I created this mermaid as a personal challenge. I have never been very comfortable drawing people or faces. I surprised myself with her and was quite enchanted when she arrived on my paper. I hope you’re enchanted with your own mermaid!
punched-out flowers, cut-out fabric flowers and sequins/gems, etc.
PVA glue
art paper or wood panel
black waterproof pen, fine-point and foil glue pen
glitter glues in different colors
white eraser
pencil
gold/silver foils, paint or ink
paints and pens of your choice
Drawing template
STEP 1: Using a pencil and the template as a visual guide, draw your mermaid on your chose surface. Feel free to change the mermaid to your liking, such as giving her curly hair, a longer tail or put her in a different position.
STEP 2: Once your mermaid pencil drawing is ready, go over the design with your black pen, then rub out (erase) the pencil lines. Within the dots surrounding her you can be “doodle free” and draw anything you like from fishes, flowers and stars to adding words, names or even a quote.
STEP 3: For the sand I use a lovely wash of gold ink but you could use a sand-colored pencil or paint, too. Or maybe you would like to cover the sea bed in more seaweed or rocks, the choice is yours!
STEP 4: Now you can start to color in your illustration with your chosen medium and color palette. (More on color palettes in the next chapter!) I like to use greens and blues for this design.
Gold and silver gel pens are great for the fishes and the mermaid’s hair.
STEP 5: Optional
Once colored in you can now choose to add foiling to your sea beauty! I especially love to make her tail extra sparkly with silver foil. Also at this stage feel free to use the collage technique and add some punched-out flowers or stars and maybe gems and a little extra one in the mermaid’s hair.
STEP 6: Optional
As always, if applying glitter it’s best to do it last. I like to add green glitter to the seaweed and some blue and silver all over to highlight the water effect!