I originally was going to do a watercolor sunflower for my up close nature. While doing a test sunflower, I realized it was going to be difficult to show the contrast of lights and darks. I found a few pictures of shells online and decided to experiment with it. I used just watercolor for one section, watercolor pencil for another, colored pencil for another, etc.
This is the second and more finalized sketch I did of the shell. I decided to use watercolor pencils because I liked the contrast I could create with the reds, oranges and yellows.
This is an in-progress picture of my final painting. This is after the second day of working on it. I really like the watercolor pencils and I'm happy with how it looks so far.