When did I first draw shoes on an animal?
I first put shoes on an animal character a very long time ago. I was drawing a rhinoceros. I was looking at some photos of rhinos in a book that I had checked out from the library. They were in Africa, standing in very tall grass. I couldn’t see their feet at all. I wanted to finish the drawing. I saw my sneakers sitting there on the floor and I thought to myself – "Why don’t I just put those sneakers on the rhino? Then I don’t have to draw the feet!" I laughed at the Rhino wearing my sneakers. Thus started the "shoe thing".I never wear high heels like the ones I draw in the books. Actually, I took tap dancing while I was in college. I had some high-heeled tap dancing shoes. They are the shoes that appear in my earlier books, like Animal Fair.
I do not have lots of shoes that fit me. Most of the shoes that I draw I bought at a thrift store and they really don’t fit anyone but my book characters. Do you know you can sometimes buy a pair of shoes for $1.00? They are nicely worn in with lots of personality and wrinkles. I eventually purchased some high-heeled shoes in different colors, red and even some purple ones that appear in "To Market, To Market".
