How to Paint a Simple Seashell // Beginner Watercolor Tutorial Video Lecture

hi there Lindsay here the frugal crafter
today we're gonna do some watercolor
painting this is a little painting I did
this weekend of some shells and bought a
bag of shells at the Dollar General I'd
never been in there before and it hadn't
but you neat little things but I bought
a bag of shells and I thought they would
make really fun watercolor images and
watercolor is examples thanks to paint I
guess and I painted this series of five
here um and this took a while took
probably what 45 minutes so if anybody
would like a tutorial on this let me
know in the comments below but I thought
today I would just do one shell a
different shell so that if you guys do
want this then I won't teach you the
same thing twice
um and I just I just think it's
important to paint things that you have
physically in front of you because then
you can actually lift it up and look at
the details really closely and it just
really helps so for right now I am going
to paint I think I'm going to do this
shell here cuz I just think it has some
cool dimension and I'll just move those
out of the way and I'm just going to set
it right there I'll be seeing it from
slightly a different angle in New York
so I'll be seeing it from the side and
we're gonna sketch together um we're
gonna start with kind of the bulbous
shape they're the biggest section of the
shell is kind of an oval like shape and
then it kind of goes down to like a
little bit of a teardrop at the end okay
and then we got another will get another
bump comes up like this I think I want
this bottom part over a little bit more
I'm not gonna worry about like sketchy
lines I think it's kind of charming
sometimes on a watercolor
and then we've got this one piece up
there just like that
I might end up putting something else in
there because it doesn't really fill up
the paper but um Orcutt just maybe
extend extend it out a little bit I'm
after you're a little racing anyway so
I'm just gonna fatten it up so I'm gonna
start with fattening up the biggest part
of it and then in a fatten up this part
and then we'll put this little and back
on there there okay so just very gently
with a white eraser and you can even
pick these up at the dollar stores
they're pretty inexpensive um like you
can get like 6 of $1 so I think this one
probably cost like 89 cents at the art
store but the white plastic ones just
don't damn
your paper they're very gentle I don't
like to do a ton of erasing on
watercolor paper by Tom but that's fine
we're going to start with the unifying
wash so for this I want it to kind of be
like a okra color so that's what we're
going to do and I'm using my mission
gold perfect pan paints because I took
them with me on a on a trip with a with
the 8th grade seventh grade class and I
just really enjoyed having them so I'm
taking a little burnt umber little
yellow ochre so I make kind of like a
topi color in lots of water with that
and I'm going to give it a wash now
since this is really watery it's
probably going to dry quite a bit
lighter and I will be blotting for some
highlights too and I didn't wet the
paper first because I knew I was using a
pretty juicy brush and an really juicy
paint so it's just going to make it so
doesn't take quite so long to dry
okay and then with makeover towel I am
going to lift up here just kind of give
it a little bit of highlight and
roundness and then I think I want to
make a little bit of a shadow color I'm
going to do some ultramarine and some
burnt umber and it's because of burnt
sienna in this in this set has a gold
like a has has a goldish undertone and
it doesn't it doesn't give me gives me
more greens and I try to mix the brown
with that so that's that's one thing I
don't like about this set but the burnt
number is really good it acts like a
burnt sienna for my mixing and I'm just
going to give a little bit on the
backside where it is a little bit more
shady and get a little bit more right up
there and I'm noticing I'm getting a
little bit of backwash there I think
it's because I'm working on the
Strathmore greeting card and those tend
to be a little more sighs but I'm just
gonna go over it with a oops I just
lifted it up and made it worse that's
alright I should what I should have done
is um and we fix us all show you how to
fix it what I should have done was what
was I put the shadow in before I had
blotted because I changed the I changed
how wet the entire area was so when you
have a wet area and a dry area
contacting with each other you end up
with you end up with the chance for
blooms especially on a paper that is
that it's heavily sized like the
Strathmore wood pulp greeting cards
doesn't happen so much on cotton cuz
cotton will absorb your water and keep
it a little bit more a little bit more
even okay so I just mixed up a little
bit more of that shadow color and I'm
putting that in and it's not a shiny
shell so I don't care if I get a little
texture on it I think that will actually
look kind of nice and now I'll go back
in and lift
give it that roundness there we go
okay now we're let this dry and then
we're gonna do our shadow on the table
while that was drying I mixed up more
ultramarine blue and burnt umber and got
this nice dark color here it might make
it a little bit more blue because then
it will look a little more shadowy so
this two ways you can do it you can
either wet the area you want the shadow
to be in or you can paint it with the
paint and then use a damp clean brush to
drag it out which I think that's what
we're going to do I'm going to start
right up close to the shell with my
darkest paint because it's always
darkest where it touches the object that
is casting the shadow now as this top
part of the shell kind of pulls away
from the surface from the table you've
got more space and you also get a little
bit of a lighter look so I'm just
fattening this up here over by the belly
of the shell trying to keep that whole
area wet until I'm ready to pull out a
shout out to pull out the software area
now I'm cleaning my brush just kind of
pinching off the excess and I am going
along the edge and softening that if you
do get you shouldn't get any any back
washing because um you squeeze the
excess water out of your brush but if
you do you can just go wipe your brush
off really good going in and you can
soak up any puddles if you need to add
more paint you can do that too
but trying to fuss with it I think
shadows look best when you haven't
fussed with them now for the spots on
the on the shell itself I'm going to use
some burnt umber on its own I'm gonna
have some yellow ochre handy
I think I'll first do the spots with
like the mostly yellow ochre with just a
little bit of burnt sienna because I
kind of have like this golden rim and
I'm going to start they kind of come in
like a they kind of go the up atom they
kind of work around in like a row
so I'm just gonna do all these she all
these spots lighter first go up here and
this helps give you that round look too
it helps keep that like roundish shell
shape and just try to get those the
interesting interesting unique patterns
I switch brushes I like this brush
better this is the mimic squirrel it's
my favorite faux fur brush i like it
because i don't i feel like it just is
very responsive it's almost just like an
extension of my of my hand
so this you've got almost like a couple
little rows you've got some really short
ones and you've got the longer ones and
then it's not much up here just a little
bit and i'm just and say this is the
thing about having it right there in
front of you can pick it up and you can
look at it and you can see what you
really have and if you're like oh boy i
must have turned it i can't really see
what's going over there I could see this
some more spots over there now the thing
I notice is that the spots are darker on
the bottom and they get lighter as they
go up so maybe that has something to do
with the age of the shell I'm not sure
but but it's that those are the things
you notice when you are observing it
from life I'm gonna let this dry and
then we're gonna go on with darker spots
okay that's dry so we're going in with
the darker spots I'm using just the
burnt umber on its own if I do need to
go in darker I can always do that by
adding some adding a little bit of
ultramarine blue into that but I think
I'd rather just keep it kind of here to
begin and then see what I need as I go
and you can use whatever water color you
have you don't have to use the same
brand if you have this brand and you
have the bulletproof glass palette I
will let you know that just use it a few
times I know some people sanded there's
two to try to get it to the paint not to
beat up but I found just using it a
couple times was all I needed then it
just started to behave so I really
wouldn't sand it just because I'm afraid
that you might get these little
scratches that will stain if you do that
so I'm not as particulars is a lot
people with their plastic pallets I like
them because they're lightweight and
easy to use and easy to clean and big
and lightweight but some people are very
particular and I just wanted to let you
know that and not so much up here in
fact I'm gonna add a little bit of what
more water to that to do these ones up
here because and get in that little bit
yellow ocher a little bit because these
should be a little bit lighter up in
this portion and there that's drying
really quick look I might want a little
something over there and then like the
more you can observe it's really helpful
because then you can see like if you
have that you can really look at it and
make sure you're getting everything you
need into your picture you can it's
really a lot easier to get something a
lot of detail and you can actually look
at the thing that you're painting like
physically pick it up and look at it and
for a Bock I mean hey I you do have to
be careful though cuz there were a lot
of bags had broken shells and all the
cashier was not very gentle and she kind
of slammed the the bag down and broke
like she broke this beautiful when I was
so sad that this one got broke but then
it was kind of interesting with the with
the being able to see into the inside
and then when I painted it here I really
kind of like that but still I'd rather
have not had a broken so you know kind
of keep that in mind if you're buying
shells at a craft store at a dollar
store whatever okay so the next thing
I'm going to do I think maybe I will
take a little bit altra marine blue and
the burnt umber and see if I want to
just do some slightly darker spots just
to give that added extra bit of depth it
dried so quick I didn't have to stop and
let it dry or heat it or anything so I'm
not only doing it like to these ones
down here I'm not I don't want to add it
everywhere because I think that kind of
defeats the realism of it and now we can
go in with some more shadows I feel like
I need a little shadow where this big
area is kind of on top of the little
area and I'm going to take some of that
mixed gray which is the burnt umber and
the ultramarine blue and I'm just
picking up some of that yellow ochre
color there I have to be careful on a
blot off any excess moisture for my
brush because I don't want to smear
any of the paint underneath and I
haven't you know gone back and he said
it but I do want to add a little bit
more shadow I'm just gonna try since
this is a really soft brush hopefully I
can glaze said I really your thought was
time to draw I'm just hoping I can sneak
a glaze in there which is working all
right I think I will well dry there's to
the shell though just to be safe okay
you know feeling like I want more of a
bluish gray shadow over there so I'm
just gonna go over here where I have way
more blueish gray in the mix and I'm
going to grab that and kind of go along
here and since we're using for the shot
of the same colored wheat colors we have
been using on it really shouldn't be a
problem if it does lift up a little bit
here and there because it's colors we've
already used and I'm trying to avoid
adding too much in the middle here
because I want that to stay brighter and
make it feel make the shadow feel the
shell feel a little bit rounder but
again on this paper it does want to lift
the other example I did was on of the
other shells was on Fabriano 1% cotton
cold press and that you know just
doesn't want to lift on me so much
because the the paper is cotton and it's
not going to it just it just behaves a
little bit better I guess and I do want
to just enhance that shadow a little bit
there may divide it up there a little
bit and um that's pretty much yet I feel
like I might want to do a little bit
more with the shadow on the table just
because it's a little rough at least
maybe add a little bit more up close to
the shell and I'm going to put turn it
so it's more comfortable the way I'm
looking at it and I'm just giving it a
crisper line
I'm gonna lift up that puddle there we
go and then you do actually see a little
bit of like a ghost shadow and I'm
thinking I might want to put that in
there I'm just not sure I'm gonna try
I'm just gonna see if I can get that
little ghost of a shadow in there I'm
blood blotting my brush so I didn't end
up with too much water and then you do
get a little bit of a ghost out here so
I'm just very gently putting that in
super super light super super light
paint all right and there you have it I
hope you enjoyed this tutorial very
quick and easy like I said if you want
to see this one let me know in the
comments below it'll either be a long
tutorial that'll be about 45 minutes
long or it will be a speedpaint so let
me know your preference on that as well
I know some of you guys like some and
some like the other so just let me know
in the comments below and now I have a
brand new greeting card to stick in my
shop to sell for $7 that's what I do
with these greeting cards isn't that
silly and I just put I just put my
initials and the date and that's how I
finish it off I don't thank you so much
for watching please give me a thumbs up
if you enjoyed this video until next
time happy crafting