How to paint watercolour mussel shells

Mussel shells are beautiful seashells. I gathered some loose seashells when I was visiting an island near where my parents lived, and I’ve been meaning to paint them for some time. I finally decided to get painting and do a demonstration at the same time. In today’s blog post, I share how to paint watercolour mussel shells in this easy demo that’s great for beginners.

Mussel shells are easy to paint because they are simple to draw and as long you’re using blues and purples, they will look like mussels. They can be really relaxing to paint, are great for warming up, or just getting to know how to paint watercolours.

Supplies

For this painting, you’ll need to gather just a few supplies.

• Watercolour paper – I used a piece of Arches cold-pressed 100% cotton watercolour paper
• Brushes – For this demo, I used Princeton Heritage Round brushes in size 6 and 10.
• Watercolour paint – I used ultramarine blue, indigo blue and dioxazine purple. You can use most blues and still succeed in painting a mussel, however I recommend having at least one really dark blue because mussel shells have a top layer that is very, very dark.
• Pencil
• Watercolour palette
• Water in a jar
• Something for blotting water from your brush. I use a cotton tea towel, although a paper towel will work.

Watercolour mussels demo

Now that you have your supplies gathered, it’s time to get painting. Watch me demonstrate how to paint a mussel in watercolours on my YouTube channel.

Buy supplies

You can pick up supplies for this project at your local art supply store or on Amazon:

US

• Watercolour paper
• Paint
  • Ultramarine blue
  • Indigo blue
  • Dioxazine purple
• Brushes
  • Round size 6
  • Round size 10

Canada

• Watercolour paper
• Paint
  • Ultramarine blue
  • Indigo blue
  • Dioxazine purple
• Brushes
  • Round size 6
  • Round size 10