Sea shell painting using multilayer watercolors technique. Step-by-step demonstration.

This is a demonstration of a sea shell painting using multilayer watercolors technique. We will apply several transparent layers to achieve the desirable result.

I painted this sea shell from life. First I made a detailed sketch. I recommend a hard pencil for sketching.

 I would like to clarify a few points about multilayer watercolor technique. 

• Each layer is applied using a very transparent paint. 
• Previous layer must be dry. 
• The brush should be wet enough, but water should not drop from it. Watercolor in should not be freely distributed on a paper. 
• I remove edges of color spots with a clean damp, but not wet brush.

I applied the first very transparent grey layer (Payne grey), avoiding only the lightest areas of the shell (highlights). This layer is not very visible, but I need it to get rid of white paper. As you know, shells are not exactly white.

Then I applied a layer using yellow ocher only in the places, where the shell has ocher tint. Lightness of this layer should be corresponding to the lightest ocher areas of the shell.

Again I applied a grey layer but only in shaded areas.

Then I added some texture. I made thin strokes following the form using mixture of yellow ocher and burned sienna.

For the next layer I used the same mixture of yellow ocher and burned sienna in the places, where the shell had a deeper brown shade.

I made shadows deeper, where necessary.

Here I added more texture using the thin brush.

The painting is almost complete. I just needed to add the shadow under the shell and the background.

That is it! The shell painting is ready!