Seashells come in all shapes, sizes, colours and textures. I've found just a few of them to challenge you to paint a still life in watercolours.
You can choose any of the free-to-use photographs from Mustcreates album of seashells (link below), or one of the photographs I found on Webshots as reference. It's up to you whether you choose to focus on one shell or paint a whole collection - use your imagination!!!
What are you waiting for???? Get painting!!!!!
Thanks Barb :D This should be an interesting project ;) Just think of it as an opportunity to expand your skills!!!!!!
1. Are watercolor pencils, Neocolor II watersoluble crayons, etc. allowed? Or is it just pan or tube watercolors?
2. It says we should choose from the photo references....but is it okay if we paint our own shells from life instead? Sometimes I have no choice but to work from a photo, so when I have the choice I prefer to work from life.
Jamie the watercolour pencils etc. are fine :) Shells from life yes, I just found what I could in the reference, please post the reference image along with the painting though if you can ;) !
Great!!!!!! Total of 5 signed up so far.
Jamie I edited the description in the project information to include paintings from life. I know you have a digital camera so it would be lovely if you could photograph your set-up too - might give us some pointers in how to arrange our own still-life.
Thanks for starting the project, Ruth.
I'm going over to the project forum to sign up later but may not be able to paint one just yet.... definitely not January as Chinese New Year is coming soon (1 Feb)... will probably do it in mid-Feb.
There used to be lots of seashell glued as decor in the bathroom when I moved into my flat in July but I removed all and threw them away.
Sounds like it will be fun. I'll head over to the Projects forum to sign up as soon as I'm done browsing here in Watercolors.
"Uh-h-h, oh, good, Mom, another Mushroom picture, how nice."
Count me in. I'll sign up as soon as I am done browsing. Maybe it will be the kick start that I need. Haven't picked up a brush since November, except for some touch-ups on some Christmas presents.
Thank you, Ruth. I will try to do the project, but I'm not going to sign up until I'm actually ready to do it. I'm running three projects right now, am signed up for two additional ones, promised myself I'd do 10-12 oil portraits before the end of January (have only finished one...lol...), and am doing a sketching project with a friend too---but hoping I can combine that one with your project by using the Neocolors or watercolor CPs! I will take a pic of a setup to post asap....Can't guarantee I won't move it around though once I start to put pencil to paper!
Such lovely photos. I've signed up!!!
Becky, Marvin and Carol, great to have you on board too!!!!
I'm fairly new to watercolours (6 months or so, with little time for practice) and very new to this website (2 days), but I'll give it a go. Must head down to the beach and look for some nice shells. Meanwhile I'll get started with those photos.
BTW presumably it's just seashells allowed, not snail shells, eggshells, or any other sort of shells?
Hmmm I never thought about snail shells!!!! I'm not against them, they're all molluscs after all!!!!! Why not surprise us?
Gorgeous so far Em; lovely colours and light!
I've posted the next progress image. It's going along faster than I anticipated!!
I'm finished, but it's drying and taking forever as usual! I'm not so sure about my result, but you will all be able to see it soon.
Em it looks like you're having FUN! :D Looking great!!!!
Nice work for 2.5 hours Sarah!! I am enjoying the colours and I especially like your background and how the paint settled.
This is really great I love the shiny parts you've painted!
I like the looseness of the foreground, and the blue works surprisingly well!
Maybe the form of the brown shell would be more convincing if you continued the shadow in the spiral across it.
Em I can't believe you aren't sure about this!!!! It's beautiful! The greeny blue background is fantastic against the warm shell colours. I really can't wait to see your finished painting!!!
Those colours are really beautiful and vibrant, and the composition seems to spiral round following that shell in the middle and lead the eye into the big conical shell which is the piece de resistance.
Incidentally, that conical shell looks like the same one I used for my initial attempt at this project. I've put up my first quick sketch and I'm hoping to get a more finished painting out of it soon, but I fear it's not even going to begin to approach this one.
Thanks. It didn't go quite as I had planned, as I was a bit too impatient and started painting over it while the underlying washes were still too wet. Still, it is only a sketch after all.
It occurred to me while I was painting it that it might be quite useful to record the colours I'd used. I usually try and follow the advice I've seen in several books on painting, which is to limit the palette as much as possible. In this case I used Yellow Ochre, Prussian Blue and Alizarin Crimson (I think), all Cotman colours. These are probably the most used pans in my paintbox at the moment.
This is coming along really nicely Ruth!! good form happening there.
I really like the abstract quality of this Magnus!! soft pleasing colours too!!
Em, this is brilliant work: your colours have remained fresh and bright and the light is great. Can't wait to see the end result.
lovely!! great sharp shadows on the sand.....VERY sunlit!!
I like the highlights being quite sharp! Don't soften 'em too much or (as I nearly did) you might lose them!
thanks Magnus. I try not to overthink composition and do most of my composing behind the camera lens.
I wish I had my camera, I'd love to be able to show it as it really is instead of half showing and half not! The shell in the middle (aaaaargh what are they called again???) doesn't show at all on the scan, I painted a base coat of UB and perm. rose on it, then I'll probably mask the surrounding area and wet that one shell before spattering for the speckles.
This must have taken alot of planning to get the colours in the right places! Very nice indeed.
what an unusual approach!! I love the colour choices and the swirls!!
this is beautiful Ruth!!! It looks done to me....there's the full value scale....gorgeous variety of colours and nice details. very pretty!!
Nice loose rendition of the sea shells. Might add a little of the blue from the shells into the background colors too.
Love this abstract rendition of the single sea shell. The blocks and changes of color in the pattern works very well. Nice one.
Lovely, soft colors and delicate rendition of the shells. The sand texture works well too.
Well done Magnus!!! The shell itself is beautiful, lovely textures and highlights.
Maybe it needs a darker shadow underneath it to ground it?
Thanks for the comments Ruth.
I agree that the first picture (the straight one) could do with a bit more shadow to define it underneath, and the second one (the stippled one) could probably be developed quite a bit further.
since I now have digital photos of these two I should probably develop them a bit further yet.
I think the stippling technique probably works best on a fairly large scale. That picture is done on about A5, so there isn't much space for all the dots of paint. I may see about judiciously applying some black to define it a bit better.
I may see about judiciously applying some black to define it a bit better.
ooo very lovely. You are inspiring me to pull out my watercolors. Nice work!
This is really nice...so warm I can feel the sun on the beach here. Very very nice.
Very nice abstract. Well thought out and initiated with thought. I like it!
I love the variations of just one color you have here. This is very nice composition as well.
This one tells a story! I see the shell turning into the sand here. Very nice. I like it.
I love your contrast here. You really got the sun shining on these shells. Good job!
Lovely painting Irene, I especially like the spotty shell on the right! Well done.
Yummy Barb! I love colours and you got great form on those spiral shells! Some darker blues under the shells might help them really pop?
Following Ruth's suggestions about my previous final attempts ;) at paintings for this project, I have done a bit more work to both pictures. The new ones, which are just a little darker and (I think) quite a bit better, are now up as my final entries. The old ones have been moved into my progress entries, so they are still there for comparisons.
I've also started painting a version of the same picture in acrylics, but since this is a watercolour project I won't be submitting the results.
Thanks, Ruth, both for the original suggestions and the kind comments.
I think that I've now reached the point with both of these pictures that further work on them is more likely to do harm than good.
This is my first entry into the shell project. I found the texture hard to achieve, but I had fun painting it. All comments and critiques welcome.
Sorry the picture is a little funny... I'll have to work on my uploading techniques.
Anyways one of the nice details that isn't visible is the iridescent medium I used in the under painting. I thought that part turned out nice.
It was worth the hard work on the texture - it really looks quite three dimensional. Lovely, muted, coherent colour scheme too. It's a pity the iridescent medium doesn't show up very well on the scan, though I think I can make out a bit of a pearly sheen in places, particularly towards the bottom of the rightmost section of the shell.
Very nice mix of shell shapes and colors. It looks like a beach after a storm has passed and piled up the shells on the shore. Very nice.
I wonder how it would look with a few REAL DARKS popped in certain places??????
Your ink work is super JoAnn! Some nice colours in the shells, I wonder whether a little yellow or pink would make it more lively?
Trying to follow Rod's request with this progress painting of my seashell. He said we could add a message when we load an image into the project threads.
I think this is a conch shell, but I'm not sure, I was just taken by all the graceful curves and bumps and delicate color changes. I found the image on the Internet.
Finished this entry for the Shells project this morning. Started out with a standard beige background to look like sand. (See it in the Progress folder.) Didn't do much for me so decided to try a black sand background. Didn't work out, but now the shell stands out against the dark quite well. Cropped it to about 7.5" x 9" in size.
I'm not very happy with it but will let it be a lesson learned. Please let me know what you think--good or bad, it all helps me learn. Thanks.
This is really striking. I love the way the shell seems to glow against the underwater background. Very nice painting.
Thanks for the nice comments. I didn't realize the progress pic would show too. You can see the before and after here.
I finally have had a chance to work on the Shells Project, and this is my progress image, on Strathmore 500 hot press, about 6 x9. I am not very experienced with watercolor, and my greatest difficulty is in getting the darks darks enough! Comments and suggestions welcome.
Jeri I can't believe you haven't been painting with watercolour for years!
Wow! I just checked out this project ... gorgeous work everybody!!! The paintings are beautiful!
Yikes! I'm scared to even attempt seashells!
Penny, I am so sorry I didn't see your entry sooner!
Beautiful painting, watercolours I assume? I really like the forms and the highlights. Thank you for joining the project!
I must apologise to you, too, Amee.
A very interesting approach, what medium did you use?
I like both and think it works!
Love the background and detail of the shells. Hey can I use this pict as a background for my computer?
Love the way you captured the look of the different shells!
Can I use this as a wallpaper for my computer?