As I have mentioned before, I frequently work on several watercolors at a time. Things need time to dry or time to ponder.

I paint using Arches 300# watercolor paper well strapped to a drafting board such as this. These board a VERY expensive for what they are but then again, they last forever. Over the decades, I have collected 4 of them so theoretically, I can work on 4 paintings at a time. I provide the link above to show the product but they are usually cheaper on Blick.com. Shipping charges by Blick might tilt the advantage to Amazon in some cases.

I mention this as I might start a painting then peck at it for months but finish another painting in the mean time so the “proper sequence” of finished paintings can be hard to decide. I think I started this one after the last one I blogged but finished it first.

Life is like that.

Again, I wanted to play with sea foam – I might get it right some day – and follow the theme of a shell on the beach. I don’t know why, I just like doing that. It’s a good excuse to play with all the colors that I love.

My foam reference photos were these-

And I chose a generic mussel shell simply for the colors! Who can resist those blues?

Again, I strapped the paper to the drafting board to keep it flat and started doodling with Fineline Masking Fluid. This looks tedious but it’s fun. Sometimes I put music on or have the TV going in the background – something I don’t have to watch but can listen to like a music documentary.

I usually rough out the general composition in pencil but the shapes of the sea foam are pretty much made up as I go along. I just want a balance of large clumps to open space to solid lines of foam.

At this point, I totally hate this but… keep going.

I still have a bit of a hard time imaging how any masked area will look after the mask is removed. The pale green of the masking fluid also makes it hard to visualize the end result – or maybe it is just my brain.

Better maybe. I filled in a few areas with masking fluid – no progress photos! – and after it all dried, I went in to do a background wash with Burgundy Yellow Ochre, Goethite and Davy’s Gray for the sand and Terre Verte, Cerulean and Amethyst for the water. The shadow under the sea foam edge is Goethite, Amethyst and Neutral Tint. I do the wash by getting the paper very wet then wetting it again so that I can take some time and “puddle” the pigments – mixing them on the paper instead of on the palette. I can look and see what I like and what I don’t, making changes or adding pigments, without the areas drying.

At the end, I scattered some Morton’s table salt over the sand for a little texture. One of the few non-Daniel Smith pigments that I use is Grumbacher Academy Davy’s Gray. It is a bit green but more of a non-color that just adds a “dirt” or grittiness to a painting especially when granulated with a little salt.

I actually don’t like that salt bloom on the lower left so went over this again with more Burgundy Yellow Ochre. That smoothed it out enough. Using Indigo, Indanthrone Blue and Cobalt, I started coloring the shell.

I had a freshman art student tell me once rather disdainfully that one really only needed two blue pigments; one warm and one cool. OK, fine, but where’s the fun in that? I revel in the soft roundness of Cobalt, the sweet fullness of Indanthrone and the assertiveness of Indigo. I might’ve even thrown in some Phthalo blue red shade because, why not? These are my playthings!

Here it is with the masking removed.

I went over the masked sea foam with a brush wet with clean water to soften the edges of the foam then started in with Cerulean and Amethyst to start the shadows and give it some dimension. Again, I am just making this up as I go along. I added the shadow on the right of the shell to anchor it a little and finished the rocks/pebbles around it.

Watercolor painting of sea foam on the beach

To finish it off, I sprayed the foam with a water bottle thinking that might soften it more, went over the “background foam” with Terre Verte and Cerulean with make it recede and then added a little Iridescent Copper to the shell.

It’s not perfect. It seems too separate from the background. If I were to do it again, I think I would like some foam over the top of the shell. I am working on my tendency to avoid overlap – like not letting my peas and potatoes touch on the dinner plate – and get things to mingle and smush together more.

But this is a start.