The Flats of Haruhi Chan

Hey, does everybody still remember when that crazy anime, The Melancholy of Suzumiya Haruhi, hit the shelves and swept the nation?  Well, it may not be as popular now... but I still love that show.  Hence why I decided to make these flats for NDK! 

The art style is based off of the mini Youtube series of the show, not the original anime.  There's something really cute about the miniseries - or maybe I just like Haruhi based spinoffs a lot.  But it's a great little show with hilarious humor.  And of course, that 10 second intro is the best intro ever.

I based all the art on these shoes from the first episode, where Kyon tries to sleep and Haruhi dressed in a dog suit tries to help by having the Mikuru sheep be counted.  So here, Haruhi is dressed as a dog...

And here, you can see several Mikuru sheep on the sides of the shoes.  Because Mikuru as a sheep is adorable and we need to have her play the fanservice role without being sexy sometimes.  Here's a closeup.

These are in a women's size 6.  They didn't sell, so they will be sold here!  Send an email if you are interested in purchasing them - they will be $25 plus shipping.

Where's Perry?

Those of you at NDK today may have noticed a very familiar green platypus / secret agent at the Artist's Alley... Perry the Platypus from Phineas and Ferb!

Great show - it's got great characters, great stuff for the parents and the kids, and an excellent humor.  I've had my laugh out loud moments watching this show.  Favorite character of all time?  Hm... probably Candace.  She's funny in the way that you know she will fail every time to catch the two main characters.  Well, maybe "fail" is a harsh word, but her success rate is pretty low...

I went for a simple design here similar to the Pedobear shoes - Perry has a very simplified, yet distinct face, so I wanted to keep that immediacy in the shoes.  You can pretty much tell from a while away that is is Perry the Platypus and Agent P at work.  I'm sure kids will love it!

In a size 8 if you were wondering.

Starter Pokemon Double Tongue Converse

Am I on a role or what?  Well, I guess I have to be.  Selling things is a tough biz you know!  Going to wrap the Labor Day weekend up with some sweet nostalgia inducing Pokemon shoes!

If you're reading this blog post, then you probably have a good idea of the basis of Pokemon - run around with your battle creature to catch more battle creatures, battle other creatures and earn prizes and cash that you can use ... on your battle creatures.  This was an ingenious concept when Pokemon Red and Blue came out in 1996, and the series is STILL going strong well into 2010.  And of course, I still love Pokemon.

To celebrate their long years, I made a pair of shoes showing all the starter Pokemon from the days of Red and Blue all the way up to the 4th generation in Diamond and Pearl.  Each side of the shoe features a different generation.  So we have the Kanto starters...

Johto Starters...

 

Hoenn starters...

 

and Sinnoh starters.

Despite the small sizes of the Pokemon, these took a while to make!

These will be at NDK and are made for those with an abnormal shoe size: women's size 10 or men's size 8.

Pedobear Flats

Yes, I tapped into the power of that dreaded internet board, 4chan, and connected it into a pair of shoes.  What happened to me?!  In any case, most of you who are familiar with the darker alleys of the internet should know this famous character, Pedobear.

Sadly, my words cannot do justice to this vile, immoral, yet lulz inducing animal.  Click here to get to the Wikipedia article on Pedobear.

The entirety of this shoe was custom painted - nobody sells shoes in Pedobear brown for some reason, so everything you see here has been hand painted on.  And of course, like all of my other shoes, this is waterproof if you ever get stuck in rain.  (No jumping in mud though - that will ruin your shoes, regardless of whether it was customized or not.)

Available in size 7 for those of you who have the guts to watch small children stare at your shoes in curiousity, and for parents to look down at your feet and say "Aw, these are so cute!"

C.C. Converse

What's that, two posts in two days?  That never happens!  But it's crunch time over here, and I'm on a mission to make as many shoes as possible for NDK!  Here's the ever beautiful C.C. and her best plush friend Cheese-Kun from Code Geass!

I loved this series.  LOVED IT.  I'd come home from school, watch the new episode, and rinse that process like a ritual until the series was over.  Gundams with rollerblades + mind screwing powers + hot fanservice = awesome show.  And all of this is played in the backdrop of political turmoil between nations.  This series is really something else.

I don't know if I've stated this before, but I really don't like using black unless I've got a reason behind it.  Thus, C.C. is not outlined in black.  The green outlines are actually the unpainted shoe canvas.  I was planning to outline it later, then decided that this effect was pretty cool, so I kept it.  And of course, I had her eating pizza.  I couldn't just have her NOT eating pizza - she's always eating pizza.  Always.  Where does that pizza go?  A question best left unanswered.

On the other shoe, we have Cheese-kun, the official mascot of Pizza Hut and the official hug buddy for C.C.  He doesn't really do anything except serve as product placement, but a friend of mine really loves Cheese-kun, so I felt obligated to put it there.  And yes, Cheese-kun's hat is black.  Though technically, it's a very dark gray.

If you're interested in picking them up, these are a size 9 in women's, or a size 7 in men's.

Axel / Roxas Pumps

I've been out for a while and relaxing for the past few weeks.  But NDK's coming in seven days, so it's time to get back to work!  This pair is made for those of you who don't mind putting a few extra inches on your height - please welcome one of your favorite Kingdom Heart pairings, Axel and Roxas!

Kingdom Hearts is a great series, though I have sadly have only beaten 358/2 Days out of the series.  I also avoided it like the plague when it first came out - I avoid things that are over-hyped, and wait 'til the craze dies down before I invest myself into a series.  I am still surprised by its great success, but I guess when you put the heads of Square Enix and Disney together, great things happen..  I had a lot of fun going through all the Disney worlds and visiting the characters I watched as a wee child.  It's nice wish fulfillment packed in a really big story.

Despite being a guy, I really like Axel and Roxas as a pairing.  Like, they belong together - it's kind of cute watching the two interact.  So to commemorate that, I put them together on these pairs of shoes facing each other.  It's too bad they're separated, but they'll always belong to the same pair.

And for those of you who are more... suggestive about this pairing, I've added an meme-tastic double rainbow to satisfy you.  What does it mean?  You can figure that out.

Will be sold at NDK next week.  They're in a size 8 if you were wondering.

Rin / Len Asics Zavanna Flats

Continuing on with the Vocaloid series, here's the second set from Vocaloid, the super cute Rin and Len Kagamine!  This pair was made with small feet in mind - the shoes are a size 6 in womens.

These two were sold as a two-for-one in the Vocaloid series.  Meaning that for the same price, you got both Rin and Len's voice packages in the software!  And they're so huggable and cute.  It's not even funny.  Normally I don't like yellow as a color... but somehow, they make it WORK. 

For tasteful internet users, you should recognize their poses very clearly.  That's right, they are doing the Caramelldansen.  I still remember that trend like it just hit the raging masses.  One small video triggered this massive user response to have all of anime do the dance.  In tribute of that, Rin and Len are posed dancing as well.  Aside from that, there's a lot of new stuff in these shoes that I've implemented.  Things such as using an additional marker to my usual acrylics, and allowing some paint to run on the sole of the shoe.

Copic's Multiliner pens were used here to create the musical notes that run along the straps at the top of the shoe.  There was a lot of juicy design in the top of the shoe, so I added to it by throwing musical notes for good measure.  Don't try and read too much into the notes, they're there to be pretty.  Or maybe there IS an actual song there?  Hm...

I did the usual adding of names here too - Kagamine Rin / Len are placed at the side of the shoe that faces the outside, and to top it off, the pink paint runs down onto the sole of the shoe!  It's a super light coat, so it shouldn't peel off when you're walking about.  I'll have to experiment with painting on the sole more - while paint on the sole is a risque move, the aesthetics of the design moving from the shoe to the sole is awesome, I think.

And finally, the mandatory number of the Vocaloid is placed on the back.

My next pair will actually not be the 3rd Vocaloid.  I have another project that needs to get done first before I can get Luka in.  That, and Luka needs a suitable shoe to look pretty on, which... has not been found yet.  But rest assured, she'll be here!

Miku Converse

After a bout of inspiration, I finished these kicks as another pair for NDK - so without further ado, here's Miku from the well known Vocaloid series!

For those of you that don't know Vocaloid, it's a piece of software made by Yamaha.  The software features vocal banks such that if you input lyrics and a melody, it will sing to your tune!  You can further tweak and modify the voice so it comes out the way you want it, and then add it to the rest of your composition to make a song.  You can find several composers using Vocaloid on the internet based on the sheer amount of music originating from it.  Interestingly, this has given all Vocaloid characters virtual celebrity status - they're famous and can sing, but they don't really exist as people.

I was troubled with making this pair.  These particular shoes sport different materials from the usual brand of Chucks, and as such could not hold paint as well.  But I did a lot of experimenting with acrylic ink and it had wonderful results.  You won't be able to see it as well here in the pictures, but the ink has this metallic sheen to it, so when you walk around with Miku, her hair will shine and shimmer.  It's pretty badass.

I'm most proud of the text I put on the back.  I have a thing for text.  Something about stylizing font or making a few words read differently really appeals to me.  That, and it makes it feel official.  So the backs of the shoes are emblazoned with Hatsune Miku's name and her Vocaloid number.

I'm planning on releasing a series of shoes for each of the three main Vocaloids (Miku, Lin & Ren, and Luka), so expect to see the other two!

Phantom of the Opera Flats

And now for the next inspiration, the Phantom of the Opera!  A classic musical that I'm sure everyone's heard of, all involving a certain man with a certain mask.

This was a fun pair, though difficult to start with at first.  These shoes have been painted over with a very flexible black fabric acrylic paint, so the texture is different from most fabric shoes.  Additionally, the texture of the figures and the texture of the black paint are one and the same, so there are no tactile differences. 

I had never done text before, but it was very awarding when the brush met the shoe.  A liner brush works true wonders in these kinds of situations, and I now love my new paintbrush after its stellar performance.  Also did a bit of blending technique here to transition between the blue and white elements of the text.

Overall a fun piece, and an refresher from my usual anime / video game inspired works. 

Polka Dot Flats of the Late Klavier!

I haven't been here in a while, huh?  Well to celebrate, here's some new shoes!  Introducing Klavier Gavin of the Ace Attorney: Apollo Justice game!  He's quite the charmer, prosecutes as his main job AND leads his own band on the side?  Now that's a multi-talented man of justice!

If you haven't played the Ace Attorney series - as I'm sure many of you have, or have been asked to - you really should consider.  You play a defense attorney and your goal is to prove your defendant innocent.  You often go to the scene of the crime and play roles as an investigator as well, collecting evidence to use in your trials.  The dialogue is top notch and your cases really unravel in an interesting way.  Worth a check out.

I tried out a liner brush for this pair - with extremely satisfying results.  I can now outline in colors, besides black, a huge improvement!  As you can see here, Gavin sports light brown outlines.  I incorporated a bit of wet blending in too - that's where you apply different shades of color on top of a wet base, resulting in smooth blends between the two colors.  You can see it in Gavin's hair - and it's quite sexy.

There's one more thing that I added - lately, it seems all of my Ace Attorney shoes have the "Objection!" bubble on them.  This pair's no different, but there is a twist...

The phrase is in German.  Just a change of pace, you know?  Just a quick note that these bubbles are actually excruciatingly painful to do.  There's a lot of work that goes into insuring the accuracy in that small space.  And one slip up is very hard to fix. 

My greatest regret is sending these away!  Not that that should matter too much... a man has little use for shoes like these.