Sample lesson content

Shoes by Irregular Choice

If you're wondering what the content of my eCourse might be like, then wonder no more. Here's some content from a typical week where we'll be exploring how to try on inspiration until we find the size that fits.... You might also like to look at my previous post, another example of the type of content I'll cover where I'll introduce you to the work of other artists and demonstrate how you can take their techniques and make them your own.

We'll share our work and inspire each other into new directions too. I want to gently push you into expanding your creativity and teach you how to find little tendrils of inspiration that pull you into their story and beg you to tell it...

Stories from Shoes

What do you see when you look at these shoes? Now don't go moaning that you're a bloke and what do you care about shoes, or that you wouldn't be seen dead in anything so outlandish. Keep looking, then listen to the voice in your head. What does it see? What does it hear?

I have conjured up fairy tale castles filled with adventure. Dainty ladies wearing their hair too high for battling dragons bent on destruction.... Is that a ring tied into the bow? So, that's where she hid it!

I see turquoise oceans; I feel aching feet that aren't used to heels; I smell the Chinese sweat shop where each tiny flower is hand sewn for a pittance as Wai wonders how she will hide her bulging belly from her employer. I hear music that makes my toes tap and, looking down, notice the beer splashes on my pretty ribbons and wonder if they'll wash...

These are not shoes. These are whimsical paintings of a Princess, dance music, contemporary poetry. These are a written outpouring of shoe envy or a lament at the heel height of 2012 fashion. These are colour, shade and story.

Your challenge is to look deeper into this picture than just the footwear and let your Muse whisper their creative longings.

There's a story for everyone in this fancy pair of turquoise party slippers. Will yours be painted, written or photographed.

Close your eyes and let you imagination wander.... but if you're still looking at a blank page, then try on a few of these:

• Sketch your ideal pair of shoes - total fantasy - if you want wheels, you've got them; if they need rocket launchers or 500 buttons, then they're yours! What materials will you use? When will you wear them and with what... and who...?
• Write about your favourite pair of shoes. Do you still own them? What make them so special? Put yourself in 'their shoes'.... What stories could they tell about you? What do they think of you?
• Quickly scribble a list of words associated with footwear and then compose a poem using every single one of them.
• These shoes are very different and will most certainly make their owner stand out. Why might they want to do that? What does the rest of their outfit look like? Where are they going and why?

 Share a link to your results in the comments on this page or on my Facebook Page and let me see where you (or indeed that pair of shoes) take this prompt.