Conch-queored

I have a need. It has been there for as long as I can remember. A need to create and make something...a do-it-yourself kinda need.

Well, we just moved and have settled in and I was looking at the bare wall in front of me one night and I wanted to "fill" it up with something....something discreet, yet tasteful. Beachy, yet not tacky- you know?



I checked the mail and found a magazine with a $400 print inside of a conch shell. It was pretty, and tasteful, discreet and not tacky. This was it! Yet, $400 bucks- you have to be kidding me.




At Michael's (craft store, not my husbands house) I got the cheap little acrylic paints and some fancy brushes ($2.99) and my powder brush (yes, for makeup), and off I went into a new tangent.







I will paint that shell.


Not without help of course...from this little cutie.










First, I drew it on with pencil. (I had to darken the picture so you could see the sketch lines).












Then, I started shadowing. Personally, I find the first stages of paintings the hardest.

And I start to think...can I really pull this off? My confidence is taking a huge dive here.

But after days and hours and hours of stroking...and good little children napping....

and stroking some more...


and some more.....

just to get it right (right meaning, better than the last stroke).....

a few more.....

This is what I came up with. I am my own worst critic and at some point, you have to decide, I am done. So, for now. Here is the conch.

I have conch-queored.

Dedicated to my sister...Shelley. Hee Hee.