shoes with a transparent wash, the high-lights being removed with rubber. Notice that no two heels are quite the same, and also the great variety of texture that can be suggested with what is, after all, a decorative method.
Before discussing the examples on pi. 14, it might be as well to caution the beginner about ankles. A very untechnical description of an ankle would be that there is a knob on the inner, and a knob on the outer, side. What you must never forget is that the inner knob is higher than the outer.
With reference to the page of shoes (pi. 14) there is not a great deal to be said, as most are self-explanatory. No. 2, in treatment and pose, is unrealistic and roughly corresponds with the eyes and mouth numbered 3 and 5 and with the hands numbered 4 and 5. Although quite formal, they express a good deal of motion with a minimum of detail. Legs and feet No. 3 would go with eyes and mouth No. 1, and with hand No. 1. They are simplified, but not distorted. The shoes are meant to be of satin, and the legs are, perhaps, on the fat side. The weight, here and in the preceding example, is taken on the hinder leg. Except in skating and running the weight should never, in a fashion drawing, be thrown on to the front leg. The whole tendency in a graceful elegant stance is for the body to bend back rather than forward and this can only be achieved by throwing the weight back, and not on the front leg. Nos. 4 and 5 are different children's legs, and these are always sturdier and straighter than their mother's : more of the Jacobean, less of the Louis. No. 4 is the leg of a little girl of about 8 ; No. 5 belongs to a child of three or four. The difference in fatness, in the length of the sock and the cut of the shoe indicate this. The heels are usually very low, the toes very roomy.
Nos. 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 17 are different views of a foot in a plain court shoe, drawn (unidealised) from life, the original being of average elegance. The clock of the stocking, always on the outer side of the leg, is here put in to show the centre line. No. 6 is a dead front view, the only view that presents real difficulties. This will be overcome by remembering and observing the relationship between the two ankle bones, and not making the toe too long. In the side view (No. 8) remember that neither the heel nor the instep ever bulge as much as you expect. People who draw without ever looking at a model always betray themselves by these mistakes. No. 9 is the three-quarters view seen from the inside, and here the most common mistake (and in No. 10) is to draw the heel a little out of line with the rest of the foot, either to the right or the left : while an even worse mistake is to make it too long or too short. An easy way to avoid this is just to extend the lines of the toe back in the direction of the heel (lightly, in pencil), the base of which should touch the ground exactly in the middle between these two lines : by these standards the heel in No. 9 is perhaps a little too long. When drawing the shoe from behind (No. 10) a common mistake is to make the sole too broad. The sole of a woman's shoe is narrower than you suppose, until
it gets to the ball of the foot when it has to widen out considerably (but still not too much) to prevent the satin, or whatever it is, from touching the ground. Make sure that the weight of the heel of the foot would fall direct on a line drawn down the centre of the heel. Often one sees shoes drawn so that the wearer's full weight would only have to be exerted for one second for the heel of the shoe to snap off. No. 12 is a seven-eights view of a left shoe seen from the outside. Here again making the heel a fraction too long or too short would ruin the whole effect. This particular drawing, though correct in itself, is taken too much from above. From whatever view you draw a shoe, do not slur over the point where the sole springs up from the ground to form the instep. These two points form, with the point of the toe, a triangle that should always be borne in mind.
Nos. 13, 14 and 15 are shoes as they occur in full-length figures, treated fairly boldly. Quite enough is expressed to show what kind of shoes they are. No. 13 are polished leather for a morning costume : No. 14 is black kid for afternoon, No. 15 a black satin pump for evening. As No. 13 are supposed to be part of a full-length figure showing something else, it is unnecessary to show the broguing, the eyelets and the lacing up of the shoes, these being implied by the general shape and the tied bows.
No. 16 is one way of drawing a very elaborately strapped shoe so that the straps are kept in place, which is sometimes a difficulty when drawing a shoe which is not on the foot. Shoes are very often displayed in the shop window on this kind of a last and so can be sketched like this in the first place. This method not only keeps all the straps in place, but it avoids the rather confusing perspective which would result if one had to draw the inner view of the straps on the other side : with a shoe of this kind great pains should be taken to draw all the straps the same width throughout, if they are the same in the original. No. 17 is the court shoe drawn from the centre back and you can see from the relationship of the ankle bones that it is a right foot. This is an easy view to master, and gives a very authentic look to a figure drawn from the back.
Stockings, when part of a full-length figure, should be kept a flat inconspicuous tone, and you had better avoid any shine or clock whatever, unless expressly asked to do so by your client, who will thereby fall in your estimation. Doing an advertisement for silk stockings is another matter, and it may be done in one of two ways. The stockings can be shown being worn on a whole figure or on part of one. Or else they can be shown being lovingly handled by tapering fingers (pi. II, No. 14), or lying half in and half out of the box they came in or in any other way disconnected with a human being, like resting on a cloud or floating in mid-air, entirely unsupported. In either case a great deal of lustre is required, unless the stockings are made of wool, which are seldom advertised. Always be careful to ask if you are to draw an actual stocking, or if you are merely
to give an impression of silkiness and luxury. In many cases this is enough, and a pair of pretty legs in glittering stockings is all that is required. But when you are wanted to do a special pair of stockings, you must take careful note of the heels, of the toes, of the clocks and of the tops ; also see whether the stocking itself is so thin that it is unnecessary to indicate a texture of any kind, or if, on the other hand, some special mesh has to be shown.
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