Woah.
There were times in the last month or so when I thought that drawing would be a long, long time coming. I thought there would need to be lots and lots of warming up and relaxing and letting myself play.
Wrong.
What was missing was simply a case of applying bum to the seat and pencil to the paper. Telling the fear of the blank page to shut up, and just doing it. No messing around, sister, just pull your finger out and just get on with it. Sometimes it’s that simple.
So I did.
Something fishy?
This is the initial drawing for the mature mermaid on the left of the piece – she’s much older, wiser and a little arthritic but still commands respect from the younger mermaids. They know she’s done it all and seen it all before and they come to her for advice, comfort and pearls of wisdom (geddit?).
You can see I haven’t got all the shapes right for her yet – I’m not great at drawing the figure without a reference, so there’s a lot of refining still to do here, and I’ll need to check my anatomy books, even if mer anatomy is not exactly the same as human! There are aspects I haven’t decided yet too, like where her gills are located, and what shape her dorsal fin should be, but it’s a good start, and I’m pleased to have worked on it for an hour or so today.
The next step will be to bring her up from her current size of about 10 inches high to at least twice that for a detailed drawing to be coloured, probably with Inktense pencils, but I may revert to gouache. We’ll see.
After that, she’ll need to be photographed and projected onto fabric to get her up to full size, which is roughly 4 feet high. The fabric version will be the one I paint finally and then apply to the background, stitch and embellish.
So, a good effort today. Turtle steps.
And the boiler is fixed so we have heat again. Huzzah!
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Even with the faults you itemize, the maturity and dignity of this merlady come through quite clearly. Yay, you, for getting her on paper!
On a sorta related tangent (mermaids–>dryads), did you ever read L. M. Boston’s NOTHING SAID? (She’s better known for the Greene Knowe books)… There’s a dryad in it that I passionately wished to be when I was girl. Evocative illustrations by Peter Boston, too. It may be out of print; I had to hunt down a copy for myself at a used bookseller.
Any ideas for improvements on her? She may yet be holding some pearls in her hand, or perhaps wearing some. Another decision.
I’ve not heard of “Nothing Said” but dryads are always worth tracking down! I’ll see what I can find out. (BTW, did you know L M Boston was a quilter? There’s big collection of her quilts at her former home.)
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