Turtle Sealife
For the turtle motif you will need an airbrush with a 0.15 or 0.2 mm nozzle, a fine brush and pro-color paints white, black, citrus yellow, umbra (or coffee brown), ice blue, fuchsia and fire red.
First, at the bottom spray a blue gradient which becomes light blue at the top. To mix a beautiful light blue, use pro-color ice blue combined with opaque pro-color white.
Once the background has dried, tear a rough "mountainous" edge out of a thick sheet of paper. It's going to serve for the creation of natural looking rock formations in the picture. In order to achieve this effect, spray some black along the paper's edge. A couple of jagged lines will give the rocks some additional structure. Fill the top part with color and let the black run out.
A couple more torn edges represent the ocean floor. Spray the hilly landscape in the back with little color and then the area in the front slightly darker, with a bit of more intense blue. Then create the sun rays penetrating the water with some opaque white. Start the lines from a fixed point, then let them run out and become wider towards the bottom. Use some more white to add a few additional subtle accents with some light edges on the underwater landscape's rocks and hills.
Now the stencil for the turtle's outline comes into play. Position it wherever you want your turtle to take shape. Secure the stencil with some weights and cover the its remaining elements. Then fill in the stencil's interior with some opaque white.
Here you can see the intermediate results of your motif.
Now put the scales stencil on the white turtle area. With the help of the large fin you can put the stencil exactly into place. Again, secure the stencil with weights or tape and cover the remaining elements with paper so that any possible overspray will do no harm.
With a mixture of yellow, red and a drop of umbra you may now spray the orange-brown edges of the fin on the left. Other areas of the motif (cf. the final result) may also bear some slight shadings of this color combination. Spray other elements bearing scales, e.g. fins, shell, head, with a mixture of white and ice blue.
Now switch to a darker color. Mix fuchsia and ice blue in order to obtain a dark mixture of blue and violet. With this you can spray the dark areas of the fin's scales.
Here you can see the intermediate result without the stencil. Some scales have different colors in them. In order to achieve this, proceed according to the Turtle Sealife packaging.
Work out the scales a bit more using your dark violet. This leads to some dark shadings on the shell. Color the scales on the head and the fin on the right a bit more using this mixture while leaving a few areas of the fins light blue or white.
At this stage you can already see the scales and the overall outline taking shape.
Work out the scales a bit more using your dark violet. This leads to some dark shadings on the shell. Color the scales on the head and the fin on the right a bit more using this mixture while leaving a few areas of the fins light blue or white.
You are now finished with the turtle structure stencil. Switch to the stencil for the turtle's outline again to protect the background and paint the other areas of the turtle. At first the shell will be painted with blue. All other elements of the shell will be indicated freehand.
Work out the body of the turtle with a bright mixture of yellow and brown. First, there are the wrinkles and shadings that connect the head with the shell and fins. Then you might want to add a bit of shading with this color to the front part of the head and the eye. Jagged lines will be forming the wrinkles, shadings will be shaping the head and neck.
Here you can see the intermediate result without the stencil.
Paint the details of the shell's upper plates with a mixture of blue and water using a fine brush. Dab some additional structures onto the neck for scales and wrinkles with a mixture of umbra and water.
Create a few additional bright structures on the neck, the eye and all around the head with opaque white. Keep looking at the original motif in order to copy as many details as possible.
Use some white to go over the boundaries of the scales on the fins and shell as well as the highlights on the shell once more.
You can cover the structures created with a brush with some transparent blue using your airbrush in order to create an optical connection.
Additional elements, such as the diver, you can spray with the stencil, just where you like them. For this use a mixture of dark blue and water. It's important that the diver's silhouette clearly stands out from the background while still remaining within background's color range.
Here you can see the current status with an additionally integrated fish on the upper water's edge.
Create a whole underwater world on the sea floor with different dab and brush techniques in order to perfectly integrate the turtle into the overall design.
Here you can see the finished motif with an additional tropical fish in the foreground and a couple of rising bubbles. With the Turtle Sealife stencil set you can bring to life a diverse underwater world around the turtle. Have fun!