Mermaid and the Shark Bodyguard.

"Mermaid and the Shark Bodyguard". 18" X  24".  Acrylic on Canvas.  

So,

The subject matter is very obvious to anyone when they see it. This is called the Mermaid and the Shark Bodyguard. It's 18" x  24" and it's acrylic on canvas (because oils take too long to dry) Of course, everyone does mermaids and that's one of most cliche concepts ever. That's why I decided to do it. 

I had a different idea in the beginning. Not in terms of subject matter, but I had a different idea for the composition. The only reason why I didn't use it was because I realized that there wasn't enough space for the shark. 

The painting is very straightforward. It's a mermaid sitting on a huge rock, but then I was like "this would be awesome if a shark was in the background". I tried to make the shark look like a scary ass motherfucker. I don't want the mermaid to take away all the attention, and maybe she does, but whatever.

Here's the breakdown. 

Before I explain anything about how I started the painting. Note: The canvas was painted green from before. Anyone who's seen my INSTAGRAM will see a canvas painted green prior before starting this. 

Anyways. This is the beginning, I sketched out the figures, and blocks for the rock. Basically it's a very rough start after I cracked open those paints and went hard on the canvas I painted green. I have added blue in there as a start for the water that I will develop later on in the painting.

I have posted a preview of the painting that is also on my INSTAGRAM and it was mostly just very basic solid colors for the mermaid and the shark. I think that's what you really suppose to do. Like how make-up artists do faces, "lay the foundation... and then your ready to be cake-faced" (I'm playing around, I like make-up artist who can make a girl go from a 0.1 to a 10 and three-quarters) 

It's very rough color work right now. The sketch is rough, but that's like a dirt road compared to the little concrete we are building here.

Now we've got a road to head to Las Vegas with. We have passed the basic soild color scheme and then I started to lighten, darken and blend the colors together. As you can tell I did not fill in the sea weed/coral reef or whatever the fuck it's called. Actually, I thought of leaving it blank like that because of the color effect. The blue really bounces off the yellow by the rock there. Shit like that is what makes the painting look that much more awesome. 

Ah, yes and the black outlining, which works well most of the time, but not always. I'm no art god or anything of the sort. Which would be stupid because "Art" is too diverse and complex to have a right and wrong (some people disagree and that's fine, we call some of those people "critics") Depending on how you outline, sometimes black can have the negative effect instead of the positive effect that a person might be looking for.

Finally, 

This painting can be hung up on some nice beige, light blue or periwinkle walls. Maybe in your bathroom in a nice white frame. Maybe, I should paint a series of little yellow chicks (Not women, I'm talking about ducklings) to accompany the painting. Who knows. It took me 5 days to complete this painting. It's not the greatest of works, but man I had the drive and took the time to make a piece of art like this.

Paint-Life. 2014. 

Rizey.