Nautilus with Marble (10 x 13 watercolor) $175

Same nautilus, new angle, new colors–after several attempts to paint the nautilus in it’s true colors, I think I understand why I keep changing them.  The shell’s shadows are warmer colors than it’s highlights.  Most real world objects have cooler shadows and warmer highlights.  But the standards of the shell have warm local color while the base of the shell has cooler local color. Painting apricot shadows with cool blue and green highlights simply goes against the grain.

This time I ignored the natural color of the shell entirely and simply painted the colors I felt like painting focusing entirely on value.  I painted the marble to echo the center of the shell.

I reserved the highlights with mask. The palette is phthalo blue, dioxazine purple, new gamgee, a little quinacridone magenta, and burnt sienna to dull the blues and greens.  The background is a wash of burnt sienna which I chose to contrast with the cooler shell. I mixed the colors in multiple transparent washes.  I dropped some of the softer shadows wet into wet paint.

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