I was thinking that the shoe got very heavy looking because of the midsole, personally. That heel foxing/cap- were you thinking TPU or something of the sort. Maybe you could try playing with the overall size of and shape of that to help with the weight of it. it seems kinda like that piece and the midsole together dominate the shoe. It kinda reminds me of something Charles Barkley would were, more than KG.
Just my thoughts. Sorry man.
The shoe isn’t actually for Kevin Garnett…KG refers to kicksguide.com, the website the contest was being hosted at. I def agree that the midsole is slowing it down as well as the proportions. I’m gonna try to re-render the shoe because I think the bulky proportions (which were not intended) are really messing it up. Thanks for your comment man, it really helps.
I agree that the proportions might be throwing it off. I would also stay away from he D’Waybe Edwards antennea lace, it’s kind of his signature.
I see where you are going with it though, keep up the good work!
That’s DE’s signature? lol…I thought it was J’s!
B- no worries man. Rerendering is part of the life of a footwear designer. Many times over in fact. Roll with it…speed it up, shave it down, take out the pieces you don’t HAVE to have, and the next one is almost always better than the previous.
-TH
Thanks guys. I’m gonna try to render em again today…
PS: I’ll stay away from the antenna lace…lol
Alright here’s what I got…I tried to rework em with the proper proportions and make them how I invisioned them.
Comments welcome…
OOOOO… Kicks Guide. Sorry man-
Still think they looked a little Barkleyish though. They look better now, if I were leading you this- I like to see more detail in the future (nicer) rendering emphasizing the material breaks/ altitude differences in the materials and such on the heel panel.
Good job though.
aight thanks man…I’ll keep that in mind.
Hey, those are looking a lot cleaner now. I don’t think they look Barkleyish at all and would like to hear the reasoning behind that comment.
I commented about shading before…it is still a bit difficult to tell how you envision this heel structure to be sculpted based on your shading. Also, what is it made out of? If you want that as a TPU piece (which is what it looks like) it makes the shoe look very heavy as that would be a lot of plastic back there. Can you achieve the same performance and look by cutting some of it away? These are things to ask yourself. Your shapes are flowing nicely though. Like dude said, once you get to this point, you can start thinking about details by zooming in on your parts and contemplating textures, perfs, logos etc. Sounds like a lot of work…but that’s because it is! LOL. Now these look great B, so I am not saying you need to go do all of these things right now. I just want you to store this stuff away in your toolbelt so you can be thinking on a higher level about how you can grow as you go. It never happens overnight…but lemme tell you- you have a great eye for balance, movement and proportion and you are light years ahead of 99.9% of anyone your age…and I want to see you be 100%. Great job lil’ homie! Keep it movin’! Don’t EVER be afrid to keep redrawing, it will set you apart from the rest!
-TH
also…lol
I think another color would help this tremendously. The baby blue and red isn’t the best IMO. I know you are probably limited in supplies, but give me your mom’s email addy and I will have you a set of markers in no time!
I noticed your eyelets were very XXIesque? Maybe you can think about how a MINOR tweak to the shape of them…or arrangement of them could go better with the other shapes and feel of your design? This is how you can approach detail work when you get there. Once you hone in on details, you will be able to step back and say “DAMN” in the end. It makes a big difference.
Don’t be frustrated by all these comments though. I am super impressed with your patience and eagerness to improve- and that is the one ingredient that can’t be taught that will bring you the world. It is also the reason I take so much time to type all of this when I am tired as hell. LOL…So be proud!
Thanks for taking the time to comment on all that TH, helps alot…the heel structure would be foamposite. The red heel part would be a translucent plastic heel councter (like the tail lights) Yeah I’m having trouble shading it to show how it would be sculpted. I know how it is in my head, but I just can’t see the way light would hit it in certain areas…so it’s hard.
I’ll keep the materials in mind. Right now I’ve pretty much chosen the material for all areas of the shoe except the toe. I was thinking nubuck but I’ve never seen white nubuck and that might look a little weird.
I’m gonna go back and play with the eyelets a bit and the materials, I’ll try to post my next version tonight or tomorow.
I actually think I have a pretty good set of markers. It’s the 24 prismacolor set. I’ll try to see what I can do with the other colors…
OK, cool. sounds like u got what u need. Foamposite would work and be ok. Glad you thought it out. Shading will come with time so don’t sweat it.
-TH
What do you guys think of this? I’m thinking this might be what the final design would look like, just with more detail…
Some sketches of different parts of the shoe…
Medial again so you don’t need to crain your neck…
I changed the eyelets to a more eliptical shape and a slightly different look. I’m playing around with colors now, once I officially decide what’s gonna be the final design I’m gonna render the shoe with the one I like best…
I like! Your lines are flowing together nicely. Maybe your eyelet shapes can shoot back and be even a little bit faster. I like the assymetrical aspect to the toe…but I would challenge you to draw a toe down (overhead) view because I think things may not work together like you have envisioned it. Give it a shot to see if your shapes come together right. Also, your heel view could be abit faster/cleaner. GREAT work bro!!!
-TH
nice progress.
small thing- heel view and tongue view your swoosh is backwards. should go with the point bit to the right. Its Ok though to be “backwards” for the medial side though.
YO- correct me if im wrong.
ill post a longer reply later, just noticed this.
R
The tail should always point to the back of the shoe, if done on the back tab or foxing, I believe the tail of the swoosh should be on the right. There are plenty of exceptions of course.
Here’s the toe down. I tried to make the medial toe shape mirror the shape of the lateral foamposite structure from above. I think I’m gonna ditch the white/black/red, just thought I’d try it out…
good work. your collar area seems a bit to small though proportionally. and your throat might be a bit too narrow, but nice tosee you are working out how all the parts go together. an important thing overalooked by many young designers drawing “nice shapes”.
your tow bumper rubber area also looks a bit different than the medial view shows.
i do like the white black red colors though. kinda hurache 2k5 style.
the design is coming along nicely.
i would suggest now maybe it would be good to transfer the design to illustrator to get some more clean linework that you can tighten up then work on a PS rendering.
R
Thanks for the comment…
Well, I don’t have illustrator or PS, so I had to trace them in Paint.Net…my first time tracing.
Any advice on how to make the trace better without paying several hundred dollars?
If I render these on the computer this will be my first time doing a computer rendering…I’m not confident at all with my computer rendering abilities so…I don’t know, it might be better if I do it by hand. What do you think? Is it possible that I could learn the computer rendering techniques within my time frame?
AK> nice toes down. R already pointed out a few of the issues I spotted, so I will just cosign him. I also like the contrasting colorway because it sets off the design a bit more.
I would recommend staying with hand drawings for right now and getting your line weights and marker techniques down. I think it is much easier to learn the computer later after you have a firm understanding of doing by hand… maybe I’m just old school.
Below is an old sketch (note the date… 2005) but I thought I would throw it up here to show a little more play with line weights and starting to set up a lighting structure, even in the sketch. From here I would photocopy (so I don’t screw it up) and throw some markers down on it…
