Painting with coffee

While I was painting i decided to take photos of the steps I've taken to create the painting . It gives me a chance to document the process.


First i prepare the board by sanding it lightly. This makes my life easier . I use a mixture of coffee and tea to stain the canvas. While wet I also sprinkle crushed coffee granules. This gives it a more aged and textured feel

Next I lightly pencil in the drawing . It's more of a guideline as most of the lines would be covered with layers of colors .You have to be careful not to make any line too dark. Otherwise it will be a bitch to remove later.


Using mostly Browns I begin to darken the shadows, slowly bringing the face out of the background
Building later upon layer the face starts taking shape.

Blacks really add a nice contrast to the browns.Black ink does the job pretty well. The highlights are mainly white chalk pastels .