Tea Portraits

Green tea is my tea of choice and is the foundation to my daily routine. A dollop of honey in my green tea is the only way to start my day. Especially on rainy evenings like this, there is nothing like it to calm my nerves after some hectic holiday shopping.

I’ve been having trouble sleeping (probably due to the tea), so I decided dust off the old sketch book and draw. After the sketch, for some odd reason, I wanted to paint with my green tea! I pour some out into a small porcelain dish along with my tea bag and let it steep and started painting away.

I love watercolor and it was safe to assume that I would be able to treat tea-colored water the same way. The paper in my moleskine is not the most ideal for water, but I love how it gave the painting a warmer tone due to it’s off-white color. The green tea didn’t really act like the way I wanted. I wasn’t sure if there was really any color there or if it has the illusion of color due to the paper getting darker from the water. It was more like a subtle stain.

Like watercolor, the beauty doesn’t show itself until it dries. The color started to set in and I could see the contrast. It bothered me that the paper wasn’t pristine as it once was. It started to warp heavily as it dried, but for some reason the imperfections added to it’s charm and it worked for me.