Hi, everyone!
Hey, y'all, welcome back to emanate artworx. This post was originally going to be a submission for ArtPark's week 1 #MerMay, but after a long battle with the mermaids (๐งโโ๏ธโ๏ธ๐งโโ๏ธ), I came to a different decision. Before I get to that - the mermaid battle:
Week 1 prompts seemed pretty straightforward (easy?), so I made some sketches to flesh out some ideas. And it went downhill from there, lol. To be fair, I don't draw or paint fanatsy subjects, so no surprise it was such a challenge! I scrapped the hope of making a week 1 mermay. On to week 2.
Betta tail sketches (pencil, marker and crayon on paper)
Betta reference
Mermaid pose sketches (pencil on paper)
Mermaid reference
Week 2 sketch (pencil on paper)
Week 2 painting attempt (IbisPaint)
For the second week's prompt, again, I thought it wouldn't be a problem to bust out something nice. So I went to my app of coice, good ol' Ibis, and started working to make the week 2 mermaid a reality. About two frustrating hours later, again, I threw in the towel on this challenge ๐ ๐ฅน.
But I didn't accept that defeat, and decided I would have another go at this mermaid thing, only this time I would cut out all the gobbledygook and just make a portrait in my familiar way to achieve some kind of small success with this mermaid thing.
#Mermay ArtPark Edition week 3 finished product
emanate artworx
2304x3072
2.5 hours
"Dark" is the week 3 prompt I applied. As in she's pissed that I only showed her head and not the rest of her body and tail ๐, let alone the other 2 prompts for this week ("elemental", "zodiac"). But actually, it was sort of fun to make a different facial expression and the hair is nice and flowy, too. Underwater hair. But no eyebrows.
I used the gouache mix 2 brush and fewer layers than normal to try and get that "blended-but-not-too-blended" appearance. And the skin, sheesh. I'm still learning how to use color theory to make live-looking skin. Blue skin kind of looks dead anyway, though, no matter how it's rendered, so ๐คทโโ๏ธ. We're good there, lol.
Welp, that about wraps up my adventures battling the mermaids for this month. It was fun-ish. I learned some things about technique and about my tolerance levels for failing ๐คฃ. Maybe by next year, I'll have a better grasp, and I'll participate again, but as for 2023 #mermay, I'm out!
Looking forward to seeing what everyone else has got up their sleeves too. : ) Thanks for reading!
Ema
Thanks to @crimsonowl-art and ArtPark for initiating this challenge ๐งก