Hey all

I've been painting away at this mermaid image for abit of time :-) and thought it's probably about time to post the image.

But first a little context :)

This painting started when I made an open request to the steem monsters discord group a few weeks back.
I asked a simple question what monster should I paint next for the steem monsters art contest hosted by @steemmonsters

I had one wonderful suggestion from @crystalpacheco30,
She said "You should paint a mermaid!" I replied "Yes that is a great idea, Though she may not be the mermaid that you picture in your head, I do like to twist things upside down sometimes"

So off I went....

iPad and Apple pencil in hand.
I had a vision in my head already but it was a bit fuzzy, I didn't draw anything so to speak, instead I painted numerous iterations of this fish like mutant woman from under the sea. I ended up with the image below. Art process to follow directly after.

Final image with Colour Grading

It was more of an evolution of my initial idea until I reached something that felt right.

The Evolutionary Process In Video Form

You can see this process in my video below, which features some astounding music from @jeffandhisguitar, be sure to check out his blog and music.

At first I wanted to have an almost translucent skin where we could see an underlying skeleton of the mermaid.
I then thought about adding gills and adjusting her to have a more distorted fish like head, which sat rather big on her shoulder.

Maybe it could have worked.

But I wasn't feeling it. So I decided to keep the same facial features and re-design the proportions.
Matching more of an adult female human but a strange hybrid mermaid lady, with a skin that crosses the boundaries of fish and mammal.

I also wanted to create an illusion of depth and increased the underwater murkyness, almost like a thick fog and reminiscent of my previous post Mist Dragon

The Three Elements

The three elements I felt where key to this image are made up of her hair, eyes and reflections on her skin. They aren't super detailed but enough to give the idea that there is more detail hiding in the image.

Painting Done, Next Up The Colour Grade.

Once I refined the image to a more finished state I started looking at the colour grade. I purposely kept the original image a little flatter then usual colour wise, this gives me a good base to colour grade from. But honestly I rather like the softer more pastel like look.

I ended up with 4 variations, and I'm wondering which one do you all prefer?

#1

#2

#3

#4

Let me know what you all think in the comments below.
Thanks for viewing
Nick aka @niko3d

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