Shell Trios

Shell Three

This was the first shell to incorporate ink. I was super excited to start to do this and experiment with the inks. I just decided the safest bet for inks would be inks I could easily mix. I had lots of fun doing this one.

         So this view was from the back/side, so that the ride showed on the shell. I had the spiral end facing the viewer once again, but I tried to make sure to capture the little imperfections of the shell and exaggerate them. I had trouble varying my line weights in this one, and I always struggled with the perspective of the pointed end. The point always appears to be a bit horizontal and pointed downward, but the receding diagonal would be stronger more towards the viewer. I fudged the perspective only a tiny bit to include this a little bit more and show the other side of the shell. I love the end of the shell and how it ungulates smoothly to the end with little curves.

         The ink, I had fun with too. I wetted the entire paper and started very lightly on the shell, making sure to keep the highlights white. I used an orange/pink salmon color with brown and black. I used the black only sparingly on the shell, and more around the shell to bring out the light colors. I tried to use brown in the shadows on the shell, mixing it with the pink. I dabbed it, wiped it off, let it drip a little, went slow and went fast to achieve different lines, and the result was a bit illustrative. I really liked the texture created, although I feel I could have been more realistic with it. The pinks in the contours should have been scaled back a bit, on the plane where the shell rests on the bottom could have been a little bit darker.

         I again, wished I caught the proportions and diagonal better.