Shackleford Shell No. 2, Grey Whelk

 Finished Product!! This is another painting of a shell (Whelk) from Shackleford Banks - Beaufort NC. This one was posed in my shadow box sitting on a satin like fabric. It is my understanding that these type of whelk shells are only found in south eastern US. This beauty was found by my grandson which he has lent me to paint. I love painting the curvy lines and knobby details. Thanks for taking a look!

Using my regular method,  I first sketched in the shell and fabric folds   and then painted in the dark and light values creating a grisaille .  This time I did not create as strong  an under-painting and it seemed to work out better. Grisaille colors used:  burnt umber, yellow ochre and quinacridone burnt orange. 

Here I darkened areas up just a little bit more and lightened areas up using  Titanium White.

A bit of color was added in to this stage.  I was trying to define a little more the light goldy like yellow (here the under-painting helped with this) colors to the folds of fabric in the top and more bluish highlights on the bottom of the painting.  Colors mostly used: Anthraquinone blue, dioxazine purple, paynes gray, yellow ochre, burnt umber, naples yellow, quincridone red, cadmium orange titanium buff and titanium white (Ihope I remembered them all).

The last stage in which I tightened up and defined the strong lines in the shells and as always darkened up the darks and lightened up the lights for a bit more contrast.

If interested in puchasing this painting or other paintings here is the  link   http://www.dailypaintworks.com/artists/belinda-scheber-5923/artwork