Final Shell Drawing

Here we are after so much time spent with the same shell--my final shell picture, drawn in charcoal and painted in green inkwash. 

 Right off the bat I think I enjoyed my third shell drawing (the first inkwash) a little better.  It may have been that it was a more interesting view of the shell, with the inside being exposed, or it may have been that I simply handled it better.  Still, others seem to disagree with me.  It is true that I'm satisfied with the way it turned out.  I feel that the contours in the foreground of the shell are some of the better that I've done in the semester.  I also enjoyed how the free wash I put around the foreground of the shell turned out so liquid and layered.  That little accidental focus point in the foreground is a nice, unexpected compositional element.  I put the ink around the shell in the front simply to make the highlights of the front emerge to the foreground more, but I couldn't decide if this would work well if it was continued to the back of the shell.  In one respect it could make the back of the shell harder to make out from the background, and create a sort of atmospheric perspective.  On the other hand it would make the exterior wash lose its shadow-like characteristics and might throw the weighted composition off.  I feel like I succeeded with the "prongs" of the shell in the foreground better than I had in previous attempts.  I believe this is due to the special attention payed to guiding them into elliptical patterns, ensuring the roundness of form.  The shell really maintains a sense of life to it, and I think it's a combination of multiple things that make it more successful.  It has a long axis perspective, it has a nice ocean-like green color to it, and it's cross contours are not all evenly split up.  There are various pit-holes which I've learned to avoid which have made this drawing just as successful as the things that I've learned to do.  It's a satisfying result, for me at least.