It took a lot of drafting to figure out how to best work with the different types of watercolor but I am overall very happy with this piece. 

Water color is a lot of deliberate layering of colors. It is best to start with a light idea of your background and work off of that. I started with the sand and used a light yellowish-brown followed by a darker brown and yellow to add depth to the sand. From there I added a light blue in for the water and used darker tones near the bottom and where the sand is and more light blues and greens near the top. After finishing the background I added dark olive green sea grass and some small metallic white and yellow fish. After I had finished the fish I added a brown anchor and a grey shadow to it to really sell the idea of depth.

One thing I learned about watercolor paints is that they like to do their own thing but they can be controlled. If you do mess up with watercolor it is best to blot away the excess watercolor and wait for it to dry. Once it is dry you can try again to fix the color the way you want it.

If there is anything I believe I improved on it is watercolor control. It is very difficult to get your watercolor to obey you but the less water you have the easier it is. For example the sea grass, I had to use a very pigmented watercolor paint and deliberate brushstrokes while I used very diluted paint for the background with less intentional brushstrokes.