Determine if the shoe is an open toe or closed toe shoe. If it's an open toe shoe, lightly sketch the foot for reference.
Start at the base of the sole. If the shoe fits tight on the foot, then draw the heel, arch and ball of the foot. Flat shots, such as a sneaker or flip flop will have a straight sole.
Continue around the toes. If it's a tight shoe, then draw around the toes and up the top of the foot. If you're drawing heels, then you'll draw around the toes and draw a diagonal line upwards starting at the joint of the toes. Sneakers will have a diagonal that's less steep but the diagonal will start at the tip of the toes.
Draw a reversed arch from the front of the heel to the back of the heel. This is a basic option. You can continue your shoe up the ankle or leg. A cowboy boot, for example, will have an arched connection from the front to the back of the leg.
Continue your line from the ankle to around the heel. At this point you should be able to see your shoe's outline.
Start at the bottom the heel and create the heel of your shoe if the design calls for one. A high heel shoe will have a small bend towards the arch of the foot then will go straight towards the floor. Draw a flat line along the floor then draw your line up towards the shoe with a slight arch towards the heel of the foot.
Draw a short line between the shoe and the floor, if your design is a flat shoe. There should be two lines, one at the very back of the shoe and one at the very front of the shoe. Connect these two lines with a horizontal line. This is the base of the shoe.
Add rhinestones to the top part of flip flops by drawing small octagons. You can also add a Nike swoosh to the side of your sneaker or use a crisscross pattern for laces. Use small lines running parallel to each other to replicate stitching. Another option is to add buckles, which can be made by drawing a rectangle or square, then drawing a short line through the right edge as the latch.
Add shadowing. Select where the lighting is coming from. If you select the top right corner to be your light source location, then the top right corner of your shoe will be the brightest and the bottom left corner of your shoe will be the darkest part. There will be gradual shading between those points. If you have stitching on the shoe, then there will be a darker shadow immediately under the stitching. The extent to how large a shadow should be depends on how thick your object is. Stitching would have a very thin shadow, while the tongue of a sneaker would cast a thicker and longer shadow.