A single starfish, rendered in the kind of quiet, layered detail that makes you want to look twice. A single coral-orange starfish takes center stage against a clean white background, its five arms spread wide across the card. Melissa built up the color in layered watercolor washes — deep red-orange pooling at the center and along the ridges, softening to pale yellow at the tips, with a touch of violet-gray shadow along the edges. Flecks of untouched white paper break through the pigment throughout, giving the surface a bumpy, calcified texture that reads as remarkably true to life. It's a simple composition, but the color work is anything but simple. Starfish, or sea stars, aren't actually fish at all — they're echinoderms, related to sand dollars and sea urchins, and famous for their ability to regrow an arm they've lost. They're a tide-pool favorite and one of the first things beachcombers look for, which makes them an easy, universally recognized subject for a coastal card.