Painting Shoes

So, I'm going to visit a dear friend in California.  I've missed her birthday and Christmas, so I wanted to give her something.
But what?

She loves Doctor Who, but more specifically, she loves River Song.
This is River Song.

She's like a sassy, curly haired, female Indiana Jones.


So I decided to  buy some discounted Converse shoes (because they have a canvas-like texture), and yes, I know her shoe size.  Tiny.

Then I played around.

 I practiced on some super cheap Ked's (in my size), accomplished some major learning curves, (my shoes look rather sad and messy, so they'll just be work shoes or cabin shoes).

Then I began.

 I'm working with acrylic paints, and I have dark shoes.  The first thing I did is I wanted the shoes to have an overall blue hue, not black, so I watered down some blue acrylic paint, and let the shoes soak that up.

Next, I wanted to paint a cartoonish version of River song on the outside of the right shoe.  I needed a lighter background, so I watered down some white acrylic, painted it on, let it dry.  Then I drew an outline of her face in sharpie.  Colored that in.  I didn't want the colors to be too dynamic, so I tried to keep skin/hair in the same tone.

 I tried to make her look sassy and big-haired. Last step was to make her lips red, and color in her eyes/eyebrows.

The end product!  Not a bad $20 gift, eh?  And I have no idea how long they'll last, wear-wise.  Over time, I can see some of the acrylic cracking/peeling off.  I need to find a better ratio of acrylic and water, so that it soaks into (and basically dyes) the canvas on the shoes.