I began my project of teacups in gouache months ago. I was in a real funk and someone in my art group mentioned how they liked to do small mini-challenges to re-invigorate their creativity. I decided on the theme of teacups and set to work. Little did I know that over the course of that mini-challenge I would spend hour after hour (and book after book of watercolour paper) exploring teacups. For this class I focused on creating a teacup that was simple, to demonstrate my process for painting teacups. 

I started by grabbing some reference images from Pinterest. I wanted to experiment with the pattern of linked circles around the inside edge of the teacup on the left and I love that loopy handle on the teacup on the right. I wanted to combine these elements with some warm rose colours. 

 

Full disclosure: I full forgot to take a picture of my sketch as I worked, so I recreated it here. I focused on have a wide opening at the top of the teacup so that I could explore patterns inside it, and also doing my best to nail that wonderfully wonky handle. 

 

After deciding on my colours (you can see my swatches at the top!) I moved on to painting, using a size 6 brush to maintain brush strokes in the background. I used a size zero brush for the designs on my teacup. 

And here is my finished teacup!

MORE TEACUPS!

I painted a heck of a lot of teacups. Here are a couple more.