It's a Wet, Wet, World!

I finished the mermaid that I started yesterday. I took a few more pictures along the way, so the process can be seen. It's a little weird to look back at it and see where I was going with it:

So I started here with the cool frame I found, and drew a mermaid for it specifically:

Popped in the background:

Started in on the underpainting (scary purple alien fish!):

Worked on the tail:

Blocked in the body:

Finished highlighting the skin, and added some scales and a face:

And then finished her up!

And popped her into the frame, and voila!

I decided to list her, which I decided to call Ruby, on Etsy instead of my main site. Mostly because I'm selling her with the frame, which is sort of a new experience for me. The frame is very heavy, owing to the solid resin (although at first I thought it was metal, because it's THAT solid.) I really like the idea of these neat frames with the panels, but we'll see if anyone likes that or not. Since I cover shipping, I'll probably take a major hit on the shipping.

Anyway, I enjoyed creating something for the frame instead of finding a frame for what I created. It was a nice little switch-up! And, I think I've burned myself out on mermaids for a little bit (I know, two is hardly a burn-out, but still...) Time to get some of the commission work out of the way, and see if I can't clear out some of the holiday backlog in my studio too.

So much to do! I appreciate all the suggestions on gesso and sanding. I'm definitely going to look into it. I need a smoother surface for my details than these medium tooth panels provide!

Swimmin' with the Fishies!

Yesterday evening I managed to squeak out my mermaid finally!

"Selena"Acrylic, canvas panel, 5x7
Side shot, so you can see the iridescent paint!

I was worried there for a little bit. Nothing seemed to be going right, as I had said earlier. The funniest thing was that I had under-painted it in violet, and people (my husband in particular) really have a hard time seeing past that to where you're going with your piece. I learned a long time ago not to show anyone the underpainting as it tended to worry folks.

Even so, when *I* am worried about something turning out, having someone looking over my shoulder at the purple alien with a fish tail and giving you one of those looks is NOT helpful. I mean, I love the man to pieces, but seriously!

Anyway, I'm very happy with how it came out. Plus, now that I have figured out a few things, I want to try a couple more mermaids. I want to change some things, develop some things. This one took far too much time, given what I'll sell it for, but I think I can do better. I KNOW I can do better with my speed on this. I see more mermaids in my future!

In particular, the iridescent paint works unbelievably well with the fish scales and lighting up her hair (which means I can do it in any color hair as well, since I have pretty much everything in iridescents... It's a sickness at this point, my addiction to the iridescent paints.)

My only main complaint this time through is that the canvas panel is no where near a medium tooth. It's extremely rough and uneven, which probably added to my frustration. I really prefer a smooth surface. I have some clayboards (might be too absorbant?) and wooden panels around here somewhere, I really ought to pull them out for this. Especially since I picked up some fabulous frames for a panel. One in particular is white with a shell pattern (sort of) in the heavy metal edging, it's just begging for a mermaid! I'll definitely be painting one for it after this!

I'm going to be posting this one for sale tomorrow, so we'll see what kind of reception it gets!