Sip of Coffee

PART WAY THROUGH

Perhaps this was a bad time to do this particular piece.  I have been busy with other things.  The little one is making me all uncomfortable, and I’ve started the nesting phase.  I want everything done now.  I want the baby’s room done and everything washed and cleaned.  There’s only one problem.  …  I’m not superwoman.  So on top of my pregnant emotions and all the stuff I want done, let’s just throw on a complicated painting.  That sounds smart.

I wanted to do something a little different from the still life I have been doing lately, but I still wanted a cup in the painting.  This one was definitely more frustrating than my other ones and I wanted to burn it a few times.  I put some detail in and then took it out, and then put some back in and then some back out.  The mittens were what I was having the most problems with.  I just could figure out the right amount of detail.  I needed to show that they were mittens, and show the form, but too much detail just took away from the piece.

I think it was because I wasn’t able to get the detail I wanted in the face.  I couldn’t get the contrast I wanted because the darkest layers were maxed out in the layers of coffee they would take.  I’m hoping that once I get some money, I can test out some watercolor canvas boards and see if those take more coffee layers than the paper.

Here’s the finished piece.  I gave the nose a little more definition and took out some of the detail I had on the mitten.  Hopefully next time I do a piece this complicated, I have found a better surface that can take more layers.

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