Mermaid: Blue Eyes #MerMay

Mermaid: Blue Eyes

Step by Step

To celebrate MerMay I'm putting up my step by step of my oil painting "Mermaid: Blue Eyes."

I'd done several small thumbnails of my idea of doing a portrait of a mermaid, using just her face, hands and hair in a square canvas, before doing the pencil directly onto the canvas board.

I first went over the pencil with a green line in oils

Did the face and skin tones, with greenish shadows

Starting the background

Putting the greens in the kelp

Giving more detail to the kelp fronds and her hair

Finishing the shell and sea life decorating her hair and a pet fish

Framed and sold! at IlluXcon 2014

Jody

Primavera

Primavera

I started this painting last year for IlluXcon 7 but wasn't able to finish it in time.  I started with a graphite drawing on watercolor paper and then sealed it with shellac.  I decided I would try to be fresh and experimental by doing the background first and loosely putting in leaves and greenery.  I added in flowers, birds and butterflies freely, without getting too tied down to realism or design.  It was interesting, a departure from my very planned out cover illustration work.

Jody