My name is Laura Bernard and some time ago I decided to partake in a popular drawing prompt within the art community called "MerMay".
"MerMay" was created by illustrator Tom Bancroft for illustrators of all skill sets to challenge themselves to create a mermaid of every day in May, so 31 mermaids! The reason behind doing this is to step outside of your comfort zone creatively and apply certain ideas to a challenging yet lovely and aesthetic subject matter, mermaids. I decided to partake in this as I wanted to set a challenging goal, something to do alongside my daily illustration work, but I really wanted to further my character design skills in particular.
More info: Instagram | laurabeedraws.com | Behance | Inprnt.com
This post may include affiliate links.
The online art community I found extremely supportive of each other, so many of us did it together, enjoyed it together, got bored of it together, frustrated, accepted what we had signed ourselves up for and now here we are at the end, forgetting how to draw legs!
I found this very challenging as this was a busy month for me (personally and with my client and commission work too), but I’d already stubbornly told myself I would do the whole month no matter what. Many late nights, early mornings and "whoops it’s 3 am" led to an overall really positive experience where I dove into the medium that I love and adore, watercolor.
I am a digital artist as well so it was really nice to try and step away from my tablet, work traditionally and get my hands dirty. (Literally, I spilled my ink all over my desk, not to mention little muddy cat paw prints over one of the works).
My inspiration for mermaid portraits were women! The feminine. Romanticism, renaissance, fantasy, feminism. All sorts of things.
My journey as an artist started with pencil, copic markers and then watercolor in cheap sketchbooks. Then I moved on to digital! Now I have an iPad Pro and love being able to explore things I can’t with traditional mediums. I go to and from digital - watercolor and I learn so much with both.
I love being able to bring to life ideas in my brain! I’m impatient so something like oils just wouldn’t work for me. Watercolor can be used as a quick medium (but also slow) and digital is also so quick to create, adjust and erase.
Check out my socials and website if you want to see more of my works!
These are so beautiful. I love each mermaid - don't think I could pick a favourite. I've always liked the way long hair looks in water and this has been depicted with such skill. The little mercat is so cute too - has a very serene expression! Thank you for sharing these and I hope we can see more of your art.
Thank you so very much! Im over on Instagram so come and find me :)
I love the drawing/ colouring technique. Is it drawn first and then painted over with watercolors? So beautiful!
They are sketched, lined with ink and then i use watercolour overtop :)
I'm BIG on mermaid anything and everything, and these are some very unique and beautiful paintings. I'd love to see more <3
Im over on Instagram so come and find me :)
These are so beautiful. I love each mermaid - don't think I could pick a favourite. I've always liked the way long hair looks in water and this has been depicted with such skill. The little mercat is so cute too - has a very serene expression! Thank you for sharing these and I hope we can see more of your art.
Thank you so very much! Im over on Instagram so come and find me :)
I love the drawing/ colouring technique. Is it drawn first and then painted over with watercolors? So beautiful!
They are sketched, lined with ink and then i use watercolour overtop :)
I'm BIG on mermaid anything and everything, and these are some very unique and beautiful paintings. I'd love to see more <3
Im over on Instagram so come and find me :)