Mixed Media Mermaid: Pt 1
Background
For the most part, I stopped taking on illustration commissions to focus on book & paper arts. But then my cousin, Josette, asked me if I would paint a mermaid for her. (That’s her on the left….i know…super cute, right?!)
Normally I would’ve rolled my eyes at this. But she told me I could take all the time I needed and that she wanted to invest in some artwork and in her family. She wanted an image of a Black mermaid and that I could be the model. *Oh you’ll pay me to paint myself and there’s no hard deadline? Yes please!*
What I enjoyed about this piece most were the layers of disciplines involved in the process. It started as a digital drawing and painting that I printed onto canvas. From there I was going to embellish the print with mixed media. But I ended up painting quite a bit on top in acrylics before adding other materials to finish it off. Here’s a look at the beginning phases.
Sketches & Drawing
First I offered up 3 loose concept sketches for her to consider. The blue one was the chosen one but she wanted to see more of the tail. I really liked this one because the tail was so concealed/off frame so it added to this mysterious fantasy for me.
So as I was developing the drawing, I added a tail swooshing and swirling in the water like a daring fish. I wanted lots of flowy shapes so I used beta fish as reference for this. I wanted to add a lush density to the atmosphere with plants and sea creatures that mimicked the flow of her hair. Here’s where we landed on the drawing.
Up Next
In the next entry, I’ll talk more about the color phases, the different painting processes used and the final touches added to complete this piece…….
