Bebe,

Your mermaid is so beautiful. I love her buns! How stunning she is with her high lighted hair, all the bubbles, sea weeds and her tail even comes to life with your wonderful shading. The gold edges just finished this so nice also.

She is so worth the wait and thanks so much for sharing her with us. I would love to know more detail on the bubbles and anything else you want to share. So happy I had a moment to check in tonight.

Thanks again, Punk

OMG, doesn't she have the biggest rump?? I got a little carried away - and my boobs are so perky!! My grandsons didn't like her bottom so I may have to glaze it so more to give her a better cover. They are only 9 and the first thing they commented on was her butt.

The bubbles were very easy. We took the holes from the paper from a three ring binder, tore off one of the holes and used it as a stencil. Then just lightly pounce white over the holes. Not too heavy with the paint because you don't want it to be solid white. Then on one side do a small comma stroke and on the opposite side put a reflective dot of white. Use differnt size holes to make smaller bubbles - as you can see I didn't have any other size holes to use so behind her back I used my little finger dipped in paint and blotted.

Another tip is to use Press N Seal wrap. Once we had painted the mermaid we pressed the wrap over the painting. Then we took a credit card and rubbed over the wrap to seal it to the wood. Then using a very sharp razor, we trimmed around the mermaid. Once that was done we removed the excess wrap. The mermaid is now completely covered. Then paint your background brushing out from the mermaid so the paint doesn't get under the wrap.

Once everything was painted we brushed on a coat of DecoArt All Purpose Sealer. Then we put Burnt Sienna, red, purple, and white oil paint on our palette. We then put out a oil glazing gel. We brushed on the glazing gel on her face, then with a scrubby brush we added a little bit of red to her cheeks, then a little highlight on her nose and top of her cheeks with white. Then with Burnt Sienna, we defined her muscles on her back and her arm. With purple we glazed her tail and I added a bit of purple in the dark areas of her hair. The nice thing was if we didn't like it we just wiped it off.

Another thing she had us do was to take baby wipes and add alcohol to it. If we made a mistake with our acrylic painting we just took the baby wipe and wiped off the paint. Don't rub too much or you could go down to the bare wood.

This is what it is suppose to look like - this is Jill's.
{{!gwi}}

Bebe, your ability to do faces and all that detail painting just amazes me. I hold my breath when I try to do fine detail work, so I'm sure I would have just passed out if I'd tried to paint this project! LOL Your mermaid is every bit as nice as the instructors!

I love all your subtle shading and think the purple shading in the hair just tied it all together so well. She does look pretty sexy, but I think that's how she was supposed to look. Oh just wanted to comment that I think it is great that your "boobs are so perky", oh wait a minute, I think you meant your mermaid's boobs. LOL Just teasing you. ;o)

You sure got to try some different techniques this time, didn't you. I'm sure that was fun for you too. Thanks for giving us such great details about how things were done.

Luvs

Ha Ha...I was thinking the same thing Luvs....Bebe's boobs are perky!!! hahahaaha JK I knew what you meant B. Still funny though.

I think your mermaid is the grown up version of Jill's. She looks a little older and sexier. I prefer your color choices and plant life too. Her's is light and airy....closer to the surface, yours is darker and mysterious like in the deeper depths of the ocean. ha Both are awesome, but I must say if they were both for sale side by side and I had to choose between the two....I'd pick yours! If I was buying for a little girls room, I'd probably go with hers since it's a little more innocent looking. ha Your mermaids hair....gosh!!....it totally gives the illusion of being under water. You are a brilliant painter.
Thanks for all the good tips too. I have used a little scrapbooking punch to make a star stencil, but never thought to use a regular old piece of paper or hole puncher. ha I will be using that in the future.
~Anj

Hey, Bebe, your mermaid looks great. It seems to glow more than Jill's. I like your color choices. The dark purple under her bum looks better than the black under the other one, and the hair on yours looks fuller.

The class sounds very interesting. Thanks for the tip for bubbles - will have to try that. Yes, I agree with Anj that Jill's mermaid looks more innocent, smile.

OMG!!! i know i've seen this in your blog but seeing it again still takes my breath away! you are one fantastic artist bebe! her face and her hair is perfect! i've never seen anything more perfect. and the shadows and highlights you created on her body... man... i would want a body like that! dun worry about her rump ...and boobs... she's really sexy ;) just like J-lo :)

lol! i like the bubbles trick :)

fabulous!