Do-over

I posted the last one on World Watercolor Group's Facebook page, and asked for opinions. It was about evenly divided between "I like that the books are flying off the page! It's lively, and it's not a photograph, it shouldn't have to be in perfect proportion" and "Every book is drawn from a different perspective, what were you thinking?" (What I was thinking was, I'm NOT good at perspective—if I could have made the first one proportionally correct, I would have!)

So, I did it over. I decided to simplify, by using three books instead of four, and simply setting the mug on top, instead of having it shoving a book off the pile (which worked last year but somehow just wouldn't, with the exact same mug, this year). Since I was doing it over, I took the opportunity to switch out one of the books, and I think the resulting color combo is more pleasing to the eye.

One would like to think that one's skills improved progressively over the years, but I have to say that I think I did a better job both last year (see previous post) and the year before (below). But...it will do! On to the next challenge...