Under the Sea

I've been thinking 'blue' lately and I recently participated in a watercolor challenge with some other artists.  I have never created anything with watercolor other than a background, so that challenge was way out of my comfort zone. However, I truly enjoyed the medium and kinda got hooked. 

This experience led me to watch a few YouTube videos of some very talented WC artists willing to share some techniques.

I began with a sketch of what comes to mind when I think summer (ocean ) and blue (again, ocean)... a blue crab. I also sketched a shrimp and thought I could incorporate these into my vision of a simplistic painting featuring the color "Blue."

I had a mat that I picked up a Michael's for $1.99 and thought it was perfect for this project. I drew the crustaceans to fit within the opening of this mat.

Once I was happy with the size, I painted them with water colors in shades of blue.

I was happy with the painting and wanted to see how it looked in a frame; keeping in mind that what I liked about it  was the simpicity.

Too plain.....

It needed something, but I wasn't sure what that was. After a few days of staring at it (very common when I paint), I decided to add sea grass in shades of turquiose and royal blues. I cut the grass and then spent hours moving the pieces around until I  felt it was as it needed to be.

Perfect! My first watercolor painting and I am proud of my acceptance that it is good.

I enjoyed this one... A LOT!

I want to thank Anna Ely for inspiring us to create in watercolor for the original challenge. If she hadn't presented us with such an awesome example, I might not have tried to dabble in this medium for any thing more than background color.