PROCESS VIDEO // mermaid (Patreon)

Here’s some of the process for my recent mermaid sketch! Unfortunately the video stopped working at a certain point and a chunk of the process is missing around 40 minutes in, but most of it is there. I dip my head into the frame without realizing from time to time, apologies for that! I need to learn to lean back while I draw :’)

As always, my sketch brush is the wonderful Macalabs HB pencil brush from this brush set.

Some pointers to explain the process in this video:

• My goal while painting this was to keep it chunky and expressive. I wanted to exaggerate the shapes a bit and use a more messy coloring style so that the personality of the sketch remained intact. Usually I’ll paint over the sketch fairly quickly and then the drawing will change a lot as I finalize it, and I’ll default towards smoothing things out. This time I wanted to prevent that happening and stay more true to those first lines. So the process here is a lot about finding an expressive coloring style that matched well with the sketch version. So you’ll see me playing around with brushes from time to time and opting for a painterly look.

• Color modification tools were super important for making this painting work. Unfortunately a lot of that happens off-screen because the modification windows pop up slightly to the right of the artwork, so if you see the colors changing, it’s me using a mixture of Hue/Saturation / Color Balance / Selective Color to change the color scheme gradually as I paint. This is really important for finding the right colors for my art - it’s always a process of searching for them. My tutorial on choosing colors elaborates more on how I do this!

• A lot of the rough, painterly effect for this painting came from adding the background color on a new layer on top of the image. Around 36 minutes in, I quickly paint a greyish hue on a layer on top, blocking in a new color to separate the mermaid from the background. Because it’s on a separate layer, I can easily use the hue/saturation slider to modify this greyish hue and search for something that works better. It ends up being a dark blue which I feel works best. Because I layered on this color quite loosely with a hard round brush, it doesn’t have perfect coverage and is a bit messy. I like the vibe this gives, and I push it further by adding some lines and rough brush strokes to the background. I think this is a good example of how trying new things and just seeing what happens can help set the tone for how a painting turns out!

• The final part of the process - from about 40 minutes onwards - is mainly just sculpting with color. I have everything I need already on the canvas and it’s just a question of picking the colors that are already there to sculpt out the details. My tutorial on sculpting with color elaborates more on this process and how I do it!

I hope you enjoy it! I’ll be posting a more sped-up version in a minute as well, for those who find this version a bit tedious. As always, if you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask!