How To Paint A Mermaid Step By Step

Mermaid Painting

Acquire how to create your very own mermaid painting with acrylic paint!

This step past step acrylic painting tutorial will guide you through the process and techniques of how to paint a mermaid!

This painting was done on a 16″ x 20″ stretched sheet with acrylic paint.

At that place is a video, a Complimentary traceable, very detailed pictures and instructions!

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I love mermaids and all things nautical and I think this painting is just "magical"! Sparking water, heart constellation, jumping dolphins, oh my! I nowadays to you "How To Paint A Mermaid"!

Happy Painting Artists!!!!

Materials Needed For Mermaid Painting:

Active Time 2 hours

Total Fourth dimension ii hours

Difficulty Easy, Medium

Instructions

Draw the horizon line with a straight edge and so transfer the mermaid drawing onto the canvas.
Depict the rock and island germination.
Utilize a 1" castor to paint the sky starting with mars blackness and blending to phthalo blue and so white.
Paint the stars past flicking some white specks of titanium white pigment then utilise a round brush to pigment a white moon in a higher place the horizon.
Pigment the water starting but under the horizon line with bright aqua green and so blending it to turquoise in the middle. Proceed down to the bottom of the sheet and blend in ultramarine blue for the water in the bottom area.
Paint the isle, palm trees, dolphin and rock all with mars black.
Use the apple tree barrel craft paint colors (fuchsia, parrot blueish and purple iris) to paint the mermaid fin.
Use a round castor to paint the mermaid hair a philharmonic of yellow, orange and primary red.
Paint a starfish in the mermaids hair and a few strand lines for texture.
Paint the skin color of the mermaid - her shoulders and arms.
Paint white highlights in the water.
Use a sharpie to draw the mermaid calibration designs.
Use a white paint pen to draw the constellation in the sky.

Craft Paint Conversion:

Directions At A Glance:

Printable For Mermaid Painting:

How To Draw A Mermaid:

This is a step by step drawing of how I drew the mermaid!

Video For Mermaid Painting:

Step By Footstep Flick Directions:

ane. Draw Horizon Line

With a pencil and a ruler, draw a line across the canvas. This is a 16″ x 20″ canvass and the line is approximately six.5″ from the acme.

2. Draw The Mermaid

I used a piece of graphite transfer paper and set it underneath my impress out of the mermaid.

Align her head just a little bit underneath the horizon line. And, since her tail was cutting off, I just filled it in.

3. Depict the rock under the mermaid and the rock in the background.

Then lightly describe the stone with a pencil.

The mermaid is sort of perched on this rock so the lines extend but to where her hands would be.

The stone in the background is near 3.5″ loftier and extends almost to her right shoulder.

4. Pigment the sky

Using a 1″ flat brush and "Mars Black" paint about an inch of horizontal strokes across the sky.

This heaven strokes are going completely horizontal.

After your 1″ of black, don't rinse the brush off.

Add "Phthalo Blueish" to the castor and paint slightly over the black so it volition alloy.

If your blackness has already stale, you might demand to add together a tiny chip more blackness to the blue to become information technology to blend.

Keep painting that phthalo bluish near all the way down. Smooth out any visible brush strokes along the mode.

Leave almost an inch of space on the bottom in a higher place the horizon line.

Then Clean off your brush (you don't want any blackness on the brush considering you'll make gray).

Paint that bottom inch above the horizon line "Titanium White".

Let that white mix with the bluish to make a light blue.

If it doesn't seem to exist mixing, so add some bluish to the brush.

Blend that bottom portion. The whole sky should be an ombre of light blue closest to the horizon line and blackness at the very summit.

five. Paint The Stars

I used an old toothbrush for this.

Don't dip the toothbrush in h2o or you'll go too many drips. Just dip information technology in the white pigment.

Examination it out on a separate piece of paper first so you tin get a feel for how the splatters behave.

Then splatter as many stars as yous'd similar.

vi. Paint The Moon

I used a i/4″ flat brush for this only you can use a circular brush.

Paint your circle.

That white might mix with the blueish if it's not dry all the way. If it does, you can get back and pigment another glaze of white on superlative to brand information technology a brighter white.

As you lot run across, my moon was lite blue for awhile. Look until that dries to add another coat of white.

7. Paint The Water

I used a 1″ flat brush for the large areas and a 1/four″ flat when I needed to "cut in" around the mermaid and around the rocks.

Beginning with your lighter turquoise (bright aqua green).

Annotation: in the video I am using "Bounding main Blue" in Hobby Lobby Make. This is equivalent to Bright Aqua Greenish in Liquitex BASICS.

I painted that lighter turquoise about an inch and a half down before switching to a darker turquoise.

The goal hither is to create another "ombre" of light to dark turquoise.

Without rinsing the castor, I added "turquoise" and composite it with the lighter turquoise.

Keep these strokes going left and right.

Attempt to smooth them out equally much as possible. Information technology will exist a claiming to "cut in" around the mermaid just painting it this way volition be rewarding in the end!

Don't worry too much about blending the two turquoises perfectly together.

Think about how Caribbean area water looks and how it changes from light to dark in some areas. Just attempt to keep your strokes as consistent, horizontal and shine as possible.

I painted this phthalo turquoise well-nigh all the way down.

Those white areas shown above are where I started blending in my side by side shade of blue.

Also, if you end up painting slightly over the mermaid, that can be fixed later! Just don't loose her shape!

Next I added "ultramarine blue".

This is e'er a lovely blue to use in the water!

Basically I filled in the rest of the areas with ultramarine bluish and did the best I could to blend it with the rest of the turquoise.

Be sure to use that small brush to cut in where yous need to blend.

That ultramarine blue was painted over and blended with a lot of the turquoise area upwardly to about the mermaid'due south shoulders.

This is up to you how much ultramarine blue y'all desire to prove upward. If you lot like the all turquoise wait, you tin can limit the ultramarine blueish.

Take your fourth dimension, make sure those strokes are smooth and cut in as close as possible to the mermaid cartoon.

8. Paint the rocks

Apply a small apartment brush to pigment both of the rocks "Mars Black".

I'm using a one/four″ flat here. Also NOTICE that I painted another coat of white paint over the moon!

Then I switched to a pocket-sized round brush to cut in even closer to the curves of the pilus and the mermaid tail.

9. Paint The Palm Trees

I used a small round brush (I believe a #3 circular) to paint the copse trunks.

And then paint the lines stemming out from the body.

Use the tiniest round brush yous ain to paint the little palms stemming out from each of the lines.

Start from the eye of each line and pull each little line outwards.

Echo to make a second palm tree! If you're on a "palm tree fix" you can paint more than!

x. Paint The Dolphins

Using a small round brush, starting time off by painting a banana shape torso.

Course the nose of the dolphin nigh like you're painting a dog's snout.

Add together the features of the tail, dorsal fin and front fins.

11. Paint The Mermaid Tail

Here is where I switched to Apple Barrel Craft paint because I didn't take these colors in Liquitex.

I wanted this tail to be "Mermaid Colors". And then "purple iris", "fuchsia" and "parrot blue" fit the description.

Y'all can use any shade of pink or imperial or fifty-fifty light green for this pace!

Kickoff I painted the tip regal.

And so I added in the fuchsia. Arts and crafts pigment is harder to alloy so I had to piece of work the color in harder but it ended up looking groovy!

To help it alloy, I did have to add more than purple into the fuchsia. Here it is all composite.

Next I painted the upper portion with parrot blue.

The blue was catchy to blend and it ended up existence a bit besides imperial. Don't fret too much about the tail color!

Retrieve that statuary scales will be drawn over the tail!

Next I went in and added some white on the finish of the mermaid tail.

And so I made some splash lines. This was all washed with a small round brush.

12. Paint The Hair

There were areas that I needed to "block out" again because I got bluish paint on the hair.

If this is the case, just utilise some white mixed with yellow or just white to block it out.

I used a number 3 round brush to paint the hair. When you paint pilus, each stroke goes with the flow of the hair. And then follow each bend around equally y'all are painting.

After starting with yellow, I added cadmium orange to my brush.

Once again, follow each stroke like it is a strand of hair.

I immune the orangish to mix with the yellow every bit well.

And so I added primary red (dark pink).

Once again, follow each stroke similar it is a strand of hair and permit the colors to alloy on the canvas.

A good clamper of her pilus ended upward being primary red.

Then I added some more layers of orangish and yellow.

To add some more than "pizzazz" I outlined some of the strands with titanium white.

13. Pigment The Starfish In Her Pilus

With a modest round castor and titanium white, block out an surface area where the starfish will exist painted in.

Note that if the hair is nevertheless wet you may not be able to pigment the white starfish until it dries.

Wait until the white dries and and then pigment it in with ultramarine blueish.

fourteen. Pigment The Shoulders and Back

To make this mankind color, I mixed iv parts white, 3 parts yellowish ochre and i part master crimson (dark pink). Play effectually with the proportions if necessary.

You can as well just use lite portrait pink for this pace or your own choice of skin color.

Later on you lot are done mixing pigment the mermaid'south dorsum and shoulders with a small circular brush.

To paint the arm line you see on the left, I used solid "xanthous ochre".

Y'all can also utilize your bronze sharpie to depict it in after the flesh colour dries.

Then I added her strap with imperial paint. The line starts just under the armpit and extends to her hair.

15. Paint The Starfish Blue

At present that the starfish is dry, I painted it in with ultramarine bluish, or whatever you'd similar!

I chose blue so it will dissimilarity against the carmine-orange hair.

16. Pigment white lines in the water

I used a #0 brush and titanium white to lightly paint horizontal reflection lines in the water.

Don't go besides crazy with this step.

Also I did more lines closer to the horizon line but nether the moon. Simply enough to make the water expect like it is sparkling.

17. Outline some of the silhouettes

I always like to slightly outline my black silhouettes because it makes them "pop" a bit.

I did this with the dolphins, copse and rocks.

Just lightly, use a tiny detail brush! If you don't similar the look, y'all tin always skip this stride.

18. Draw Mermaid Scales

I recollect this part really brings "magic" to that mermaid tail!

The stop result makes the tail look metallic and "color shifting".

I used a bronze sharpie to do this. I recall the bronze looked the best every bit I tested it out with the gilt first and it didn't quite accept the same issue.