Better Latte Than Never

Lucky Day 13. One last tutorial, I promise. The photo of the coffee cup painting caught my eye, so I followed Will Kemp's How to Paint a Simple Still Life using Oil Paints and hoped it would work with acrylic. Not bad, I think.

5x7 Acrylic on Canvas Board

I primed the canvas with  a light grey made from ultramarine, burnt sienna and titanium which was left from yesterday's painting. The dark areas were burnt umber and titanium, and the blue cup was cobalt, cad yellow medium and titanium. I did this one fairly quickly, a little over an hour, but ended up fussing over the fine highlights and shadows near the end. If I can figure our how not to mess things up as I do final touch ups, I'll be showing progress.

I must admit to myself, and all of you, that I'm getting a little tired of having to do a painting each day. The initial enthusiasm has cooled. Kind of like after the first two weeks of school, when the newness wears off, but you're still nowhere near the burnout stage of late in the semester. A little bit dreary, that's all. Posting to this blog is doing the trick so far. It gives me a reason to paint consistently.

Valuable Lessons Learned Today:

• Priming a few canvases at a time with a neutral ground saves a bit of time. Plus next time you can start painting right away without having to wait for the ground to dry.
• If you think your painting isn't very good, stand really far back and look at it. The farther back, the better. You will feel a little better anyway.