Mermaid 'Alagaesia'

Sometimes you feel inspired...and other times you feel dispassionate and are just existing, rather than living...

Sooooo the other week I was feeling more of the latter. Just pacing through the predictable motions of my day. Then, I started looking through images of artists whom I love and for some reason, unbeknown to me, this illustration by Sara Butcher was so beautiful and struck a creative chord that I stopped browsing then and there and got to work on the idea which revealed itself in my mind!

The result was Alagaesia, (a name I only devised for her this very morning, as I've been reading the 'Inheritance Cycle' by Christopher Paolini. If you enjoy fantasy novels, you should try these as the stories are as intricate and real as the world created by Tolkien).

Original dodgy sketch of the idea.

Final design in golden brown pencil.

Further polish final design with blue pencil.

The majority of the piece I finished that day, but the final touches and tweaks took me a few more days to complete as I never know when enough is enough! I hope that you like her, as I am really pleased with how it is different from my norm, with the use of blue pencil, the colour palette and filled background. But not so different as to remove the presence of my style :) What also makes me stoked is that I took a risk (of wasting watercolour paper) and drew the final design straight on the paper, as opposed to polishing it and then transferring it onto the good paper! Yay, progress!

What inspires you, and what does it inspire you to do?

Happy Fairy Dusting your life!

Galaxy Gazing

So, you know how with my last post I said I was unorganised when I attended that art class? Well, last week was worse...I was down to literally my last scrap of watercolour paper, which was not even A4 size, and grabbed like seven images I had in my inspirations folder to potentially use as my subject for the class, but was gonna miss the next bus anyway...So I just sat in my chair and looked through images on my laptop whilst waiting to leave for the next bus, when I came across this image...

It's a gorgeous artwork from the Disneystore I found ages ago, and I decided then and there, that that's what I'd paint, a space-like sky with a mermaids' silhouette. It was such fun to do and quite simple, after so much self-induced drama. I just lightly drew a circle for the moon, then throughly wet the paper leaving the moon dry. Then made up lots of different purples, greens, blues, sloshed on areas of yellow and pink, before blotting on the darker pigments. It doesn't look really pretty until the paint and paper have done their magic, and then allowed to dry. I then made a dark red and purple and painted in the mermaid and rock. Then using white and the tiniest point of my brush dotted hundreds of dots to represent the stars :)

I hope you like it! It looks better in real life, as my camera does not do justice to attempted close-up photography (I'm working on getting a suitable one)...Hopefully your Monday wasn't too manic, and if so, remember there are so many little things you can do to still make it magical!

Happy painting =D

Mermaid Princess 'Atlantisa'

In the past few months, I have made three attempts at a mermaid illustration using this particular pose. I was just unable to make it work...but since diving into the watercolour and ink style I have been using of late, I had another go and the results are quite pleasing : )

Creating an asymmetrically balanced design, and adding the washes of colour really take this piece to the next level, compared to a previous post; Mermaid Princess 'Azalea'.

So when creating a figure, think about whether adding a basic or detailed background would complement your illustration, and give it that extra visual boost : )

Happing Drawing.

Mermaid Princess 'Azalea'

Whilst faeries will always have a special place in my heart, I also love mermaids.

There is just something magical about imagining what life is like down in the depths of the vast ocean. Some areas of which, mere humans can only dream of exploring...

When illustrating merfolk, I love giving them gill-like fins in place of ears and adorning them in shells and strands of pearls. This one has a rather simple tail, but if making the tail the focus, you could be as creative as you want with the vein design and the number of fins drawn.

Other ideas for inclusion in merfolk illustrations: Bejewelled crowns, intricate shell hairpieces, fallen human treasures, webbed fingers, blue-green complexion, sea-anenome hair, starfish headpiece, scales extending over the entire body...the creative options are endless!

This is my favourite mermaid illustration by Kei Acedera from Imaginism Studios:

I just love the cute cartoon style, the minimal colour palette and use of under-the-sea features.

Happy drawing.