Painting “Coffee octopus” on round wood plate

Digital sketch

This is my relaxing drawing experiment. I want something coffee shades but not only bubbles or foam. The octopus tentacles are good fit because they have round suckers, a lot. I plan one lighter tentacles on darker coffee color. The other is darker tentacles on lighter coffee color. I draw them in rectangle shape in the Procreate app. But later I decide to try something different. Since it is coffee shades, a round shape panel which can mimic coffee cup would be interesting.

Materials and Procedure

Wood grain charger from Hobby Lobby

I pick up this round wood charger from Hobby Lobby. It is thick and solid with depth like a plate. So I start with my experiment.

  • Apply clear Shellac twice to seal the wood
  • Apply white gesso triple times for painting base
  • Paint with oil color. The outer circle of wood charger is planned to be the “coffee cup”. I let a few octopus tentacles to go over the boundary.
  • Once dried, apply varnish to seal the painting
  • Install hardware for hanging

Backside

As you can see, I leave the inner circle without gesso so the wood grain is visible. The nail less saw tooth hanger is safer than using a screw. I am concerned that the screw with drill through to the other side.

Afterthought

I like the coffee shades. Octopus tentacles are fun to paint. However, I don’t like painting on a smooth surface. The wood charger with gesso is sleek. It is hard to layer the paint on top. Next time if I want to make something like this I may just use the round canvas panel. 🤣

Thank you.

Published by Yue Zeng

My paintings are an outlet to express the imagination I have inside my head that I cannot put into words.

Yue Zeng Art Studio