Last of the Summer Mermaid

Excuses for my few days of absence, as my cold worsened and developed into severe sinus headaches which virtually left me bedridden and sensitive to computers and even phone screens. And nope, no painting during this time either sadly. Before this all happened though I did complete a cute painting to bid farewell to the summer. A mermaid! Never painted one before so thought I’d give it a shot just before the summer closes.

I began by outlining in pencil the mermaid on paper. My favorite paper is Cansons Mixed Media in 300 gsm. Once happy with the design, I dressed the hair and doodled in some fish and waves with oil pastels. Recently I discovered that drawing in strands of hair with two or three shades of brown, and even red, in oil pastels adds some dimension to the hair, especially once painted over.

Then for the background, I decided to combine a few blue shades of Ecoline inks with Dr. Ph Martins liquid watercolours. I think it worked rather well! And see how the oil pastel shapes I had drawn in the previous layer show up! I left the background as is and added no further layers in this painting.

For this painting, I wanted to experiment with some acrylic mediums as well as having some stenciling practice. I discovered this method on the instructions of one of the packets about scraping some modeling paste on the stencil and thought it would be an idea to use that on the mermaid’s tail. Luckily all went really well but in hindsight thought I should’ve painted underneath it first in one colour and then combine the modeling paste with another colour. Well next time I know!

Then I simply painted over the tail in pink, covering the areas with modeling paste. The difference in texture is still somewhat noticeable though so can’t complain! In fact, I actually now like how all it turned out. Had I used different colours, perhaps you would notice the difference in colours more rather than the difference in texture, defeating the purpose. I also tried out some other forms of acrylic mediums like coarse modeling paste on the hair, glass beads on the fins and flower petals and clear granular gel for the flower centre and the necklace.

Finally time to fill in with paint! I used acrylic paints of course, using also those by Dylusions. I love their bright colours and recently became addicted to their products. For the fins, I glued some collage using origami paper. Love that kimono look!

I completed the painting by colouring in the rest and adding in the eyes. And adding in some minor details with ecoline felt pens and posca felt tips. This time no exaggerated manga eyes lol as I guess I wanted to do something different this time.

So here is my lil kawaii mermaid! I guess this will be one of the last summery paintings I do this year. I’ll miss the bright vibrant colours and the sea and sun themes and pretty flowers. But Autumn can be beautiful too! As I prepare for the new season, I look forward to painting the changing colours of leaves and using other shades suited for the Autumn.