Beautiful Oops.

To the Sun. 

India ink, 2H pencil, watercolor, oil pastels, and colored pencils. 

9"x6"

The main idea that guided this artwork was, of course, the shape of the ink drop. But I also think that my mind was already on the topic of turtles, so I was easily inspired. I had just been looking at pictures from my GoPro from a snorkeling trip on vacation. I was always the last one to get out of the water, slowly tracing turtles as they calmly swam around. I got many good photos, too! So, when I saw this ink drop, my mind was already seeing turtles in everything. 

 I noticed the curve inward (where the fin is now) and thought it had potential for some sort of limb. I slowly began picking out other spots where limbs would go and eventually recognized a turtle-like form and shell. I thought of a turtle swimming through a kelp forest, the water slowly getting lighter as it emerged from the depths. With this piece, I really wanted to portray the tranquility underwater.

The materials I used were a 2H pencil, watercolors, colored pencils, and the tiniest bit of oil pastels. All of these were used on the paper provided. 

Before I began sketching, I did some research on kelp forests. I wanted to see exactly how each string of kelp fell in the water. I discovered how some lean in the current, others in the distance, and some perfectly straight. Mostly, I found that these forests are layered and thick. Then I used a 2H pencil in order to make a light sketch that could be covered by watercolors. Once sketched thoroughly, I began painting opaque lines for each kelp string and basically sketched them using watercolor. Then, I went back through and darkened each one; the final paint. Finally, I mixed blues and greens to create a perfect hue for the water. I again did this very opaque and then went through, darkening the bottom and shading the kelp to give that depth-of-ocean look. I used watercolors because they blend so well, it represents how water looks the best. I also felt as if I could blur the lines of the kelp better in order to create an in-the-distance look. Then, I used watercolor to paint the turtle head and fins. This took some mixing of colors (not in the pallet!!) in order to create the shade I wanted. After that, I used various shades of green colored pencil to enhance some of the kelp leaves. At this stage, I used a black and green colored pencil to make the turtle shell and features. Lastly, I used white oil pastels and colored pencils to bring some light into the top right corner of the painting. I chose to have the light in the top corner because I think it makes the most sense when you think about the real ocean. The sun shines through and in many photos of the kelp forests, it is very dark in the forest, and on top the sun shines through. I thought oil pastels would make this light perfectly.