Happy Holidays! As Leonardo da Vinci said, “Art is never finished, only abandoned.” That’s especially true of this painting because the reflections, ridges and facets kept changing appearance as I moved or the light changed, and I could have worked on it forever. I’d planned to post it before Christmas but just couldn’t “finish” in time.
This is another painting (available here) in my “Found and Free” series: both the cup and ornaments were found on walks in “free” boxes set out on the curb.
You’ll see in the steps below that I was experimenting with using Panpastels and Sofft Tools to do the initial drawing on my panel. They are amazing: the pastels go on smoothly like paint but are completely erasable with any eraser and disappear into the oil paint so there’s no fixative required.
Below are photos of the work in progress.
Jana Bouc, Artist 
11 replies on “Christmas Balls in Red Cup”
Splendid tutorial, Jana. Merry Merry Merriest to you!! Thanks for ll the beautify you bring into our lives.
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And thank you dear Annie. You always bring cheer to my life! Jana
On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 4:39 PM, Jana Bouc, Artist wrote:
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Love this! Great job with all the tricky surfaces.
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Thanks Lisa, The whole time I was working on it I kept thinking how much more fun and how much easier it would have been to do it in watercolor! I might just have to do it again in watercolor! Jana
On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 6:33 PM, Jana Bouc, Artist wrote:
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I love this. Beautifully done!!
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Thanks so much! Jana
On Sat, Dec 27, 2014 at 8:52 PM, Jana Bouc, Artist wrote:
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I loved this one. I remember these ornaments from when I was a child. Your really caught that kind of magical glow they had in the lights of the Christmas tree. Also the cup in your picture has that total feeling of a ceramic – I felt like I could just reach out and feel that cool surface. Nice contrast – the soft magical glow of the ornaments and the clear hard colors of the ceramic cup! – Chris
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Thanks Chris! It was a tough one–so glad what I was trying to convey came across. Thanks for taking the time to comment! Jana
On Sun, Dec 28, 2014 at 5:25 AM, Jana Bouc, Artist wrote:
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Wow, Jana, this is beautiful and beautifully done, which to me is the point of art. Thank you for sharing!
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ES HERMOSA TU PINTURA, MARAVILLOSA! FELICIDADES Y SALUDOS DESDE GUADALAJARA, JALISCO , MÉXICO
FELIZ AÑO NUEVO !
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Gracias Paty! Yo estaba en Guadalajara en 1974 cuando la ciudad era muy hermosa pero muy tradicional. Estoy seguro que ahora es moderno y excitamente. Lo siento si mi Español es muy pobre! Jana
On Tue, Dec 30, 2014 at 10:16 PM, Jana Bouc, Artist wrote:
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