Mermaids Here, There and Everywhere

I have recently received a commission to do a painting of a woman's two daughters as mermaids. She actually doesn't really care for the mermaids to look exactly like her daughters. She's more interested in them having the same characteristics as her daughters. (one has black hair, one brown, one has freckles, etc.)

I have been itching to do a mermaid painting for quite awhile so I am eager to get started on this piece. I went to my client's house and saw the girl's rooms and saw the sorts of things that make them different from each other. One is a bit of a tomboy while the other is a little more girly. My client also  showed me some pictures of her daughters including one where her youngest daughter is at the beach making a sand castle and one where her eldest daughter has a butterfly on her nose. I always try to include personal touches in my commissioned pieces, so I decided to incorporate the butterfly, possibly the sand castle and even the eldest daughter's pet corn snake wherever possible.

I usually begin creating as many different concept sketches as I can. Various angles, poses, even themes until I find the three that I like the best. Here are the concept sketches that I have developed so far for this painting. After I choose the final three that I like best, I will move on to choosing color schemes and then I will present the final three concepts to the client so that she can decide on which painting she would like me to complete for her. I find it best to limit the number of choices that you give a client. More than three choices can easily become overwhelming.

My first concept sketch for this commission was done while at work. I used whatever I had around me, which ended up being a blue pen and yellow and blue highlighters on a scrap piece of ruled paper

  The girls like to be together, but they don't necessarily like playing together. As such, having one brushing the other's hair isn't really in keeping with their personality's, but I really like the idea anyway as it's more in keeping with what mermaids would do.

 

            I fit the eldest girl's pet corn snake in this one, though I will
probably fit him in whichever design my client finally chooses.

 

In this one I was playing around with the idea of the girls being on different rocks and therefore at different levels in the painting. I also like the idea of one girl lying down.

 

       In this sketch I fit in the youngest daughter's sand castle.

I'm still trying to decide which three I like best. Which are your favorites? I'm excited to start cleaning up these designs and adding colors. It's always a lot of fun to come up with new paintings though it's a bit stressful when you have a client to please.

Busy November!

Good morning everyone! Yet again, I have been remiss in my blogging duties. No matter how much work I do, I never seem to get finished with my to-do list!

Here are some things that have been happening as well as things that are coming up in the future...
The cold that I had when I was writing my last blog post ended up being a super bug from hell. I had the most horrific coughing fits and ended up pulling a muscle in my side and pinched a nerve in my neck because of them! My doctor prescribed an antibiotic, steroid, antihistamine and decongestant all in one fell swoop. I've never been on so many drugs in all my life! Needless to say, each one seemed to have it's own special brand of side effects that ended up making me feel much worse until I finally started to feel like myself again.

ook about 2 weeks out of my life where I barely had the energy to get out of bed let alone go to the day job and get artwork done. However, I still managed to get to my burlesketch sessions. Here are a few drawings from the first one that we had. All of the poses were no more than 20 minutes so you really had to work quickly!

Because of Halloween, the theme was a naughty witch. Very fun to draw!

Some other projects that I have going on right now are about three portrait drawings, one painting and one pair of custom earrings. I am also working as the costume designer for a photo shoot in L.A. that my talented friend, Drew Bates, hired me for. I'll be working long distance helping him with a fun 1950s look.

< If you are going to be in the South Florida area Dec. 2nd and 3rd, I will also be at the Palm Beach Gardens Holiday Art Show. There is always a nice turn out and it should be lots of fun!

I hope to be better about blogging more regularly, but we know how well this usually turns out... Anyway, I hope that you have a fantastic week and I will be sharing some new artwork soon!

Your creatively overwhelmed artsy friend, Rebecca.

New Facebook Giveaway

Just wanted to share some exciting news. My facebook fan page has been growing and is now at nearly 200 followers! Once I reach 200 followers, I am celebrating by having a giveaway! You must be a fan of my page to participate, so if you aren't already, please go here and "like" my page. If you are an artist and have a FB fan page of your own, feel free to post a link to it on my page. My page isn't just about my work, it's about sharing the work of others. It's essentially an arm of this blog. I always strive to share exciting artistic finds that I stumble across. Whether it's the artwork of masters come and gone, or the work of artists and artisans who are up and coming. My main goal is to inspire others.

I have recently signed up to take an open drawing session entitled Burlesketch. I am SOOO excited! I am assuming that they were inspired by Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art School, where they often draw burlesque models and such. I have always loved figure drawing and am excited to try something different while still honing my skills. The classes begin in mid-October, but I will be sure to post some of my drawings/paintings here for you to see.
If you research Dr. Sketchy you will come across all sorts of lovely work. One of my favorite drawings is by Audrey Kawasaki.

Whether it's corsets, bras or pasties, I'm sure that it's going to be lots of fun!