How to Draw Ballet Slippers
Famous artists have painted and drawn ballerinas and their costumes for hundreds of years. Edgar Degas' famous painting "The Dance Class" from 1875 is a good example of this. Ballet slippers, also known as pointe shoes, are worn by ballerinas and are a graceful shoe that's not difficult to draw.
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Instructions
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1
Look at an image of ballet slippers to use as a guide in your drawing. There is a link to an image in the Resources section. Divide the ballet slippers into their most basic shapes and sketch them out with your pencil. The left shoe is made up of three interlocking ovals, each about 2 inches long and 1 inch wide, making up the tip, middle, and heel of the ballet slipper. The right slipper is made up of a 1.5 inch by 4 inch rectangle, which is the inside of the ballet slipper, and a semi-circular shape for the front and tip of the ballet slipper. The ribbons attached to the right slipper are made up of rectangles and polygrams, connected to form a twisting, turning ribbon in the foreground and background. The left ribbon is 4 inches in length, while the right ribbon is 6 inches in length.
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2
Sketch the shoe more clearly, using the shapes drawn in Step 1 as a guide. Smooth out the lines in the ribbons, and mark points where the light hits the outside of the ballet slippers. In this case, light hits the slipper in the front of the right shoe and the left side of the right shoe, which is indicated with two parallel lines on the front of the ballet slipper, and a triangle shape on the side of the right ballet slipper. The left slipper has two reflection points on it: on the heel and the toe of the shoe. Both reflection marks on the left shoe are triangular in shape.
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3
Use the side of your pencil to shade in the outside of the ballet slippers. Press harder to shade in the deep creases in the ballet slippers. Leave the reflection marks blank, so they appear brightest in your drawing.
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4
Shade in the ribbon of the ballet slipper. Make the points where the ribbon curves darker and the straight points lighter, to give the ballet slippers' ribbons some texture and depth. Outline the ballet slippers and the ribbon clearly to finish the drawing.
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References
- Photo Credit Rachel Asher
