The Teapot Collage project was a simple one: create a series of studies from a still life with the end goal of creating a final piece that takes advantage of the knowledge gained through the studies, while incorporating multiple mediums.

The still life scene contained many different parts, but one that I found particularly interesting focused on a shiny green teapot, which rested on a pile of textured cloth, with another, polka-dotted, cloth draped behind it. It was a simple composition, which contained an interesting blend of colors and textures.

First I created the following studies, each investigating slightly different aspects of the scene. These helped me determine how much perspective I wanted to incorporate, how the values in the color and line should be established, and overall, what elements were most important to me in the scene.

In the end, I didn’t change the perspective much; I preferred the straight-on view, keeping the peripheral details intact. I filled in the large shapes with bold colors, and drew in the details at the end with a felt-tip pen. This helped me to further define the shapes while preserving the illustrative quality of the studies, which I enjoyed.

The final composition is quite simple, but still retains a lot of the depth and flare of the original scene, and is one of my favorite older mixed-media pieces of mine.