The Making of a Queen

Received a request from a gal to turn her friend into a glorious mermaid.

These are the creative challenges that I love!

I decided that this gorgeous friend deserved to be a Mermaid Queen! And here's how I did it.

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Photoshop Reference Photo

I started by gathering images of the to-be royalty and inspiration for details I wanted to include into my work. I knew she had to have a septor and amazing bralette! I took my reference photos into photoshop and compiled together my image until I was satisfied with the concept.

After I felt I had a decent reference to follow, I printed it out the size of the intended painting. I rubbed a chalk pastel across the back of the paper and taped it to my watercolor paper.

With a pencil I traced the basic shapes of shadows, highlights and details which then transferred the chalk onto the paper in the lines that I traced.

First layer of background, skin and tail.

I added frisket (masking fluid) to the areas I wanted to keep white and started painting my background and skin areas.

Carefully I built up the layers in the skin tones. While the skin was wet, I bounced around to different parts of the painting to ensure that my colors did not mix where I didn't want them to.

As my watercolor layers on the skin and face started to come together, I started to add layers of color pencil on top. I have discovered the Carand'ache Luminance pencils. They blend so beautifully over watercolors.

Almost done!

I decided to do a large wash of water over the background and sprinkled salt over the area. Salt absorbs water and leaves wonderful natural designs.

When I felt that I was done with pushing contrast and adding layers to create depth, I carefully rubbed off the masking fluid to reveal the trident and fishies.

Finally I painted and detailed the last few peices of this painting!

I was so excited to see the final image of this painting complete with the satisfying clean edge when the tape gets removed. So I created a #peelporn video! Peel porn is the fascination with the feeling of satisfaction watching (usually tape) peel away from a surface. Enjoy the video!