This is one of my most favorite sayings.... I have been waiting to paint a picture along with it. I guess I was wondering if I could even paint a mermaid! I drew this one out on an 11x14 canvas. Was happy with how it turned out so I painted it up. I started with the background, using aqua paint for a basecoat. I first sprayed the back ground with a little water, then painted over top, so it would make a watery feel. darker and lighter in places...after that dried, I think mixed up a watery tourqoise again spraying over paint adding the watery tourq, doing it in sections, so that I could add table salt...it will pool in some places and be thin in others..the salt will add a super effect. You let the paint dry, and then you just rub off the salt! There is a bit of light green in there too.( I ended up adding a bit of a faint seaweed on the left side toward the end to fill in that spot to even it out.) I then wanted to add to the water, like when the sun shines through and it makes this grid like effect in the water from the movement/light. you can kinda see that in the background as well. I painted the mermaids tail with different colors alot of them neon. thought it looked a bit bright, and I used a white wash of paint and water over the top, then added a light green wash around the top and bottom of the tail..I went back in and added pops of color on some scales and also added some glitter glue on a few scales and in the fin. A tip that I use when painting skin...if you paint with a skin/peachy color, go back with a semi wet brush and take away from the center of the face...neck arms and tummy. That leaves a darker edge where needs to be..if the light is hitting her from the right side, I made sure the right side of the arms, neck etc were light, and left side more paint left for the shadow. I always fret over hair...this time it went pretty well, just drew it so that it looks like the water was pushing it one way...with one strand hanging down on the other, just painted it with a base coat of brown, and I just took the brush and did each section at a time, after first layer dry, then I added in the dark..the brown with a bit of black in it...after that is dry, the high light, brown with a bit of white. The bubbles were a challenge and I'm still not sure if I got them nailed...but it is what it is...I tried to make the tops heavier with white paint then the bottoms and leaving some open at the bottom. A good thing to do when you arent sure about how to paint something...is to search it out. I looked up underwater paintings, or photos...and searched bubbles...and I just studied the pictures and got a sense out of how I looked and tried to recreate it. I have to try and think and its a good thing to pass on too , when doing art...relax, do YOUR thing, it cant be wrong if its your vision! And always remember too....you can always paint over it! There are lots of free tutorials out there on youtube, to help you along, I think i learned alot from Tamara Laporte on how to paint/draw a face, how to draw a body, another good artist to look up is Jane Davenport, she is super at drawing / painting bodies. I am not sure if I am going to sell this one, not yet anyways...Sometimes its hard to let some of them go!
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