Sometimes the paintings take me just an hour to do from start to finish. Today's painting took right around 5 1/2 hours because of how much detail there is. Some of my watercolour and ink pencils are getting very very small. It is a tie at the moment between a cream and my ink black as to which one will be first to get sharpened to the point it is too small to use anymore. They are both right around 2 inches long right now. I figure I will be able to use them until they are an inch long and then it might get tough. Anyway, these are what the turtle looked like while it was in progress. As you can see, my initial sketch is always very light. I was frustrating to art teachers because I don't draw well if I try for the wire frame or circles and such. I start with the eyes, and then just do the outline but I've never been able to bring myself to do a dark outline, I like easily erasable sketches. This one was sketched with the cream, and then some parts I added a bit of the yellow really lightly.
And the finished painting.
I hope you have a lovely day. Please make sure that anything tortoise or turtle shell that you buy is fake so that animals like these don't become extinct.