Friday, September 29, 2017

Teabag Paintings: Cup and Tree

Still learning to paint used teabags! I love it! So far, all of mine have been on intact teabags with only a slit in the bottom to pour the dried tea grounds out through, and I've only painted on one side and wrote my name and info on the other. However, I've noticed that other people are cutting them in two, opening them up and painting on single layers, and/or stitching them together to do all sorts of interesting things with them. I'm loving working on the bags, so I will be trying more different techniques on them too. Here are the last two I've painted.


This one, with the cup, is just playing with watercolor/inktense pencils, white gesso, and stabilo pencil, and I just made it up as I went.


The tree is also a made up as I go piece, and is done in watercolor/inktense pencils and gel pens. Unfortunately, the white gel pen clogged up on me in the middle of the tree and I had to use a white stabilo pencil on part of the branches, which made them not as sharp as I wanted, so I kind of went over them with a gold gel pen to add a little detail. I think it looks kind of dusky and okay...

The tea stained bags affect the colors and any grounds that get left in the bag also affect them, sometimes leaving interesting textural effects. So you don't always know how they'll turn out, which makes it fun, as well.

Anyway,  I'm out of used teabags for now, so I'll either have to brew some tea, or dig out some that I have saved before and haven't used.

I have yet another project working in my head. I would love to make a calendar with my art for each month, which will require me to make decisions (not my strong point) on which art to use, make good pictures of each, and get it published. I would love to do some for Christmas gifts, but I'm not sure I'll feel like it and have time, because of health problems and still trying to settle my mom's affairs and get everything in order at her house and mine. Sometimes it's overwhelming, but, with God's help it'll be ok!

Keep learning and creating!

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