Mermaid Painting from Start to Finish

Here is the completed painting I gave a sneak peek of in my last post.

First is the background with the beginnings of a face. I did this on a textured gesso board with paper, inks and paints. Funny thing is, I originally messed up on the background. I adhered some beautiful papers with gesso instead of glue. It made everything milky white and I lost all my colors. Oops. Well, I think I got my color back.

This is the face. It's still in the early stages but its going in the direction I want it to. I drew the outline with acrylic ink its dropper.

She has become a mermaid. I'm not happy with the tail. I need to tweak that.

I fixed the tail. I added some coral and shells and more blue to the background. I like the translucency and seeing the layers underneath. I feel like she's in a coral reef. I think she is done at this point and then I noticed the left eye. It looks like she got a black eye swimming under the sea. I felt the need to fix that.

She is finally finished. My three year old daughter (soon to be 4 this spring) insisted on some shimmer. She said it would be the "perfect finishing touch". So I added some shimmery inks to her hair and body. My daughter was right!

I really love how this painting turned out.

This is the second one I did based on the techniques I learned from Mindy Lacefield's True Free Spirit e-course. It's only the first month of twelve months of lessons and it is so much fun. We have a very active and supportive Facebook group and the work being produced is amazing. Mindy also created this video here that was an inspiration for my painting. It gives you a good idea of Mindy's style. I'm finding this class has given me a kick in the creative butt! I'm so excited with what I'm creating!

 

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