I did this over the course of the past week, but I didn’t post updates all week. So here is the progression of my mermaid painting, along with some thoughts on the process.

Step Two
I faced my fears and painted a torso… and I’m not hating it! I also added scales to the tail, and starfish to cover her chest. I’m not going to add hands, though I might paint something IN her hands so it won’t look strange. Anyway, the next “scary” part is the face, but I think once I just start, it won’t be too bad. And big blonde hair. And a fishy friend or two. Maybe a seahorse, if I get ambitious.

Step Three
Today I tackled the face, and added a necklace (originally pearls, but then I added green glitter so I guess they are opals now) and flower in her hand, on top of what was an awkward stub. LOL. I need to figure out a way to fix the mouth, which is too big and weird looking, and she is still a beautiful baldy that needs hair… but the eyes are not half as bad as I thought they would be (my hubby will love it, she looks like an American football player with so much black under her eyes!) and I love the necklace… even though she has no neck. Considering I haven’t taken an art class since 8th grade, I think I’m doing pretty well. 🙂

I should go back over her starfish bra to add some dimension to it somehow, and definitely need to figure out how to fix her lips, probably layering another color on it for the creases or at least a line to separate her lips. Hair, obviously. Something in her other hand to cover up that stub. And then just some final touches like fish or seaweed or something to help fill in a little bit of the blank spots here. Her tail is MUCH bigger proportionally than it should be, but maybe she’s pregnacious or something like that. 😉

And of course I need to sign it when I’m all finished, otherwise my hubby will bug me until I do that. “But paintings are supposed to be signed!” Silly hubby. But I am so proud of myself for setting my mind to do this and actually following through, that I will definitely sign this. 🙂

Step Four
Tonight I was determined to get the hair done and add some more final details. I didn’t know what color her hair should be, and had been pondering for days if it should be blonde or brunette, or black… so I asked my husband, “One question. What color should her hair be?” And he looked at the painting and he said, “Considering your color scheme here,” (because he’s trying to sound artistic and intelligent, he is so cute) “I think her hair should be pink.” I don’t know if he really was thinking based on the other colors or just knows I love pink, but I thought it was a GREAT idea. Because she is a MERMAID, she doesn’t have to have “real” hair color.

Before I show her hair, which I ended up LOVING, I’ll just point out a couple other things I added in this next image. There are accents on her “bra” to sort of mirror the flower in her hand in different colors. These accents match the streaks in her hair. I also painted two little orange fish in the lower left, a solid color.

And here it is again, along with my paints and paint palette (an old egg carton), and the DVD cover for my inspirational movie for this painting session… The Little Mermaid, of course! 🙂 When it came out, this was my favorite movie.

I still wanted something in her hand, so I added… I don’t know, it was supposed to be a snail’s shell, or a clam shell, and it’s just a combo of the two I guess. And then for fun I added some stripes to the fish. I thought about doing something to “fix” her lips to look like two, but decided against it. They’re fine. So yeah, I think I’m done! Now to figure out how to frame it. I also have a couple other small pieces like this to frame, so I’ll bring them all to a craft store and see what they suggest. Anyway, here is the final image taken by camera.