Art & Illustration
Mother's Day 2018
An interrupted process...
Last year I created a Mother's Day mermaid piece that was fairly popular online and with most everyone going through my portfolio. I wanted to continue the theme and draw another mermaid mother and daughter relationship, but I had a hard time coming up with an idea of what they could be doing. One day in early May, on a very long train ride, it came to me. It was one of the first sunny, warm days of spring/summer, and I was stuck looking out a window for 3 hours of it. I kept imagining the feel of the sun on my skin, and how wonderful it would be to suddenly find myself on a tropical beach... And this image came to me:
Obviously it's quite different from what the finished piece became. I drew the mother mermaid taking a quiet moment to enjoy the sunshine, while keeping an eye on her daughter playing nearby. I started with the idea of the child making a sand castle, and I even added a sibling lounging against the mother's side... but I wasn't convinced. So I did a couple other thumbnails in the upper right corner with the child playing with a seagull, a lost shoe, and in an entirely different position... It wasn't until I put the sketch into Photoshop that I realized that the problem wasn't the child, but the mother. She was too far in the background and not engaged with her child. So, I re-did the entire sketch in the computer to get something like this:
When I was happy with the composition, I started cleaning it up. This was perhaps the most tedious process, but it went along fairly well. Some turtles showed up to watch the fun, too! Didn't really plan on them, but I put one on the tail as a split second decision. Then the other guy came along to see what was going on.
I got it to this point and I was SO excited to start painting... but then I left on vacation for 10 days! I was so excited to finish it, especially as Mother's Day was fast approaching and I wanted to present it to my Mom in person, so I took my laptop and Wacom tablet on the trip... not that I had time to work on it :-(
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When I returned, my parents were still in town, so I couldn't really make an excuse to disappear for hours to work on a painting. I only see them once a year, if that, so I told my Mom she'd be getting her gift a little late! Once they left, this painting actually helped to soothe the post-family time blues. I think missing my Mom fed into the sentiment of the piece, too.
First I colored in the mermaids. I went back and forth on the little girl's tail, but I like the warm colors I settled on for both of them.
Then I added the background. I realized that it needed more interest and texture than the pretty plain sandy landscape I'd inked in... So I kinda just threw more palm leaves at it!
Et Voila! The final piece :)
First I colored in the mermaids. I went back and forth on the little girl's tail, but I like the warm colors I settled on for both of them.
And that's it! I finished the paint in just over one day after my Mom left. I lovingly dedicate this piece to her!
Well, that's about it! Do you think I should continue the theme and create a book of mermaid relationships? Feel free to write your ideas below! I look forward to hearing what you think :)