Experiments

Yesterday, after a fairly painful visit to the chiropractor (it was a taxing week), I couldn't face cooking breakfast so I stopped at Brent's Deli for an omelette and their excellent hash browns. (Why do so few cooks know how to get hash browns well done and crispy without burning them? Brent's has the secret.) While I waited for my breakfast, I decided to do a drawing of my cup and saucer. I've been working for the past 15 days (when I painted, which was about 10 of those) direct to watercolor with no drawing, but I was self-conscious to just whip out my paintbox and demand a cup for water, plus when it's a busy Saturday morning, you don't want the evil looks from people waiting for your table and wondering why you're sitting there painting instead of eating (and leaving)! So I got out the sketchbook and my Micron pen and made a contour drawing.

I realized, on the way home, as I was reciting to myself "Don't forget the highlights on the rim and in the coffee, and be sure to put in the shadow cast by the cup into the saucer" that my age has caught up with me—someone 15 years younger would have thought immediately of snapping a photo with their cell phone to get those details for later, while I tend to completely forget I have that option. So I was doomed to painting from memory (which also isn't the greatest, the older you get, ironically!).

I looked at the contour and thought, "Maybe I should try painting this on another page, without the drawing, so it fits with the 30x30 challenge," so that's what I did first. I wanted it to be a real Liz Steel partly-there-and-partly-not masterpiece, but didn't come close to accomplishing that. There were some parts I liked and some parts that were total fail (such as the misshapen saucer!), and many parts that I'm sure could have been better, had I had that reference photo on hand!

Afterwards, I went ahead and painted the contour drawing version too, just so I could see the differences. I made some slightly different color choices for shadows etc. There are parts I like better about each, and of course I am not satisfied with either one! But it was an interesting experiment. I find that I do like delineating edges and shadows without benefit of drawn lines, but I also like the quirkiness and personality that the contour line brings. I guess I'll keep working in both modes and see what shakes out!