Easy Mermaid Tutorial

Want an easy way to 
make a mermaid for your art?




















You will need :
magazine photos
scissors
gesso
glue
Sharpie marker, metallic bronze
Radiant Gel Dimensional Paint, Olive Vine

and a Tiny smidgen of imagination (No, not a product! More of an attitude!)

Before I toss out any old magazine, I thumb through it to find interesting pictures and save them for art collages.  (To be perfectly honest, sometimes I buy the 10 cent magazine discards that the library sells just to have the photos.)  

I do my best to categorize cutouts into two-gallon zip top freezer bags, with labels such as "animals," "people," "flowers," "texture," "backgrounds," and etc.   But sometimes I just throw them on my art table.  Below is a fashion model, fish and some jewelry.  When I looked back at these laying on the table, I realized there was a mermaid trying to swim out!

But she had some problems!  No tail, words printed across her dress, and I didn't like the idea of a mermaid with sleeves.

I cut out the spaces inside her arms, trimmed each side of the waist area a bit smaller (Oh to be a mermaid!  No diet, just scissors!), and brushed a thin coat of white gesso over her dress and neck.

Now for the tail?  I real fish tail for her!

Glued the fish tail so that it curved to the side, knowing that I was going trim the tail to fit her skirt.

 Marked the area I wanted to trim away with a bronze colored Sharpie marker.  Snipped off the excess part.  

I combined the bronze marker and Radiant Gel Dimensional Paint, Olive Vine to define her dress, being careful to blend the tail and body together. (Below)















 Yes, I am aware that her skin tones are far from perfect because of the gesso, but that can be corrected.  One way is to paint her skin under entirely with a peachy color and repaint the facial features.

  My mermaid's future includes many more embellishments and a watery canvas.  At this point I have a couple of options. I often change my mind as I monitor and adjust my art in progress, but at this moment I am considering gluing her to the canvas and then glazing the entire canvas with  Radiant Gel Dimensional Paint, Stargazer,  I suspect that when I do this process, the varied skin tones will either blend or appear to be refracted light underwater.  

If I don't like what happens, I can always always go back to the gesso option. And on second thought, I might like the painterly effect this would allow.

And the jewelry on the photo above?  Ahhhhhh! This mermaid will swim amongst the jewels of a sunken treasure chest!  

EASY PEASY!!!!