AdelJose's drawing contest week 3

I think I got in just under the wire.

@Adeljose's task for week 3 is to draw a mirror image. I chose to draw two shells.

I started with a 6b graphite pencil on white paper. Ultimately, I feel the choice of 6b was a bit too dark. I shaded in the background and then carved out the shells with an eraser. I used the 6b pencil to add in additional details.

Using an eraser, I highlighted the parts of the shell where I envisioned the sun was hitting it. I tried my best to get the shells to look alike, but that was harder than I thought it would be.

In the final stages I chose to use some pencil crayons to add some texture to the shells. I used a 'cherry red' and a 'burnt orange' in the hopes of giving my shells that coral tint that they seem to have.

This is the finished product. If I were to draw shells like this again, I would start with a lighter background than the 6b. I wanted to do more detail and shading around the edges of the shell, but my early mistake threw a bit of a wrench in that idea. The lesson learned here is to start light and darken as I go.