Friday, February 02, 2007

Dreaming of Summer


This was fun, I have been wanting to try a mug of beer for awhile and this was the perfect opportunity. I used a real silk flower, and a piece of plaid fabric folded and draped to resemble the napkin. The beer mug is yellow fabric with iron on vinyl on it, the vinyl also covers and inch or so of the head, the rest of the head is poly fiberfill attached on top of the vinyl, covered with tulle and free motioned over. I added some highlights to the mug and the table near the napkin with fabric crayons. I couldn't think of a way to make the drops on the mug...well I thought of using drops of super glue or clear nail polis but dont have either...any suggestions to make my mug look frosty?

6 comments:

Betty Donahue said...

You really nailed it. Great.
Betty

Linda Cline said...

Great idea of using fiberfill for the foam. It looks very grey. What if you used a lighter colered tulle over the fiberfill?

What if you used a fabric for the background which gradated from dark at the top to light at the bottom like the photo. It would give your beer more contrast so it would stand out more.

Marlene said...

Cathy....beer looks good enough to drink! What if you lightened the background sky to give more contrast so that great beer mug stands out?

On the frostiness of the mug....hmm...clear puff paint (is there such an animal?) or maybe some plastic (like cutout from a ziplock...I did that on a postcard)???

Marlene

Cynthia Ann Morgan said...

Hi Cathy, You certainly chose a challenging object with the mug filled with sparkling foamy beer. Creative use of materials, too. And you got a nice result! Some painted highlights on the foam and the glass might be worth a try to get the effect of the light on the glass and provide more contrast between the sky and the foam.

Good job! I look forward to seeing more of your work!
Cynthia

laura west kong said...

I think you got the foaminess right. I like the way you folded the tablecloth fabric on the left, and the way you freely moved the items in the original photo around. The only thing I would like to see added is the wonderful circle motif on the glass in the photo (although I admit that would be a real challenge,, it's just so interesting)
laura k

Unknown said...

Laura, I thought about trying to cut some "bubbles" from bubblewrap to get the circle effect, but then decided to go with the plain mug instead, and maybe use them to make the frosty look, but that didnt work out right, I may still add some clear round flat backed beads for frost.
Cynthia, I used a mottled fabric for the beer to get the illusion of light, and you notice some greyish areas in the foam? I did a little shadow painting up there too.
Marlene,I wanted a lighter sky but this was all I had on hand, after it was done I did the smack in the forehead bit and thought "why didnt you paint your own???" I dont think plastic would have worked since there is already clear vinyl for the mug..I dont think it would have stood out enough.
Thanks for the comments! And, in case you're interested I am working on another glass project now, an apothecary jar full of jelly beans :-)I'll post it on my blog when it's done.