Alright, so I gave drawing a Nike shoe a shot today. Just felt like trying something, you know?
First up, I needed a shoe to look at. Just went online and found a picture of some classic Air Force 1s. Nothing too crazy complicated, but still iconic. Grabbed my trusty pencil, an eraser (knew I’d need that), and some plain paper.
Started off sketching the basic shape, real light. Just trying to get the overall form down. The sole part, that bottom curve and thickness, was kinda tricky to get right from the angle I picked. Had to erase and redraw that bit a few times to make it look halfway decent.
Then, I moved onto the main body. Started adding the lines for the panels, where the stitching would be. The most important part, obviously, was the Nike swoosh. Getting that curve and the pointy end just right took some focus. It’s easy to mess up and make it look wonky.
Next were the laces. Didn’t go super detailed, just suggested them weaving through the eyelets. Added the tongue shape sticking out a bit at the top and the little tag on it. Also put in that perforated pattern on the toe box area – just a bunch of small dots, really.
Once I had the main lines down, I went back over some of them to make them darker and stand out more. Added a little bit of shading, especially under the sole and inside the shoe opening, to give it some depth. Didn’t want to go crazy with shading, just enough to make it not look totally flat.
Cleaned up some smudges and stray pencil marks with the eraser. Looked it over. It’s not perfect, definitely looks hand-drawn and a bit rough, but yeah, it looks like a Nike shoe. It was a pretty decent way to spend some time, just focusing on lines and shapes.
