I have finished this watercolor painting with much struggle with the dark shadow areas. I painted the shadow areas between the sea shells with layers of watercolor in a wet in wet technique and found that it was to dark and contrasty comparing to the brightness of the shells. I wanted to change that to give a feeling of sand in the background. For that I tried to flick white gauche paint onto the dark background covering the shells. After I have done that, the contrast is gone but the painting does not have a three dimensional feeling to it. The background is now too light and competes with the sea shell. I then try to paint over the white gauche with watercolor and that resulted in a mess of grayish mud like color. I had the painting up for a few days trying to find ways to repair the mistake. Then I apply permanent black ink that I use for ink transfer technique to the very dark shadow areas and leave some areas a lighter tone. I found this works well for the painting and this is what I have done to the rest of the shadow areas.
Daily Watercolor painting – Sea Shell 15 x 22 inches ink and watercolor painting
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