A while back I really wanted to get an invite to Dribbble.  A good friend of mine had received an invite and become quite active on the site, and it was clear that it provided a great way to get feedback and inspiration on your designs.  Since the site is invitation only, and invitations can be hard to come by, I needed to start putting together a portfolio that could earn me one.  The teacup just happened to be the first thing to pop into my head when I sat down to create something.

I wanted the design to be detailed and photo-realistic, but still clearly an illustration.  I wanted something that could potentially be used as a small icon, and also look good as a full size background image.  I used a blend of vectors, layer effects, and raster shading to achieve the final result, and it turned out to be a great exercise.  I built off of some of the techniques I used to create my Birdie illustration and the process started to feel more familiar and easy.

The initial version of the illustration turned out great and it quickly earned me the Dribbble invite I desired.  I immediately posted the teacup on Dribbble and got some great feedback - which I used to produce the final version you see here.