I went fishing today, at the beach. I always enjoy the drive over to Santa Cruz, although I didn’t enjoy the prospect of fishing in the misty rain that was falling as we left. I had planned to wear my shorts and wade into the surf anyway, but I was only willing to get that half of my body wet. My cousin had waders, so he wasn’t going to get wet no matter what happened.

It turned out to be a lovely day, aside from the fact that we didn’t catch any fish. All we saw of aquatic life were the little sand crabs we netted, birds and one sea otter.

Today’s experiment

Since there was a lot of down time, waiting for the fish that never bit. I found myself looking at some of the beach detritus. I picked up some of the more interesting shells a crab leg and a smooth rock.

Fishing Trip to the Beach
9″x12″ 140# Hot Pressed Watercolor Block

The colors were bland for the most part and the textures were mostly the same – sandy. The shapes were what interested me. I also thought that I would continue to work on the shadows, particularly those of the paper-towel background.

Analysis

The large crab shell seems suspended in air, which is an accurate depiction of how I placed it. My interest in showing it in its flat orientation was to display the markings. I used latex resist to sketch out the symmetrical whitish patterns. However, the patterns were actually a light beige color. In the watercolor study, I left them white. This doesn’t work, as white is also the color of the background. (Must fill in white markings with a beige color).

I experimented also with glazing. I tried Payne’s Gray to glaze the oyster shell, which seemed to help distinguish it from the background. I glazed the other shell with lemon yellow, which didn’t seem to work that well. Granted, it also helped bring it forward from the background, but I don’t care for the color.

The stone and the crab leg were straightforward. They each had very defined outlines and color changes, not the subtle sandy, muted colors of the other objects.

As far as the background shading goes, it still needs some work. Better placement of the large crab shell would make the scene a more natural composition, than the current arrangement. Alternatively, tweaking the background somehow, to make more sense, could accomplish the same goal.

Another thought would be to make this a mixed media sketch and ink in outlines and perhaps some shading.