Fanart Friday: More mermaids!

#FanartFriday is where I share some of my own fanart (or just art) and/or shout-out some awesome pieces that I’ve spotted recently! Feel free to link/share your own in the comments!

So in my last Fanart Friday (A Butter MerMay) I said I’d show my other MerMay paintings in the next week…and now three weeks later here we are. Oops! It’s been really busy these days with getting my first COVID vaccine, finding a new place to live (I’m relocating soon), preparing a presentation on my Master’s research…whew. Lots to do.

Anyway, without further ado:

‘Celebrity’ Mermaid!IU

[ID: scan of a pen and watercolour painting of a pink tailed, East Asian mermaid with long black hair sitting morosely on a rock underwater with a concerned looking purple jellyfish. She is writing on some pink shells and throwing one away behind her.]

“Don’t forget among the cloudy dark/You’re a star painted with a left hand/Can’t you see how beautiful a true uniqueness can be?/You’re my celebrity”

This was inspired by one of the scenes in IU’s ‘Celebrity’ MV! I just love this song and MV so much, it’s so uplifting and sweet with great lyrics and of course her incredible voice and visuals. I’m so so so glad I listened to ‘eight’ (BTS was my way into K-pop) and she now one of my favourite artists.

Before this painting, I was still having a bit of a crisis with lineart and watercolour, but I thought I’d try using my Pentel brush pen for the lines to keep it looking ‘flowy’ and oh my god. I love doing lineart so much. Why do I create unnecessary worries for myself? I keep complaining to myself, ‘ugh I don’t know what my art style is’ but I think I’ve figured out that lineart makes up at least part of it.

Barbie Mermaidia: Elina and Nori

[ID: Sketchbook showing a watercolour painting of a fairy in pink lying on a rock in the water near a seashore, holding out bluebells to a blue-haired mermaid in the water below, with brushes and some watercolour half-pans next to it.]

This was my first watercolour painting in god knows how long! I’m trying to remember the last time I used watercolours…I think I did a couple for my ‘Carry On’ (by Rainbow Rowell) themed Inktober in 2019? I didn’t really understand how to use them though so it was nice to look up tutorials and try and figure things out again with this Barbie one.

I don’t know if any of you are familiar with the 2006 ‘Barbie: Mermaidia’ movie (sequel to 2005’s ‘Barbie: Fairytopia’) but basically Elina (the fairy) and Nori (the mermaid) start off as somewhat rivals (most of the animosity comes from Nori) and they grow closer. Obviously in the canon storyline they’re platonic but to me (and a lot of other people on the Internet, it seems) I always thought they made a better romantic pairing than the one in the actual movie. I was a kind of obsessed with Nori when I watched it as a kid…which makes a lot more sense once I grew up and discovered straight is not the default 😂

[ID: Sketchbook showing a pencil drawing of a fairy lying on a rock, holding out flowers to a mermaid in the water below, with brushes and a watercolour palette next to it.]

Also! Fun fact, I realised halfway through the painting process that in bluebells symbolise ‘humility, constancy, gratitude and everlasting love‘ and are apparently closely connected to fairies, being known also as the ‘fairy flower’.