress books, including Yummy Food Doodles, which, at long last, is available in bookstores. Hooray!

YFD_Cover_Med

This is an exciting announcement deserving of fancy hoopla, but all I have to offer is a blog post—so I thought I’d take the opportunity to share a little about me, my association with my favorite publisher duopress, and this project’s history—in celebration, and just for fun.

first, a bit about me

My husband, who is extremely witty, likes to compare me to a ficus.

He hugs me and says, “My ficus.” Sweet, right?

Don’t be fooled. A ficus is lovely, for sure, but aesthetics factor only slightly in his analogy. As a rule, the ficus is so delicate that its leaves pop off whenever you move its pot. The ficus is super-sensitive, and that is his point.

We’ve been together for nineteen years, so I can’t exactly argue. To know me is to love me, and he loves me very much, despite my finicky nature. My skin is sensitive—I can’t be anywhere near poison ivy, oak or sumac without breaking out in a rash. It’s true, I don’t even have to touch it. Poof! Rash. My eyes are sensitive—no bad art, please; it keeps me up at night. And my stomach—my poor, poor stomach. About my gut, I could write a book.

Technically I have I.B.S., a title I avoid because it connotes all manner of disgusting imagery. Frankly, I feel that is nobody’s business. (If you want our friendship to continue, don’t make that into a pun.) After years of trying to come up with a better descriptive for my bad digestion, “sensitive” is the only word that sticks. There are entire groups of food that I have to avoid, and I don’t eat much of anything in a single sitting. I can’t, because I have a sensitive stomach. That’s all anyone needs to know. It’s annoying, and maybe even a little sad, but as far as medical issues go, at least it can be easily managed. And unlike most of my peers, I don’t have to worry about cholesterol. As a result of my health problem, I am actually super healthy! Kind of ironic, don’t you think?

and now, about the food books

Here’s another dose of irony: The girl with a sensitive stomach is developing a habit of making art for books about food. (Another topic about which I could write a book: God’s sense of humor.)

This is a still shot of me trying to make a video promo for My Foodie ABC, the first book that I illustrated for duopress. (By the way, I hired a film student to help with that project. After months of struggling he wasn’t able to deliver, which made my stomach lurch and gave me an opportunity to practice forgiveness.)

and, the author!

My Foodie ABC was written by Puck, who is actually Mauricio Velázquez de León. Puck writes specifically for kids, but Mauricio writes specially about food for Saveur magazine, the late Gourmet magazine, and the food sections for many Lonely Planet books (including the upcoming The World’s Best Spicy Food). Yum!

MF_C-E

My Foodie ABC is charming, educational, and will definitely make you hungry. I made the art and also laid out the colors, textures, patterns and scans on every spread. Whenever I open it, my sensitive eyes are delighted. We did a great job with that book.

Next came My Foodie ABC Placemats, also penned by Puck. The placemats book was equally beautiful; as a bonus, it was interactive. Recently My Foodie ABC Placemats went out of print, which is sad, but it paved the way for duopress’s hugely successful DOODLE book series. duopress has produced eight DOODLE books, with more on the way.

So, that about brings us up to date.

Yummy Food Doodles

As I mentioned earlier, last winter, we made Yummy Food Doodles: words by Puck, art by me, and design by Charla Pettingill. We’ve been promoting it for a while because the book debuted at Book Expo America in NYC last spring and has been available on-line ever since, but it is now available in bookstores—an announcement worthy of hoopla, indeed!

Click here to get a copy for your favorite foodie today, or, better yet, order it from your local bookstore! And… bon appétit!