I was all prepared to paint oranges and lemons today but on a whim decided to paint my cup of tea instead. It was possibly the hardest painting I've done because I'm used to drinking from it while I paint, but today I had to stifle the urge for the sake of art. I know, you're thinking I could have just made more in another cup. But I was too busy painting...
Several of you have asked to see my setup. My husband built a box for me out of pvc (so it's light) and plywood (on the bottom and back). It sits upon a stand that goes up and down so I can get just about any perspective of my subject. After some experimentation, I ended up with a white sheet over the whole thing, and a black sheet over that. The white lets the light bounce around inside and keeps the shadows from being too dark. The black keeps everything from being too affected by my painting light. Here is a picture (please excuse my messy, dirty studio).
