To continue the ocean theme I seem to be on with a different, looser style for me. This painting was inspired by some work I saw from Welsh Artist Alison Fennel. Seahorses range in size from 1.5 to 35.5 cm. They are named for their equine appearance with bent necks and long snouted heads followed by their distinctive trunk and tail.Although they are  bony fish, they do not have scales, but rather thin skin stretched over a series of bony plates, which are arranged in rings throughout their bodies. Seahorses swim upright and use their tail to anchor .The sketch is a quick pencil sketch for proportions and then direct to watercolor without ink.  Pilot Falcon fountain pen with Noodler’s Black ink and Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

To continue the ocean theme I seem to be on – small sketch of Scallop Shells from a photo on the internet. Scallops are a cosmopolitan family of bivalves, found in all of the world’s oceans, though never in freshwater. They are one of very few groups of bivalves to be primarily “free-living”; many species are capable of rapidly swimming short distances and even of migrating some distance across the ocean floor. The majority of species, however, live recumbent on sandy substrates, and when they sense the presence of a predator such as a starfish, they are able to escape by swimming swiftly but erratically through the water using a form of jet propulsion created by repeatedly clapping of their shells together. Pilot Falcon fountain pen with Noodler’s Black ink and Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

A small sketch of Ribbed Mussels from a photo on the internet. Ribbed mussels are similar to blue mussels in shape and size but differ in appearance, color, and habitat. The shell of a ribbed mussel is shaped like a long rounded triangle with corrugated ribs along the length. Ribbed mussels are usually found partially buried in the sediment, unlike the blue mussel that attaches to a piling or dock. When buried in the sediment, two slit-like siphons with frilled edges extend from the body to the muddy surface. Pilot Falcon fountain pen with Noodler’s Black ink and Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

A small sketch of Cherrystone Clams from a photo on the internet. The hard clam, also known as a quahog (or quahaug), round clam, or hard-shell clam, is an edible marine bivalve mollusk that is native to the eastern shores of North America and  Central America, from Prince Edward Island to the Yucatan Peninsula. Pilot Falcon fountain pen with Noodler’s Black ink and Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

A small sketch of colorful starfish from a photo on the internet. This was beautiful with the yellow-green body and the orange dots. Pilot Falcon fountain pen with Noodler’s Black ink and Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.

A small quick sketch of colorful crab from a photo on the internet. Pilot Falcon fountain pen with Noodler’s Black ink and Holbein watercolors in a Stillman and Birn sketchbook.