This drawing was on rough Arches paper, which on reflection probably wasn’t such a wise choice! It was pretty brutal on my pens, and although it might’ve gone well with the texture of the shell subject I don’t think I’d pick rough again! There were no watercolour washes on this to begin with. Once it was drawn I scanned it and then added a blue background on procreate. The physical drawing was sitting on my easel for quite a while, sending me those quiet little reminders that it wanted more attention, so out came the watercolours. Something bright for a change! The background was actually a lot of fun to do, even the bleach washes didn’t seem to bother the paper, it only dulled some of the ink work slightly.

Here it is in stages.

Here’s where I decided to add watercolour background…

Here it is finished 👇