I decided to sketch the flowered mug that I use to hold pens at my desk. The first thing I found out was that I couldn't draw a straight line without help, so I started as shown below, in Painter, with some shape tools.
After I'd been working a while, I had this and I didn't think it was really awful, but still too flat-looking. Not to mention that the shadow looked more like a puddle.
After some more work adding texture, highlights and darker areas, I had this. I still have it in RIF format if there are any more suggestions.
Here I've attempted to add some background color and texture, more highlights and shadows, and a more pronounced shadow.
