Tea Bag Art.

This week for WOYWW  I am showing you a much cleaner desk than usual as my son has taken his Gcse art work to school leaving my desk empty and ready to be gradually messed up again.

This week I have been working on a painting on a tea bag. After drinking the tea when it has dried and minus the tea leaves you are left with a lovely stained bag. I attempted a tea bag painting once before and I opened it all the way up but this time I just removed the staples joining it to the string and emptied the leaves out and left the back still sealed up at the back.

I originally sketched her in graphite pencil with touches of Graphitone (water soluble graphite) to create darker areas. Her face and arms are painted in white gouache with a touch of white oil pastel and  her hair and dress in watercolour.

Afterwards I thought it would be good to add the string and tag back to the bag but I had already thrown the original one away so I replaced it with a handmade.

Something I was particularly happy with in this piece was something that it is not instantly noticeable about the shading used on her face and neck. Instead of using the usual flesh tones I just felt that an olive green would work. Especially with her white face.

In the past when I have tried to substitute natural skin tones with other colours it hasn't worked out very successfully.(Probably trying too hard.)  With this piece I just felt that the olive was the right choice and I think it works. It is very subtle but I know it's there.

For anyone who visited my desk last week and saw the beginnings of my last painting and are interested to see the finished piece you can see it here.

As always, sending a big THANK YOU to all of you who have been kind enough to leave such lovely comments, especially on my 'Moments of Happiness' post. Because of the meaning behind that painting it has become very precious to me and so have your touching comments. x

Linking this post to WOYWW.