Seashell Serenade: Mastering Essential Watercolour Techniques for Beginners

1. Introduction: Are you ready to dive into the vibrant world of watercolor and bring the beauty of the ocean into your art? Hi, I'm Louise De Massey, a professional watercolor artist and educator. I'm thrilled to invite you on a painting adventure. In this class, we will explore the delicate art of painting seashells. We'll delve into essential watercolor techniques that will not only enhance your skills but also unlock your creative potential. Whether you're looking to refine your technique or embrace the spontaneity of watercolors, This tutorial has something for everyone, from the gentle curves of a simple shell to the intricate details of a more complex shell. I'll guide you step by step through three stunning projects. With my background in education and a passion for watercolor art, I'm here to support your journey, offering tips and encouragement every step of the way. You'll learn how to wet your paper. You'll learn about painting with different paint consistencies. You'll learn how to paint wet on wet, confidently using different techniques. But most of all, you'll have fun, whether you're seeking inspiration, looking to improve, or just want to create something beautiful. Let's make it happen together. I can't wait to see the stunning seashells you'll. 2. The Class Project: Welcome to the class. Thank you so much for joining. The techniques we will use to paint the shells are all fundamental techniques that you need to learn. If you want painting watercolor, it will be good for you to practice them. When you finish the class, you will have these beautiful shell paintings to be proud of. When you've finished your paintings, I'd love you to share them with me and all the other students. That way we can all inspire one another and see how we're progressing. You can upload photos of your paintings on the projects and resources page. 3. The Supplies : In this video, I'm going to quickly run through all of the supplies that I used to complete the painting. The supplies are also listed on the supplies list for you to download. I'll start with the paints. I used a limited palette of four Windsor and Newton colors. I prefer to use tube paints because I'm familiar with them. I find it easier to mix with freshly squeezed pigment. I also find it easier to adjust the consistency of the paint mixture when I use tube paints. The first color I used was Indian yellow, which is a warm, transparent yellow. The second color was Windsor violet, which is also a warm transparent color. I used French ultramarine, which is a warm, transparent blue and burnt sienna. A warm, transparent, earthy color. If you don't have Windsor and Newton paints on the supplies list, you'll find some suggested color alternatives In both Daniel Smith and Schminker paints. The brushes I use to paint the shells are the Jackson's synthetic round brushes. These are series 505. I normally use natural hair brushes when I paint, but they can be quite expensive to buy. I've used these less expensive brushes and they perform quite well. They have good snap, and they release the paint well. I used a 158 and a 12. Now for the paper, I recommend all my students use 100% cotton watercolor paper. For this tutorial, I used as cold press watercolor paper. I took two sheets of three sized paper and cut them in half, which gave me three separate paintings. If you prefer, you can paint all of the shells on one piece of three sized paper, like I've done here. Now I'll show you some of the other things that I used to complete the paintings. These are the palettes that I used. A little ceramic palette that holds the paint and a larger ceramic mixing palette. This is an inexpensive kitchen platter that I bought for about five or $6 I used some Windsor and Newton masking fluid and an old synthetic liner brush to apply it. I used a small rosemary and co eradicator brush to create some highlights after the painted dried. This is a small flat chiseled brush that I use all the time to create high lights and to tidy up edges. I used some sale transfer paper to transfer the line drawing to the watercolor paper. I taped the line drawing in place with some masking tape. I like to use two large water containers when I paint. One I use for cleaning the paint out of my brush, and the other I try to keep clean. So I've got some clean water to wet the paper with. It's handy to have some tissues close by in case of any accidents. I always have an old towel beside me when I paint, so that I can wipe my brush on it. I use a needable eraser to lighten the line drawing. A normal plastic eraser is great for removing masking fluid. I also like to have a hair dryer nearby so that I can speed up the drying process of the paper. 4. Some Watercolour Techniques to Practice: Before we start painting the shells, I want to show you some of the techniques we will be using. If you haven't done much painting, you can practice these techniques before you start your paintings. The first technique I will show you is how to wet the paper. I take one of my brushes, I dip it in my water container and then I go straight onto my paper. Here. I'm using one of my watercolor journals to demonstrate The brush I use is as large as possible for the area that I'm painting because I want to apply the water quickly, I don't want the paper to start to dry before I get it all wet. Having said that, even though I try to wet it fairly quickly, I need to wet it carefully. Because wherever the paper is wet, that's where the paint will flow. When I wet the paper, I try to give it even coverage and I don't want puddles of water sitting above the surface of the paper. I spread it out with my brush. I make sure it's evenly covered. This is a close up look at how my paper looks when it's ready to paint on. It has a glossy sheen on the surface, but the water isn't sitting in puddles. Above the paper here in the corner, I can see that the water is starting to accumulate. I use my brush to spread it out. It's accumulating there because I'm painting in my journal and the page has curved slightly most of the time when I'm painting the sea shells. This is what my paper will look like when it's wet. If it looks anything different to this, I will tell you as we go, the longer you wait to apply the paint, the drier the paper becomes. You'll notice that the sheen on the surface won't be quite as shiny. There are times when you might want to paint on paper that looks less shiny. When it becomes drier like this, the paint won't spread as far. But because the paper is damp, the paint edges will be soft and fuzzy. If I paint on paper that is damp, so less shiny than when it's really wet. I will tell you in the video, so don't worry about that. You will need to wet the paper and wait a few minutes for it to soak in. I think I do that when I paint the final seashell. Another thing I want you to be aware of is your paint consistency when you're painting. This is important because it affects the way the paint moves and behaves on the wet paper. When I mix paint colors, I prefer to use freshly squeezed pigment rather than pigment that has hardened on my palette because I can scoop it up on my brush without having to wet the pigment first. Here I'm mixing burnt sienna and French ultramarine together and my brush is damp. When I'm happy with the color I've mixed, then I add a small amount of water, just a little bit at a time, tiny bit more. When I pick my palette up, that paint will move on the palette. That's the consistency of the paint that I use most of the time. But there are times when I want thicker pigment. When I want the pigment to be quite thick, I make sure my brush isn't too wet. When I start mixing, I use the freshly squeezed pigment again because it's easier to pick it up. I wiped the brush on the towel between colors rather than dipping it in the water. If I do dip it in the water to clean it, I make sure I dry it off. Then when I arrive at the color that I want, I'll put a tiny bit of water, not a lot, just a tiny little drop on my brush. That mixture is quite a lot thicker than that first mixture because I've kept the water out of it. When I pick my palette up, it doesn't move. As I said, the consistency of the paint effects how the paint behaves on the wet paper. I'm wetting the paper here with some water so I can show you. The watery mixture on my palette has already hardened, so I've got to add a bit more water to it. When I paint that on the wet paper, it moves, it bleeds over the wet paper. It can create some beautiful effects. Now, I'll use the thicker pigment, just picking it up with my damp brush. This time it's not going to move as far. The marks that I make on the paper will keep their shape. But because the paper is wet, it's still giving me fuzzy edges on those marks that I've made. There are times when I want the paint to flow over the paper freely and there are times when I want the paint to stay in place and not move too far. I can make that happen with the consistency of the paint mixture. If I want loose expressive marks and I want the paint to bleed or creep over the paper, I'll use paint that has some water mixed with it. If I want the marks I make with the paint to stay in place on the wet paper, I'll use thicker pigment. All of this I will demonstrate when we start painting. Now I want to show you a few of the techniques we will use when we paint the seashells, just in case you want to practice first. The first technique you can practice is sweeping your brush over wet paper confidently. I'm back to my journal here and I'm wetting a section of the paper with water. I'll pick up some of the paint. I want the paint to flow over the wet paper, so it needs to have a bit of water mixed into it. If I'm not sure how wet my brush is before I touch my paper, sometimes I might gently dab it on the cloth just to make sure it's not overflowing with moisture. Now, I'm going to do some sweeping strokes with the brush. This is going onto the wet paper, I'm using the side of the brush. Nice long sweeping strokes. Just getting a bit more paint. Just practice that to get a feel for it. If you haven't done this thing before, try to use your brush confidently. And this is what I'm doing here on Seashell One, I'm working on the wet paper and I'm moving the brush in long, sweeping strokes. Here's another thing you can practice also on wet paper. Here, I'm wetting the paper again, just a small section of it. I want you to imagine that I want to leave a high light in the middle of that section, so I'm not going to put any paint in that middle section here. I'll pick up some paint again. I'll mix some water with it because I want it to flow on the paper, so you'll be reserving a high light on white paper. So here I'm painting the paint onto the section that I've wet. But in the middle, I'm going to leave the paint off to create a highlight. So you'll see the white of the paper showing. This is how I created the highlights on shells one and three. Although on shell one, I think I lost quite a lot of it. So the paint drifted into the highlighted area and I ended up with not much of a highlight which can happen because the paper is wet. Don't be concerned if you try this and you end up losing the high light, it's nothing to be worried about. That's what I'm doing here. On shell three, I'm painting on the wet paper, but I'm going to leave a little highlight there. That's something else you can practice When I paint the cast shadows that the shells are making, I use a technique called charging, where you drop one color into another color that's wet. If you're working on dry paper like I am here, you have to work fairly quickly because you don't want that first color to dry before you drop the second color onto it. Now I choose another color. It should be a similar consistency to that first color. Then I drop that onto the wet paint. It's as simple as that. It's just dropping one color into another color that's wet. Here's another technique that you can practice that has to do with paint consistency. The first shell we will paint has a stripe on it. I painted on wet paper with thick pigment. Here, I'm wetting the paper with water so I can show you. Now I'll get some thicker pigment. I make sure my brush isn't too wet. When I pick up the paint, then I add a tiny bit of water to it. The paper isn't as wet as it was when I first wet it. It started to soak in a little. The shine is beginning to go off the surface. Then when I put that thick pigment on the paper, it stays in place. But it still gives me those fuzzy edges. If you find it spreads too far, you either need to wait until the water has absorbed into the paper a little more, or you need to thicken up your paint mixture. Also, be aware of the amount of moisture that you have in the brush. Maybe you need to dab your brush on your towel to practice that. On wet paper. You want the mark you make to keep its shape, but you want it to have fuzzy edges. On seashell two, I paint one of the stripes on dry paper. I used a dark mixture of frenchaltrimarine and burnt sienna. Here I've got the Frenchaltrimarine. Now I'll put some burnt sienna into it, that gives me a dark chocolate brown color. Now if I use the paint at this consistency on the dry paper, it's too thick. If I go over here onto the dry paper, what happens is the paint brush skips over the surface of the paper and it creates more of a dry brush effect, which is not really what I was looking for. To remedy that, I add a touch of water to it. Again, not a lot. Maybe not as much as I've got here in the blue puddle of paint. But I do need the paint to flow off the brush. I don't want to fight with it. Let's have a look at that on the dry paper now. Because I've got a bit of water mixed into it, it flows easily off the brush. Practice that a few times holding the brush upright and then pushing down on the bristles to flatten them out. There's a few things that you can practice if you need to, but don't worry. I will walk you through each shell step by step. In the next video, we will start painting Seashell One. 5. Seashell One - Initial Washes : All right, I hope you've got your paints ready because we are going to start painting. I've divided each seashell into two parts. In this video, we will start painting this shell. This is a piece of cold press watercolor paper. I've stretched the paper and I've attached it to some gator board. Stretching the paper keeps it flat while I work on it. If you don't know how to stretch watercolor paper, I've written a blog post to demonstrate how I do it. I've linked to the blog post on the supplies list for you. This is an three size piece of paper cut in half, which makes it an four size piece of paper. I've got the paper in portrait orientation. To transfer the line drawing to the watercolor paper, I will use some saral paper. Saral paper is a wax free, fine art transfer paper. I've got the paper in portrait orientation, but you could easily place the paper in landscape orientation if you prefer. I position the line drawing on the paper where I want it, then I tape it into place with some masking tape. I place the sale paper underneath the line drawing, and then I use an ordinary pencil to trace over the lines. I check to see that I've got everything and then I can remove the line drawing. I use a needable eraser to lighten the line slightly. I want to be able to see them, but I don't want them to be too dark because they might show through the paint. In some places I'm going to use some Windsor and Newton masking fluid to mask some little high lights that I can see on the shell. Because masking fluid can be hard on your brushes, I like to use an old synthetic liner brush to apply it. All I do is dip the brush into the bottle and then I run it along the dry paper along the front of the shell. There I can see a white high light also on this part of the shell. I can see another one just here now that needs to dry. Now, before I can do anything, I'll be painting with my board on a slight angle. I've got a really thick book sitting underneath it, but if you prefer to have your board flat on the table, that's fine too. All right, let's get the paints ready. These are all Windsor and Newton colors. The first one is transparent yellow, Windsor violet, French ultramarine. This is a color that I use all the time and burnt sienna, which is another color that I use all the time. Okay, the first thing I'm going to do is use the number 12 brush. That's the largest brush to paint some water onto this main section of the shell. I'll be working wet on wet. I'm going to try and leave that little high light that you can see on the lightest part of the shell there by painting around it. I use my large brush to do this because I can get the water on the paper quicker with this brush. And I make sure that the paper is evenly covered with water. I don't want the water to be sitting above the paper, so I don't want any puddles lying anywhere. I'm going to use Indian Yellow to paint the first wash on the shell. I mix a tiny bit of water with it, not too much because I don't want to dilute the color. I don't want it to be too pale. Still, using the number 12 brush. I'll start down the bottom here because it's a bit darker there than the other side of the shell. It's painting straight onto the wet paper. When I paint, I'm looking at the outside edge of the shell. I'm not too worried about what's going on on the other part of the shell, it's just the edge that I'm focused on at the moment. I'm going to try and follow my pencil line as best I can. If you go over your pencil line a little bit there like I did, don't panic, it doesn't really matter. I'll be painting a shadow there later on. The shadow will probably cover that. I'm painting all of the outer part of the shell in the Indian yellow. Again, here I'm looking at the outside edge along here. I'm not concerning myself with what's happening here. I know I've got time to fix that later because the papers we Okay. Now I can think about that highlighted section that's there where there's no color. So I can try and paint around that as best I can. Now the paint will creep because the paper is wet. But hopefully, I'll be able to reserve a little bit of the white of the paper there if it gets away from you and you find that the paint completely covers that area. Don't panic, it's no big deal. Just do the best you can, okay? Now I need to let that sit and dry before I move on. So here's a photo of my painting at this stage. This is Seashell one, progress photo, one that you can download now. I'm going to mix some gray from French ultramarine and burnt sienna. This is the French ultramarine. I'll be using more of the blue than I will burnt sienna. I want to cool gray, I need a bit more of the blue. I find the burnt sienna tends to overpower it a bit. I'll add a touch of water to it because I want the paint to flow on the wet paper. Okay, now my shell is dry. All the yellow is dry now. And using my number eight brush, I'm wetting the inside part of the shell. I'll take the water over to the pencil line on the right hand side. So that a pencil line that looks like a J there beside my brush. So just take the water down to that pencil line that looks like a J there over the top of the masking fluid. The paper is dry, just here. All that area there is dry. Now I pick up the gray mixture that I just mixed. Now this gray will sit underneath the yellow that I'll be painting on later. Here. I'm painting in those little shadow areas that I can see. I could have used darker yellow here, but I want to stick with the colors that I've chosen. Now I'm going to paint a long sweeping stroke down towards the bottom of the shell. And then I'll do the same thing here on this outer edge. Follow the outer edge with you, brush, curve it round the bottom and then I'll take it up onto the dry area down the bottom here where my brush is now. The papers, I didn't wet that section. I'll take it over. The little patch of masking fluid that's there now. It will bleed a little bit into that wet area, but that's okay. I'm not too worried about that. Okay. So that needs to dry now before I move on. So I'll take a photo of my painting again for you. This is Seashell One, Progress photo two. Okay. That area there is now, so I'm going to use my number eight brush again to wet the inside part where the yellow is on the reference photo. Again, here I will only wet down to that pencil line, so I won't go past it. I don't want the yellow to go onto this gray section here. I usually wait for the paint to dry by itself and then I use a hair dryer on it to make sure that it's completely dry before I layer over the top like this. If you don't wait for the paper to completely dry, you end up disturbing that previous layer that you've just painted. All right. Now here's my yellow. Just mix a bit of water with it because it's dry on the pellet now. And I want a tiny little bit of the Windsor violet just to neutralize the yellow and dull it down slightly. I might get a tiny bit more. Okay, that goes onto the wet paper over the top of the gray that we painted earlier. I don't want the yellow to go all the way to the edge. So I will stop it short of the edge because the paper is wet. It will give me a soft edge where it meets the gray. I won't get an ugly hard edge there as you paint. Watch for little tie lines or water lines forming here. I use my slightly damp brush just to clean away that tide line. In doing so, I made the paint bleed down onto the gray area, but I'm not concerned about that. I'll just let it do what it wants to do there. Now, I'm getting a little tiny bit of the Windsor Violet. It's a very strong color. I don't want to l it I'll mix some water with it to tone it down. It's getting the excess paint off my brush there. And then I dabbed the excess. I'm going to paint that just up here in the corner. Now, I can't really see violet there on the reference photo, but because violet and yellow are complimentary colors, I thought it would look nice if I put a little bit of violet here and there on this shell. Just a little bit more. That looked a bit too pale to me. I thought I'd try it a bit darker than that. It was so pale that by the time it dries, you probably wouldn't see it. I dropped a bit more in there. Okay. I'm going to let that dry and I'll take a photo of my painting again for you. Here it is. This is Seashell One, progress photo three that you can download, that's the shell all washed in. In the next video, we'll add some detail over the top. 6. Seashell One - Adding Details: There's a shell all washed in. Now we'll start to add some detail to give the shell more form. Using the number one brush, I'm going to get some of the violet. All I'm going to do is paint that on dry paper over the top of this little back section of the shell, just to change the color slightly. All right, now I need to add a shadow on the right hand side of this segment here. So I use the number eight brush to wet the paper with some water. I'll work on the wet paper again so that the paint will bleed and creep and give me a soft edge where it finishes. Now I want some burnt sienna. I'll mix a touch of water with it just so that it flows. I'll paint that on this right hand side where it's a bit darker there. On the reference photo, I've got a puddle of paint there. So I tap the excess moisture out of my brush and use it to sop that little bit of excess paint. Now, I'll use my eraser, the plastic one, to remove the masking fluid. When you use masking fluid in a watercolor painting, after removing the masking fluid, you often need to integrate the preserved high lights into the painting. And that might involve gently adjusting the edges and tones around the masked areas just to ensure that they blend harmoniously with the surrounding elements. To help me do that, I'm going to use my small eradicator brush. This is a Rosemary and Co eradicator brush. It's a little stiff brush. I can use it to gently rub over the dry paper. My brush is wet. The paper is dry, and I gently rub at the edge of those highlights. Just to soften them slightly and blend them down into the painting. I can use a tissue to take off a little bit of paint there as well that softened those edges there. I don't need to do anything to that other highlight. I think that one's fine. I'll take a photo of my painting again now for you. This is Seashell One, progress photo four that you can download. Now I want to make this segment at the back look a little more rounded. So I do the same thing that I did with the segment in front. I wet it with water first using my number one brush. This time I thought I'd use violet instead of burnt sienna. I paint that on the right hand side where the shadow is. There's actually another segment in there on the reference photo, but I'm only going to paint these three. I didn't think it was necessary to include the other one here. I'm running the paint along the pencil line between the two segments, just there it was a bit dry, so I'm adding a bit more water just to spread the paint out. Then I dropped a bit more of the violet there. I was a bit concerned that it wasn't going to be dark enough. Okay. Switching to my number 12, brush the big one. I need to get some water on this one because this big segment here needs a shadow on the bottom edge. It also needs a stripe down the middle. I gently wet all over with water, make sure it's evenly covered and there's no puddles lying anywhere. I'll get some bent N now, and I'm using the number eight brush now now I want it to flow, so I add a tiny bit of water to it and I paint that on down the bottom here. And I'll run it up that right hand edge. I need some more paint on my brush. So the water on the paper is giving me those soft paintages that I'm after, a few little shaped following strokes there. And now a bit more color down the bottom there. Now it looks a bit dry up here. I'm painting a bit more water there because I want to paint some violet there. Using the little number one brush, I pick up some violet. I'll paint that just up here along that edge, allow it to bleed over the paper, creates a little shadow there, softening that edge there at the front. And this one here does with a damp brush. All right? To paint that stripe down the middle of the shell, I need thick, creamy paint with no water in it to get yourself some freshly squeezed paint if your pigment has gone hard. The reason I want it to be creamy like this is because I don't want it to spread too far. I'm painting on the wet paper, or it's more damp now than wet. I want soft edges, but I don't want the paint to spread out of control. I want that stripe to look like a stripe, just a bit more pigment there, so that it doesn't dry too light. Deepening the color there. You can see that that has given me those soft, fuzzy edges along the edge, but it hasn't spread too far. It's kept its shape. That's brought me to Seashell one, progress photo five that you can download. I've got my small eradicator brush now. It's wet with a bit of water. The paper is dry just bringing back that edge right at the top there. Gently rub at the paint, softens it, then I can use a tissue to remove excess. And then I used it down the bottom here along this edge as well. I also ran it along that edge there. Now, looking at this shadow just here on the side of this segment, I feel that mine's not quite dark enough, which sometimes happens after the paint is dried. It looks okay when it's wet, but once it's dried, it's too pale. Here, I'm going to give it a second layer of paint. You don't need to do this if you're happy with yours. I just want to show you that you can. I've wet it with water there. Just a bit more water now, the ben Sienna. Then I took my eradicator brush and I took off a little high light on that stripes it say brush is wet, papers dry. Switching to my number one brush and some burnt sienna. There's a little cast shadow I want to paint on just down the bottom here. That's on dry paper with the number one brush to cool that shadow down slightly. I thought I'd paint a touch of the Windsor violet into it. While it's wet, take the paint out of my brush and use it to spread the paint out. I have to work quickly before the paint dries back to my number 12 brush and some clean water. Just gently painting over that section of the shell, the lighter section with some water. If I can finish the water against that line that runs down the middle, I shouldn't get a tide line. It's always a good idea when you're re wetting painted work to try and finish the water in a light section rather than a dark section just to minimize those tide lines. Here I've got a bit of the Windsor violet on my little number one brush, spreading it out. Now it's just helping to make that edge look a little more rounded. It's looking a bit flat. Going back to the gray mixture using the number eight brush, just putting a bit of water with it. This is for the cast shadow beside the shell. Now remember that was a mixture of French ultramarine and burnt sienna. But it has more of the French ultramarine in it. And I'm painting on dry paper here. I just want to follow the edge of the shell with my brush and create a little shadow there. This helps to ground the shell and stop it from looking like it's floating in the air. You don't want to use a tiny little brush for this. Use a brush that's a fairly good size so that you can put the paint on in more or less one stroke without having to go back over the top of it all the time. As I said, this is my number eight Now, I could have painted a shadow on wet paper here, and the shadow would have had soft paint edges. But I think it was easier just to paint it on the dry paper like this. Then for interest, I picked up a bit of the Windsor violet. I charged that into the wet paint. That's the first shell finished there. It is cut off the board in the next video will start shell number two. 7. Seashell Two - Painting the Lightest Tones: Okay, let's start, See shell number two. Now there's more wet on wet practice for you with this one. This shell has got two dark stripes on it. One of the stripes we paint on dry paper and the other one on wet paper. I've transferred my drawing to the paper using the same method I used for the first shell. With this line drawing, you'll notice that I have a line missing here and a little line missing there. That's because I'm going to leave a lost edge in those places. I won't be putting any paint there. And that will help to create depth and make the shell look more rounded. Using the number 12 brush, I'll wet the outside of the shell even though the shell has a lot of white on it. There are some shadows on the right hand side that I need to paint in with this shell. I'm going to leave the little high light dry. I'll paint around the high light with the first shell. We wet all of the paper. And when we put the paint on, we avoided the high light. And we let the paint creep, creating soft edges around the edge of the high light. This one will do it differently when you wet the paper. Don't wet that high light in the middle. I went around the high light that I had drawn and then I took the wet brush and I shaved a little bit of the top section of the high light off. That's what I'll do now is my brush. Take the water into the high light and make it slightly smaller than the way I've drawn it. There's a little patch of dry paper just there where the high light is. You'll see when I put the paint on what I'm talking about, I'll use the number eight brush to pick up some of the gray mixture. Remember the gray is a mix of French ultramarine and burnt sienna. Okay, number eight, brush gray paint. I run it down the side where the shadow is. I paint in that right edge. Again, I'm looking at the side of the shell. I'm not worrying about what the paint's doing on the wet paper. Take it across the front up to the edge of the high light. I'll be leaving the white of the paper showing in quite a few areas on the shelf. I'll take it to the edge of the pencil line there, down the bottom here. I've got some water accumulating because my boards on an angle. So I'm just using the brush to sop some of it back up. Now, a bit more paint. Just where the pencil lines are down the bottom. Then I wipe the paint out of my brush. And then I use it just to fix edges, make sure the paint is sitting the way I want it to. I don't have any paint on the brush, I'm just moving the paint around. And then I put a little bit more paint along the top edge of the high light just to touch. That's enough. I've got to let that dry. Now you can see that I've left the paint off the external edge on the left hand side, so there's no paint along here. Here's a photo of my painting that you can download. This is Seashell Two, progress photo one. Before I go any further, I need to mask of the little highlights that are sitting around the edge of the shell. There's another high light on the right hand side, a long, thin one. I should have painted these in before I started, but I forgot about them. Well, let that dry now. All right. Using the number eight brush, I'm going to paint the inside part of the shell. If you're masking fluids, not dry yet. Just be careful that you don't disturb it with your hand. This is water that's going on that middle inside section. I use the gray mixture again and then I start to paint in that shadow that runs along the top. I've got a little tiny hair there, I can't get it. I have to leave it there, just allowing the paint to bleed on the wet paper. The front section of it is lighter, so I won't put any paint there, but I can see a little shadow running along the front rim. For that, I will switch to my little number one brush because I don't want to put too much paint there. I run that along the pencil line, let it bleed. And then that leaves me with that white paper showing there at the front. Now I want brown for that. I use Ben Siena, but I'm going to mix a bit of French oltrmarine into it to deepen the color, slightly, take the red away. So I don't want to gray, I want to brown. So I have to use more of the Ben Siena. When I made the gray, I used more of the French Tri Marine. That's given me an earthy brown color that I can use right at the top here to deep in the shadow a bit. The paper is still wet from when I wet it at the beginning. Now I thought I'd paint some of those little speckly marks that you can see using the same color scribbling with the brush. Try and paint them in quickly so that they don't look too forced. Just a few little dabs here and there. You don't need a lot of paint on your brush when you do this. And then I checked my edges, made sure they were okay, and then I let it dry. I took a photo of my painting at this stage for you. This is Seashell Two, Progress photo two. Now I want to paint in the brown areas that are on this shelf. For that, I use the French ultramarine and Bon Sienna mixed together. But it's got more of the Bon Sienna because I want a brown rather than a gray. I'll use my number five brush to do this. Switching to the five now I'll start with the section at the back here. So those two little segments there, I'll paint on dry paper. I'll paint them both together at the same time. I'll use my pencil here to re, draw in that line there between the two segments, because that's where I need to paint a stripe. Make sure I've got it in the right spot. Now I need a really dark brown for the stripes on the shell. I use the freshly squeezed pigment and I pick it up with my damp brush. When you use fresh pigment, it's easier to mix a dark color like this. I want the paint to flow off the brush, so I need to put a tiny bit of water into it. Otherwise it's too sticky. All right. The number five brush, now on dry paper, I paint in that stripe that runs along that segment there all I'm doing is painting on top of that pencil line that's there. Practice on a bit of scrap paper first if you need to. With the larger stripe. I thought it would be easier if I wet it with water. Number five, weighting the stripe with water. Now I'm going to put a bit more of the burnt siana into that mixture. I want it a bit redder. And then holding the brush up on its tip number five brush, I start to paint in that stripe that's there. The moisture on the paper is going to give me a bit more time to get the paint on. There can be a bit more careful. I don't have to rush to get it finished before the paint starts to dry. I curved it around the top of that little high light that's there. I want to make sure that I put the paint on dark enough because I don't want to have to come and give it a second layer of paint. If I can help it, then I go back to it and just check the shape of it. Might be a bit too thin, just here. So I extend it out a little bit further. Just do the best you can. That brings me to another progress photo of my painting. This is Seashell Two, progress photo three that you can download. In the next video, we will complete the shell. 8. Seashell Two - Finishing Details: This is where we finished in part one. In this video, we will start by painting the front edge of the shell, and then we'll add more detail to finish it off. I'll start by wetting the front edge of the shell with some water. Just make sure your masking fluid is dry. When you do this, I'm using the number eight brush. I haven't wet the top area where you see it's brown. I've only wet up to the pencil line, that looks like a V shape. Okay, so that's wet with water. Now, now I want some more gray. My gray is just about finished, so I mixed together French ultramarine with Ben Siena, mix a touch of water with it as well. I'll use my number five brush, I think, to put the paint on. Okay, painting on the wet paper. I start in that V section and it's quite dark. I do come back at the end of the painting and I add a bit more color there running along the front here, I'm going to leave some of the white of the paper showing. I won't completely cover it with the gray paint. I use the reference photo as a guide. I have to look carefully. I can see a little bit of gray where my brush is now. It seems to be darker along the front edge. So I'll run some paint along there as well. I take it up to the high light, otherwise you won't see the high light. When I remove the masking fluid, I'll put a bit in front of the high light as well. Okay, so I've left white there and I've left white there. Now I want some of the brown. So that was the burn Siena mixed with a bit of French ultramarine. And I'm going to paint this brown section here. Now. The gray is still wet. The gray area, the brown will bleed into it a little bit, but that's okay because I don't really want a hard sharp edge there. I thought if the brown bleeds into it a little bit, all the better. The brown, I am painting on dry paper, but as I said, where it touches the gray on the rim, it might bleed into it slightly. So don't be concerned if it does. So of course, if your gray has dried, it won't do that. Okay. I might get a slightly darker brown now as well. In my little paint mixture here. I've got a little dark patch still using the same colors, but there's a bit more pigment there. I dropped that on their wall. That brown is still wet and then the two values blend together. And I can't really see that darker color there on the reference photo. I'm just trying to make my shell look a bit more interesting. Okay, using the number five brush, I'm going to add a little shadow on these segments here. So that's some water first, switching to the number one brush, and I get some more of that dark paint. So French ultramarine, Ben Siena, more of the Ben Sienna. Tiny bit of water because I want the paint to flow. And then I'll paint that on the right hand edge. The wet paper gives me those soft paint edges that I'm looking for. I'm going to use a bit of the brown mixture to extend the shell down low near the front here, just on dry paper. And then I'll get my hair dryer out and I'll dry off that back section so that I can finish that last segment. I wet it with the number five brush and then I switch to the number one to paint on that darker brown onto the wet paper. Everything is dry now. And I'm using my plastic eraser to remove the masking fluid from the front and any pencil lines that I can still see. Now, I said I didn't want to add another layer to this stripe earlier, but I've decided to wet it with water. In doing so, that will deposit a little bit of paint on that little high light that's there. Then while it's wet, I'm going to put some darker paint above the high light area. You can see just by brushing some water over that I've disturbed the pigment. And it's deposited some paint on that little highlight. And if you look at the reference photo, that little highlight has got a very pale brown color on it. Now, while that's wet, I pick up some of the dark brown and all darken above the high light. It looks a bit darker there to me on the reference photo. This is the little number one brush. I'll pull a bit of paint down into the high light like it is on the reference photo. And then down the bottom here, there's another little brown stripe. I use that dark brown mixture in the number one brush on dry paper here as well. Just following what I see on the reference photo, I've got some fresh water and some fresh paint and now I'm going to mix the dark brown again. So that's the mixture of Ben Siena and French ultramarine with more of the Ben Siena. When I get the color, I won't, I'll add a touch of water to it. That's pretty close. I mentioned that this area here could be a bit darker. I was going to add some paint over the top here. I'm waiting with water in the number eight brush now, switching to the number one brush, use some of that darker brown. I want it to flow, so I'm adding a bit of water to it. Just here, dark in that area, I'm using the dark brown, but you could also use a dark gray here just to make sure it's dark enough. I drop a bit more pigment in there. Now I get my small eradicator brush wet with water. And I rub it gently over the dry paper just to try and make those little highlighted spots look like they belong softening those outer edges. All right, now I need to mix some gray again for the cast shadow beside the shell. For that, I use the French ultramarine mix with Ban Siena again, but this time it's got more of the French ultramarine in the mixture. I add some water to it because I don't want it to be too dark. And this is my number eight brush. Touch more water, I think. All right. On the dry paper now I run this color down beside the shell. It's working it down carefully. Making sure the brush is nice and wet because you don't want it to dry out. The paint shouldn't really drag, it should just flow off the brush. Keep reloading as you need more. Remember not to use a little tiny brush for this, then once you've got it where you want it, if you're quick you can get some violet and drop that in there. All right. One last thing to finish off this shell. I thought I'd add a few more dots on dry paper to the inside part of the shell. For that, I thought I'd use the Indian yellow mixed with burnt sienna, using the number one brush. Okay, dry paper. Just a few little marks here and there. I'll put this color in the light area and I might darken it to paint a few more in the shadow area. Now, I'll switch to the darker brown mixture that I'll paint in here where the shadow is just a few little spots here and there. I don't want to overdo it in some places. I just painted over the little marks that were already there, the little squiggly scribbly marks. In doing that, I thought I could probably deepen this shadow in here just a bit more. I've got the number eight brush and some water there. And then I used that darker brown color there as well. Just too deep in that shadow. I looked a bit pale. And I checked my edges and then I was finished. And there it is, cut off the board. In the next video, we'll start the final shell. 9. Seashell Three - Painting the Initial Washes: I think this shell is a little more difficult than the first two shells because there's a bit more detail around the opening of the shell that we need to paint. But that's okay because we will take our time and I'll walk you through it step by step. On the rim of this shell, I see a few highlight areas that I'd like to reserve with the masking fluid. I use my old liner brush to paint it on, and as I mentioned in Seashell tutorial one, to load the brush, all I do is dip it straight into the bottle and wipe it on the rim. It's running it down the pencil line there. I can see some little high lights along the edge. Down the bottom there, there is a larger high light on the shell, but I won't be putting masking fluid on that. Here you can see where I've applied the masking fluid. I need to let that dry now before I do anything else. Before I wet the paper, I'll get my paint ready. I'm looking for a color like this. I've given myself a fresh squared of paint on my palette. This is Indian yellow, and I'll mix some burnt sienna into that. Now I don't want it to be too dark at first, I mix some water into a section of it. Now I've got a thinner section just here with water mixed into it, and a thicker section here without the water mixed into it, without disturbing the masking fluid. I'll make sure these lines aren't too dark. I'll be working on the back section of the shell. I wet it with water. This is the number eight brush that I'm using. I'll work on the four segments at the back. First, I'll use the paint that has been thinned with water because I don't want the color to be too dark. This is the number eight brush that I'm using. I could paint this on dry paper, but because it's the middle of summer here and it's very hot, I prefer to wet the paper because it gives me more time to put the paint on. I have to also use the darker pigment on here to create the shadow. I don't want the paper to dry before I get that on. Okay. Now I use the thicker pigment. I might put a bit more but CNer into it though. And tiny bit of water because I want it to flow on the wet paper. I don't want it to sit in place. On this side of the shell, I can see a shadow. So that's where I paint this darker pigment. Okay. I'm going to let that dry before I do anything else. That section has dried now. I'll work on this middle section. I'm wetting it with water. I think my brush might have a tiny bit of paint still in it, so the water looks a bit yellow there. But that's all right. This is the number eight brush. This section, I'm going to be leaving the white of the paper showing in a few areas using the Indian yellow mixed with the Bent Siena. I'll start up the top here, following the shape of the shell. A bit more paint now and now I'm going to sweep some color over the shell like this. It might help you if you turn your board here and pull these strokes towards yourself for interest. And to cool it down slightly, I'm going to drop some of the gray mixture in there, just here. The paper is still wet. You can see it listening, that's just as I said, to add a bit of interest to that area and to cool it down so that it looks like it's further away. I'm getting some burnt sienna now for the other side. I want the paint to be a little bit thicker this time because I want it to stay in place. I don't want it to spread all over the paper. I'm going to run it along the base here where you see that darker stripe. I'm still using the number eight brush here, but now I'm going to switch to my number one brush, still using that thick pigment. And I can finish off the edges with this. Now I want to sweep it across the shell to paint those stripes. And also this edge, I'll reload my brush in the pigment. Now I'll paint in those other stripes that I can see. Try and follow the shape of the shell as you can see. Because the paint is thicker and creamier, it tends to hold its shape more so than the paint that's got the water mixed with it. I thought I might mix a darker color again, using the creamy pigment, French ultramarine burnt sienna. A dark chocolate brown color. I'll use the little zero brush so there's no water mixed into it. It's just the moisture that was on my brush there. I thought I'd deepen that bottom edge and you can see that the paper is still wet. I'll take a photo of my painting now. This is Seashell Three Progress photo one that you can download now. I'm going to mix some of the Windsor violet with Ben Sienna just to make sort of a marone brown color. That's Ben Sienna. This is Windsor violet. Windsor violets are very strong color. I think I've put a bit too much there. Back into the Ben Sienna. Little bit of water here. I'm using my eraser just to soften some of those pencil ines number eight brush now. And I wet that brown section of the shell over the top of the high light as well. Make sure the rest of the shell is dry. I pick up that color that I mixed and I paint onto the wet paper with it. I'll paint in that top edge. Sometimes when you get into a tight spot, it's better to wipe your brush on your towel. Just get rid of the excess paint here. I'll take it down the front edge, that's where the masking fluid is. You'll notice that I'm trying to avoid that high light that sits there. Let's get a bit more paint. And now I'm adding a bit more of the paint to my mixture because I want a darker color still using the violet and the bent sienna. But I'm adding more pigment to my mixture and a bit of water because I need it to flow as well. I will deepen the color here a little bit. Again, I was concerned that once this layer had dried, that it wouldn't be dark enough. I didn't want to have to come back and paint another layer of paint over the top. I thought maybe if I just darken this top section, that will be all I need to have to do. I'll wipe my brush on my tail to get rid of the excess pigment. And then I use the brush to spread it out so that it's not accumulating in one spot. Now I'll switch to my little number one brush. Some more of that color. I'll use it to paint the little strips of color through the high light. While I wait for that to dry, I thought I'd paint a little bit of color along the edge of these segments. Down below here, I've got water on my brush and I'm painting it onto that one segment there. Now, switching to the number one brush, I'm using some of that mixture there, but I'll add some water to it. I'll paint that along the pencil line and allow it to bleed over the wet paper. That gives me a little shadow along that ch, and it helps to separate the segments from one another. Just there the paper was a bit dry, so I picked up a bit of water to soften the painted. I'll skip a segment and I'll paint this little one here some water. Again, that's the number eight brush. Switching to the number one brush, then I paint that along the pencil line. This time I'm on the right hand side of the pencil line. On the segment above that I just painted, I was on the left hand side of the pencil line. Left hand side here, right hand side here. Leave that segment to dry. And when it is, you can paint in the bottom segment, I've just wet it with water. And I do the same thing here. I've got that same paint mixture, the number one brush, and I run it along the right hand side of the penciline. Here's a photo of my painting at this stage. This is a shell three progress photo two. In the next video, we'll finish the shell. 10. Seashell Three - Adding Details to Finish: This is where we finished in part one. In this video, we'll paint the opening of the shell and the lip, and we'll also add some finishing details. Before I paint the opening of the shell, I'm doing some repair work on mine. There was an edge down the bottom here that I wasn't happy with. I've just wet that area with water and I'll use some of the Indian yellow burnt sienna mixture there just to tidy up that edge. There's no need to do this. If you're happy with your edges. I'm going to mix some thicker paint. Now, for the lip or the outer edge of the shell, I've just squeezed some fresh burnt sienna onto my palette. You can see it on my brush, it's quite thick. There's a little bit of moisture in my brush, but not a lot. Instead of washing the brush out and adding more moisture to it, I wipe the brush on the towel and I pick up a small amount of the Windsor violet. I don't need a lot because it's a strong color. And then with the damp brush, I mix them together, that gives me that thick mixture of paint with hardly any moisture in it. Now, I've got two puddles of paint that are a similar color. This one over here has got the water mixed with it and it moves on the palette. This one over here is quite thick, it doesn't move on the palette. My paints ready now for the opening of the shell. I'll use my number eight brush to wet this area here. Just taking it up to that pencil line there and not all the way to the outer edge for keeping it within that inner section. You can see that dark area at the top. But I also need some color on this lighter area as well, and I need to keep that color quite pale. I will take some of this watery mixture here, pull it aside, and I might add a tiny bit more burnt sienna to it, so that it's not too violet. And also some water, because I want it to be pale. Now, I'm going to sweep my brush over that opening section there. Just a few strokes, the paint will bleed. Just let it do what it wants to do. Then I quickly wash the brush out, dry on the towel, and then I use it to spread the paint out where I want it. Now I have to paint in that dark section at the top, but I don't want the paint to move too far over the wet paper. So I need to wait just a little while until the sheen starts to go off the surface of the paper. I want the paper to still be wet, but I don't want it to be really wet like it is now. I've waited a few minutes and you can see that the paper has started to lose its shine. If you look at the shell on the left, the opening still has a slight sheen on the surface. But the shell on the right, it's still wet. But the sheen has flattened slightly. That's what you're looking for. You're looking for paper that's still damp, but it's not glossy like it is when it's really wet. It'll only take a few minutes to reach this stage. I use that pigment over here with the water mixed into it. I paint that onto the damp paper. Still using the number eight brush. Because the paper is damp, I'll get that fuzzy edge along the bottom of the shape where it meets the lighter color, which is what I want. I don't really want a hard line across there. If I had painted that on while the paper was still quite glossy, the paint would have spread too far and I would have lost that shape. It's curving it down a little bit there. Now, I'll get the really thick pigment over here. I'm going to paint the edge, the lip of the shell. You can see how thick that pigment is because it's skipping over the paper there. I will dip my brush in the water just a little bit and pick up a touch more paint. Hopefully, it won't skip over the paper quite so much. I'm holding the handle of the paint brush perpendicular to the paper, so it's almost straight up in the air So that I can access the tip or point of the brush. Now I'm going to take the paint out of my brush. I wash it out, give it a quick dab on the towel and I can finish off this edge here just with the slightly damp brush. And now I get a bit more of that paint. And I'll continue on down the bottom edge. If you find it's too sticky, dip your paint brush in your water and pick a little bit more paint up there. I'm painting over the masking fluid. I'll take a photo of my painting now before I go any further. This is the final progress photo. This is Seashell Three. Progress photo three that you can download. I'll add some burnt sienna to that mixture to make it a bit more brown looking. I'm still using the number eight brush. I'll paint in that front section, and this is on dry paper as well. To get into the nooks and crannies, you might find it easier to switch down to a smaller brush like I do. This is the size number one. This little section here. I'll paint some water on. First I'll use this mixture again. I'll get a bit of water on my brush, and then I'll spread that paint out now. Now I'll get a bit of that thicker, darker pigment just there. I'll deepen the color at the front. I'll paint two little lines as well. I quite like this blue gray here, but I feel that it needs to continue down the side of the shell. So I'm going to wet this section here with some water and paint some of the gray there as well. Using the number eight brush, I wet that section with water. I pick up some of the gray mixture. Remember that was a mixture of the French altramarine and burnt sienna, but it has more of the French Altra marine in it. In fact, I might put a touch more of the French ultramarine in it just to make it a bit more blue. Sitting on top of that orange, brown color, it doesn't look very gray. I'm going to give that some time to dry. Now, my painting has dried and I'm removing the masking fluid now with the eraser. I've got the little number five brush now, and I'm wetting that top section with some water. And I'll use the number one brush now. And some of that mixture there with the burnt sienna and Windsor violet. I run that along the front edge, allow it to bleed. Now some of the gray mixture up the top, the paper is still wet. I dip my brush in my water container quickly, and I spread it out a bit. And now some of that mixture here, I paint that little dark section that you see there, dabbing it onto the wet paper. Now some more of that color to make this edge that is left behind from the masking fluid look like it's part of the painting. I brush some of that color over here and there on the dry paper to break it up so that it doesn't look like it's standing out quite so much. There's something else I want to show you now. Sometimes you might put your paint on your paper a bit too dark, just there. I'm not extremely happy with how dark the color is. I feel that I could go a tiny bit lighter to fix that. I can use a wet brush to paint over the top of the dry paper. I have to use the brush gently so that I don't disturb the paint. Then I can grab a tissue or a piece of paper towel and gently dab at that darker area. I've got a tissue in my hand now and I'm dabbing at that dark section and you can see it takes a tiny bit of paint off and lines it slightly. The last thing to do is paint the cast shadow. I use the French ultramarine mixed with Ben Siena. Little bit more of the blue though, and I don't want it to be too dark. So I mix some mortar with it as well. Using the number eight brush, I paint the shadow down the side that's on dry paper. Make sure your paint is wet enough that it flows with your brush. Try not to fuss with it too much for interest. I get a bit of the Windsor Violet, not too dark. Mix some water with it. I drop that in there before it dries. You'll be happy to know that that's the third shell completed there. It is cut off my board. There's all three of them side by side. 11. Conclusion and Thank you.: I hope you found joy and learned valuable skills while painting the sea shells with me. I always encourage my students to embrace experimentation and perseverance in watercolor painting. While it may not be the easiest medium to master, it is incredibly rewarding and fun. I'm eagerly looking forward to seeing your beautiful shell painting. Don't forget to share them by uploading them to the project and resources page. Thank you for joining me on this artistic journey. I hope to see you in another one of my classes soon.