8" x 8" oil on board
I just wanted to paint and as usual, I couldn't find anything I wanted to paint. Luckily, Sarah had received a gift box from a work vendor with these exact items. At first, however, I painted only the cup, which I quickly realized was boring and not big enough to fill the board. The little gold stirring spoon was next - still too small for the board, so I threw in the leather-bound journal. The foreground was still too empty, so I added the pen, which was the most difficult item to paint. Then it seemed weird to have a mug and journal with no tea, so I brewed some tea and painted it in. Finally, I wondered if people would know that it was tea, so to clear that up, I added the tag from the tea bag. The tag also turned out to be a good indictor of the direction of light. A time-lapse video would have been interesting and a wonderful demonstration of how NOT to paint...
Here's the original, super-boring painting with just the cup and the spoon:
