Watercolored Shells

Last week we spent a few days at Cedar Key, on the gulf, just relaxing. I took along a sketchbook and my peerless watercolor swatches.

The shower curtain had all these lovely seashells pictured on it and I thought that I could certainly draw some of them. 

Apart from zentangle and tangling I can not draw. Not a bit. Like - - - not at all. So I really cringe to show you these, but I don't think they turned out too badly. And though the two shots above look the same, they are different. One is the unembellished watercolor. The second has been given a little extra oomph with a clear gelly roll glitter pen. Cause I like all things sparkly and glittery.

It's just too bad the glitter doesn't photograph well.

I even remembered to give them a little drop-cast shadow (I think that's what Dion called it in my pencil class). Hahahaha! I am trainable. At best.

Under the Sea

I've always been fascinated by the sea. I grew up in Newfoundland, Canada, right on the ocean. My dad would take me with him to the docks where he would fish, sometimes for hours. I remember the library on the navy base where we lived had a great book about the ocean. It was huge, and every page was printed in full beautiful bright color. A sentence on each page would identify the fish, plantlife, coral, whatever was depicted. I checked that book out every time it was available and would only return it when I had to. These days I would simply buy the book on amazon so I would always have it.

I started drawing this ocean life yesterday. I like all the patterns. The spiral shell idea came from a zentangle pattern from Michele Beauchamp called spiral. I saw the pattern and wanted to do something with it - it's a really pretty design! My picture just kind of took life from there.


I used the patterns: squid, popsicles, spiral, fescu, an unknown pattern - I can't find its name - the top flower with the pink in it, and added some tall reeds (perhaps a variation of mooka.) The color comes from Faber-Castell Pitt artist pens and Faber-Castell watercolor pencils which I used dry. It was incredibly satisfying to complete this project - good memories all the way :).