The Sea Center, part of the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, is located right on Stearns Wharf, and it was a great place to visit for some onsite sketching during my recent trip to Santa Barbara.
The displays are outstanding and feature a rich variety of wildlife from the Santa Barbara channel. Jelly fish, anemones, sea horses, and fish of every size and color vied for my attention. It was hard to choose what to draw, but, in the end, I finally planted myself next to a wide, low tank of starfish, pulled out my sketchbook and pen, and started sketching.
A friendly volunteer chatted with me while I sketched, and excited toddlers kept me entertained as they babbled excitedly about what they were seeing.
The variety of colors and textures on the sea stars was amazing. This large pink and beige sea star had a fuzzy appearance, while the bright neon orange and pink one next to it looked slick and smooth.
The knobby sea stars had raised spines all over them, which made them challenging to draw and paint, but they were so cool-looking that I just had to attempt it.
The bat stars had webbing between their short arms, giving them a different look from the knobby sea stars. And the colors were so varied. The friendly volunteer told me that the coloring on starfish varies just as much as humans vary in appearance. Some sported flashy pink and shocking orange, while others wore elegant lavender or perky cornflower blue. No two were alike.
Standing there sketching them for a half hour gave me time to really study them and marvel at the intricacy of their patterns and the intensity of the colors.
Our visit to the Sea Center was such a happy surprise. We hadn’t known what to expect when we walked through the door, but I learned a lot as we wandered from one display to to another, and my friend and I both left filled with wonder after peeking into that secret world below the waves.
On the facing page in my sketchbook, I added a paragraph of journaling plus a watercolor border. A sticker from the Sea Center gift shop added another fun element to the page.
To create the pink border, I applied Frog Tape to the outside edge, then painted a wash of Permanent Rose + Opera Pink around the edges of the rectangle, fading it out to leave an empty white area in the center for the text.
After it had dried, I used the “Random Bubbles” stencil by Crafter’s Workshop to create a pattern.
To create a stenciled border like this, simply lay a patterned plastic stencil over a dry watercolor wash, then take a dampened Mr. Clean Magic Eraser (or Cheap Joe’s Paint-Erase Rejuvenating Sponge) and wipe gently across the stencil, rubbing the paint to loosen and lift it. Blot with a tissue.
Since the stencil I used is only 6″ x 6″, I had to move it several times to do the entire pattern. It’s a little tricky to make the pattern look continuous, but it can be done if you are careful.
Two more pages completed in my travel journal!
2 Comments
Love these starfish! So colorful and beautiful!
Thanks, Anita. I loved painting all those wild colors.