Floating Mermaid

Little One is dressed as a mermaid again! And longs for a vacation in some exotic destination in the tropics. Unfortunately, though, she is reluctant to take off and fly anywhere at the moment seeing how chaotic Amsterdam airport has become with long queues, missed flights and even lost luggages! And so she can only dream: taking along with her an inflated toy dolphin, she finds a nearby lake and cools down. “Now that’s better” she muses, “why go through all the stress on your holidays when you can simply stay here and enjoy”.

Character on Collage

Another fun lesson with Juliette Crane’s Serendipity I classes, this one being Unit 6 “Staying Loose and Adding Layers”. We begin by a few sketches of characters on a piece of paper using black India Ink. Instead of India Ink, I went for Kuretake ZIG Cartoon Black Ink which is just as good. Both are water resistant and permanent. First thing that came to mind was Little One, and I was in the mood of mermaids and hence mermaids it was! Just a few sketches here and there and then we set it aside for now.

Preparing the Background

For Juliette Crane’s classes we always start with preparing the background. Playing around and trying out different mediums and glueing collages in random shapes is a great way to start. After having opted for mermaids as my character, I had an idea of what I wanted on my Strathmore Bristol Paper sketchbook. The background starts with sunset with some orange mulberry paper and then painting around it to create the sun with some Shimmery Bombay Ink by Dr.Ph Martins. Then for the ocean I finger painted in two shades of blue fluid acrylic in Cobalt Blue and Manganese Blue. Sky was then filled in with some pearlescent pink acrylic ink before additional bits of collages were introduced. I just love the blue aluminium candy wrapper!

Adding Character

And here comes the fun part: incorporating Little One into the painting! She was carefully cut out on the other paper, glued on the background and painted around. Unsure about the two dark blue bits of wrapping tissue collages near her, I then decided to turn them into a big fish, ie. a dolphin, What a great idea that turned out to be! And then the rest followed. The heart shaped wrapping tissue behind her became a mountain on an island by painting over it in Sap Green. I then filled in some empty spaces by firstly introducing some water plants on the right hand side before proceeding with details of Little One.

Finishing Touches

Being my usual self, I added a cute little crown on my Little One and filled it in with some Izink Diamond pink glitter paint. Excess was spread on the tail. As for the body, I just tapped in some gold along the edges. The hair was painted in with some Caran d’Ache water soluble Neocolor II. This time, I decided to keep the rest of her white so she pops out more from the background. The huge rock behind her was then gently rubbed in with some gold paint with my fingers to give it some shimmer. Finally, I doodled in some more plants with white gel pen and some small circles on the green plants. And now!

Another inspiring session with Juliette Crane! I do love her classes and wish I had more time to pursue it more intensively. For now, I will have to work now and then with it but everytime I come back for it, I enjoy it. Each lesson is a challenge and once again another opportunity to explore beyond my comfort zone and come up with a fascinating story of my results. Looking forward to the Unit soon! I wonder what cute and fascinating tale I will come up with…

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