Luminescent™ Watercolors are the intriguing inspiration for this Shimmering Shells painting, which incorporates some of the interference, duochrome and iridescent colors.

I photographed the shells in sunlight, made a line drawing on tracing paper using a proportion grid, and transferred the line drawing to the watercolor paper using a light table. I made a small value sketch showing the light and dark areas as a painting guide. The illustrations shown for each stage are recreations, so each does not exactly match the previous stage.

Stage 1
I pre-wet the front and back surfaces of my watercolor paper which I then placed on a slick surface. I dropped in the paint as shown, starting in the center and taking care to leave the white areas unpainted. I used the fine spray bottle to keep the paper wet and shiny. Paint dropped into wet paper on which the shine has gone will give watermarks or worse will make a muddy mess! I blotted excess water from the edges and dried the paper before proceeding to the next stage.

Stage 2
I created negative space for the shells — that is, I painted around them. The key to success in negative painting is to paint one or two hard edges of an object, and then paint a large surrounding area over several objects without regard to their individual edges (as in the lower right hand side). On the whole, I laid in the same or analogous (related) colors over the original wash to ensure clean color. I let the first wash dry before bringing out more edges in subsequent washes.

Stage 3
I negative painted more shells. Note that as I make additional hard edges and get further into negative painting, the surrounding area to be covered is smaller, as in the darker area of the bottom right hand side. You can see how this works if you compare the areas painted in stages 2 and 3.

Step 5
I continued making hard edges and negatively bringing out increasingly smaller areas. And finally, I added details and laid in the sparkling gold, silver and copper opaque layers on the shells.

Palette 1
Cobalt Violet Deep
Interference Lilac
Duochrome Hibiscus

Palette 2
Quinacridone Magenta
Interference Silver

Palette 3
Quinacridone Gold
Iridescent Gold
Interference Gold

Palette 4
Phthalo Blue (GS)  – Use sparingly – it’s powerful!
Iridescent Russet  – I only mixed the blue with water. The Russet is dropped into the wet on wet application and will separate to create texture.

Palette 5
Opaque palette used in the final stage. Don’t mix these colors with water.
Interference Silver
Pearlescent Shimmer
Iridescent Gold