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Chalaya — Jackpot!
Published: 2013-09-07 14:02:09 +0000 UTC; Views: 3524; Favourites: 134; Downloads: 55
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*Please do not use this deviation in any way or take it and put it on any other website!*I wonder where she found that enormous pearl...
I'm very pleased with how this one turned out. My first completed mermaid. I already have an idea for a second one. Addicted much? The scan was pretty good on this one. Her hair looks the same color as her tail here, but on paper I actually colored it more of an aquamarine shade. I had a feeling that wouldn't show up, but oh well. Her skin has slightly more of a warm tone than what came through on the scanner. I wanted her skin to have a pearl like shade. Something different I tried that looks better on the real thing. I'm really proud of her hair piece. I designed that one myself.
I'm also happy with the scales, although it was quite tedious. I'm not so happy with the fin. I think I'll do something different next time. The plant life and such around her is just what I came up with from imagination. It's nothing that is supposed to be accurate or anything. Just something to create atmosphere. She's taking that massive pearl back to her private little grotto. Mermaids do like pretty things after all.I used this lovely stock provider as ref for the upper body pose faestock.deviantart.com/art/Si…
Materials: Prismacolor colored pencils for all the coloring, Derwent watercolor pencils for the water, white gel pen for the sparkle effect.
Hope you guys like!
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Comments: 87
This is amazing~
I particularly like the way her hair flows and all the work you put into the scales!
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Thank you so much for the lovely comment! I did put quite a lot of work into the scales, and the hair was my favorite part to draw.
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Such a beauty! this must have been quite a job! Great work like always!!
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Thanks hon! It was a job, but fun all the same. I'm so glad you like it! Are you working on any beautiful art lately?
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I belive it was quite some work! must have been hell of a work! but it was worth it
I just uploaded a coloring, I hope you'll like it!!
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I love your new colorings! I am going to make a priority to comment on them very soon! So good to hear from you hon!
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don't worry about commenting hun! you have plenty of time 
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I did comment on one of your new pieces, and got a look at the other! Both very beautiful hon. I'll comment on the newest one soon.
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Maybe she is a mini mermaid and found a normal sized pearl??? Your art is beautiful! My mermaids look like derps, sooooooooooooooooo...anyways! I LOVE THIS WITH ALL MY HEART!
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I hadn't thought of that! Thank you so much for the wonderful compliment! I'm sure your mermaids are lovely! I'll have to take a visit to your gallery as soon as I get some more time!
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Amazing!! I love the shading and the color combinations!
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Thank you so much! That means a lot!
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Oh wow her face!! her eyes are so so beautiful and that tail is just amazing the scales and attention to detail and highlights really give her shimer and add depth! The blues all look so lovely and there is so much going on and no big negative spaces! wonderfully composed!
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Aw, you're going to make me blush! I'm so glad you like this one. I was so happy with it, being that it's my first hand drawn mermaid. I'm so thrilled that you noticed the shimmer in the tail. I worked really hard on that. You noticed all the things I was most proud of! Thanks so much for the amazing feedback!
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You're welcome the shimmer you put in is really stunning <3
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You really did a lot with the blue, you did a gorgeous job with the shading and blending
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Thank you so much! I'm glad you like it!
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Wow! This is amazing! i love your art style!
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Why, thank you! I'm very glad you like my style. You are most welcome for the llama as well. I usually give llama's to people who fave my work. I'm very flattered that you visited my gallery. Thank you so much for taking the time to leave a comment. I make it a habit of giving a comment when I get a comment so I'll zip over to your page and leave you some nice feedback.
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I'm sorry it took some time to answer, I didnt ignore it or forget, I just didnt know what to write back! I was really flattered and I had to Read the comments over and over again! It probably Sounds really cheesy but I dont care xD I was happy you answered I actually thought you wouldnt (i dont really know why, probably Because most famous artists doesnt). I love your drawing tecnique and I was wondering what pencils do you use? You worked really nice with the colours! I was thinking of starting to draw with crayons.. Well anyways, Thank you so much for visiting my page and even leave a comment!
P.s. Sorry if I spelled some words wrong I'm from Sweden
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Aw, it's not cheesy at all. I always reply to comments because I really appreciate them. Believe me, I'm not famous around here at all. I'm just a hobbyist. But I do really appreciate any attention that I get. You are so nice! I'm glad you like my drawing style. I use Prismacolor colored pencils for most of my coloring and occasionally I use Faber Castell watercolor pencils and pastels. I always draw with a regular lead pencil though. Coloring with crayons and colored pencils is a lot of fun. You really should try it sometime! And you are very welcome for the visit and comment. I enjoyed it.
Your English is excellent by the way.
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Ahh okay! Because the coloring is really nice with those pencils
Thanks again!
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Thanks again! You're very welcome!
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OOOOOH MY!!!!! THIS IS SO PRETTY CASSIE!!! THE DETAIL IS AMAZING!
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Thank you so much hon! I'm so glad you like it. Thanks for the fave as well!
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Ever since you told me that you'd be trying your hand at drawing a mermaid, I've been eager to see what you came up with. Of course, you were well aware of this fact as I had been encouraging you along the way. When you posted the link for me, I was beyond words. Speechless. Every time you post something, you're always outdoing what you did previously and this is no exception to that. In fact, this may very well be one of my favourite pieces that's sitting in my favourites folder. It's absolutely stunning!
Now onto specifics. I actually want to start off with the background. Something I usually take note of with your pieces is your use of background. I admire the work you've put into it here. You have a great sense of composition. The reef frames her perfectly and serves to emphasize the curve of her body. Likewise, the seaweed floats nicely and adds detail without taking away attention from this gorgeous mermaid. The more specific details of what sits on the reef are great little additions. The sand looks really soft and touchable. I can almost imagine my feet sinking into it. I like the colour you chose for the water. It's almost like a seafoam. It compliments the colour scheme of the mermaid as it highlights it without overpowering it. The mermaid herself is gorgeous! I love the curve of her body and you've drawn her musculature really well. It's very Britney Spears circa 2001. One of my favourite things about this mermaid is how organic she looks. The speckling of scales on her breasts reminds me of how Alyssa Milano appeared on "Charmed" for its two-part mermaid episode. It's a nice change-up from the usual seashell bra thing that's pretty much the norm for mermaids these days. I'm particularly fond of the shimmer you've given them. The scales of her tail are immensely detailed and I can only imagine how much time you had to spend on them. Your hard work really is on display here. I even like how you transitioned into the scales from her torso into her hips. That's a nice touch. I do have to agree with you on the fins though. I think that you're such a detail-oriented artist and the fins are too overly simplified for you. I think they needed some kind of veining or ruffling. That said, the fins still look great. The gradation you've done on them is fantastic. Her face is my favourite part of this piece though. I love the serene expression she has. You have her gazing at this giant pearl and there's such serenity to it that it almost stills you for a moment. It's very meditative. I adore all the make-up you've given her. The sparkling and shimmering effects you've created are brilliantly done. The speckling beneath her eyes is particularly effective. I also really like how you kept her very consistent facially. She's all in shades of blue. Those long lashes are to die for too. The various accessories you've given her here are quite cool. I love the gold jewellery. You really excel when it comes to shiny objects. I particularly like the bracelet. It's very aquatic. I will admit to being slightly puzzled by whatever it is she has on her head. It's mildly distracting if only because it has a lot of volume and its colours clash with the unity of the blues you have her in. It still somehow works for this piece though. Lastly we come to her hair. Do I really need to go on about how great her hair looks? You already know I think you're the mistress of flowing tresses. You've absolutely nailed the look of floating hair and I can't help but be reminded of the way Barbie's hair looks when she's submerged in water. I adore the volume of her hair and I even like how you've chosen to really section off a lot of her hair. It shows your versatility in rendering hair. I'm in awe! Honestly!
I'm so proud of you and what you've been able to do with this piece! You must feel so gratified by the comments you've received and must be ecstatic with the number of favs you've received. You really deserve it and hopefully your art will continue to generate this level of interest. I'm so glad you did this piece! Keep up the great work!
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*Squeals!!* You know I was looking forward to this! I am grinning like a school girl right now. I feel like "thank you" is not enough to express my gratitude for this amazing feedback! I can't believe it's one of your favorite faves. You've got such amazing, professional looking pieces in there. It makes me feel giddy!
I'm so glad you like the background. When it was coloring it I was a bit afraid that it would be too busy but as I got further into it I really started to like it. I think this is the beginning of more detailed backgrounds for me. It's a lot more fun than filling in huge areas with one color and I think it really put this piece over the top. It gave her some atmosphere. And you noticed so many little things, like the way the reef frames her! That was actually a "happy accident" as Mr. Bob Ross would put it. I was pleased about the water as well. I was afraid that if I made it blue it would blend in too much with the colors I chose for the mermaid. I actually have a fairy tale book that has an illustration of "The Little Mermaid" featuring greenish water and it works. As far as the mermaid herself, I couldn't be more happy with how she turned out. I started not to add that little muscle tone in her abdomen but I'm glad I did because it really looks nice. It makes her waist look slim but not scrawny which is what I was going for. You can't swim your entire life without having some kind of visible muscle tone in your abs after all. I took the idea of the sparkling scales on her breasts from several different sources, that episode of "Charmed" being one of them. The seashell bra is cute, but I wanted her to have a more mature feel. I thought about just making her nude but I didn't want to have to put a filter on my first mermaid piece. You guessed right about those scales on her tail. Yikes! It's the feathers on the angel wings all over again. But I forced myself to press on and it paid off. The fin is much too simple, you're right about that. I tried a few things to put some detail to it but nothing I did seemed right. I guess it's the way I drew them. I'll experiment with that. I'm so glad you like the face. It's one of my favorite things as well. It was difficult for me to fit the features on a smaller face, but I think it came out nicely. I particularly like the mouth and the make up really worked out well too. I did that speckling on her shoulder too. As far as her hair ornament goes, it was an experiment. I'm not particularly good at designing things like jewelry and clothing so I thought I'd give it a whirl here. I'm pretty proud of the composition of it but it is a little big for her head. I also made it colorful because I took from the idea that mermaids like bright, pretty things and so I figured she'd make accessories that would stand out. Kind of a little narrative to her personality I guess. I'm so glad you like the hair! I kind of surprised myself with that one. I made a conscious effort to make it look like it was underwater and it was just one of those rare instances for every artist where we go "That's freaking awesome. Did I really do that?" I just really hate that the scanner didn't pick up the aquamarine tones I put in her hair. I meant for it to differ slightly in color from her tail but, oh well. I'm sure by now you know my love/hate relationship with my scanner. I thought of Barbie's hair too! It was part of my inspiration for this.
Again, I profusely thank you for this awesome comment! I've lost count of how many times I've reread it. I am very thankful for all the comments and faves I've received here for sure! I already have an idea brewing for my second mermaid. Thank you again, a thousand times! As always, seeing your essays (you write them too) in my inbox always makes my day!
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Honestly, thank you is good enough.
I'm so proud of what you've been able to do here. It's great to hear that you're looking at this as a new beginning point for you. I'd love to see how you'll approach backgrounds in future pieces and am actually looking forward to it since you were so successful with this one. I think it's great that you referenced a lot for this piece as it really paid off. You took a lot of cool elements and married them to create an amazing piece. It's actually interesting that Charmed was one of the things that you referenced. It's a good reference I think. I don't necessarily think you have anything to worry about when it comes to jewellery or clothing but I am interested how you'll do them in the future especially after getting those art books for your birthday. I'm sure they'll be perfect inspiration for you. I also like that you've thought about what kind of personality this mermaid would have. It'd actually be beyond amazing to see you do a series of mermaid drawings in different colours. I imagine each one would have its own feel. I'd love to see how you'd approach that challenge.
You're most welcome!
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Thanks again! You know by now how much your feedback means to me. I definitely plan on doing more elaborate backgrounds in the future. Maybe not with every single piece, but more often than not. Yeah, I remember that episode of Charmed. I really liked what they did with the mermaid theme. As far as the clothing thing is concerned, I'm actually working on two pieces right now where I had to draw dresses, one simple and one more complex. We'll see how they turn out. I've referenced my new books a lot with them. I actually plan on doing more mermaids with different color schemes! I'm excited to see how they'll come out as well.
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As always, I've enjoyed writing you a comment.
I'm really curious to see what you'll do with clothes but I'm even more curious about what future mermaids you might draw.
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As always, I've enjoyed reading it!
I hope that my recovery after this accursed C-section doesn't take too long. That will be a huge hindrance to my drawing. But I hope I can squeeze some in here and there. I only have two more full months until the baby comes and so much to do in between so I'm not getting as much art in as I would like. I've got so many ideas for mermaids and it stinks to have so little time to work on them.
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With so little time left, you could always just sketch out your ideas for now and use them as inspiration later. You may not have a lot of time to work on them, but having those sketches might motivate you somewhere down the line to actually make a plan for yourself and set aside time to really devote to having some "me time" which would include doing art. I imagine it'd be something therapeutic for you.
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That's a really good idea! Having some things at the ready would definitely motivate me, since the most difficult part is getting started. Art really is my favorite "me time" activity. It's very therapeutic. Especially the coloring part.
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Definitely! I think it helps to plan these things out. For me, personally, coming up with the ideas is part of the motivating factor. Talking about those ideas also helps. When you get other people excited about your work, it encourages you to set aside the time to do it. Unfortunately, when the interest doesn't meet your enthusiasm it tends to fizzle inspiration. At least that's what I find.
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I think I'll try to do that. It may help me out a lot. My motivation comes and goes during the course of working on one piece. I find that I hit walls that are really difficult to break through. Usually those walls hit when I'm almost finished with particular parts. My motivation follows a roller coaster type of pattern all throughout and sometimes when I hit rock bottom it's really difficult to get past it. But talking about it really does help. I do find that after I post a piece that doesn't get as much attention as I would like, my motivation takes a hit as well. It's not easy.
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That sounds similar to me in a way. The way I would relate to what you're saying has to do with drawing series or when I write. When I do pin-up series, I find that the initial set of drawings I do I'm able to get out fairly quickly. The inspiration is high and my enthusiasm is high in terms of my desire to share my work. Then I post the stuff and my inspiration takes a huge nosedive. This nosedive always relates to the lack of comments DA is famous for. So then my inspiration dwindles and I have to fight with myself to get a series done. That's why I've started so much on here but so many have gone unfinished. When it comes to writing, the inspiration comes in waves. Some days I'll just breeze through chapters and others I'll struggle to just write one paragraph. It's most certainly not easy.
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That sounds exactly like what I go through. I can definitely understand where you are coming from when it comes to inspirational nosedives. I have many of them during the course of one piece so I rarely finish anything quickly. It's a good thing I don't have deadlines. It is hard to keep the inspiration up when the feedback is low. I've had my share of fighting through a piece to finish it. It usually happens to me when I'm heading toward the end and I have to start thinking about a background. For me, the most fun is the actual coloring, but when I'm finished coloring the subject, it's difficult to muster the same enthusiasm for coloring the background. It sounds like you go through much the same process with your series. Start out strong, but struggle through the end. As far as the writing is concerned, I can definitely see that happening. Like any other art form, it's a creative process and it's just not going to be the same every day.
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Wow! I love mermaids a lot. I even have a mermaid folder in my favorite section and this came in for sure! The colors are stunning! The scene really gives you the impression she's in water. I love that hair ornament she has. That body is perfect! The shine is well balanced as well as the shadows. The details in the tail are stunning! I think you ready surpassed yourself on this one!
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Thank you so much! I love mermaids as well. I've got a folder for them in my faves as well.
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No problem 
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You always have such kind things to say! Thanks again. I can tell you like movement as well. We are both big fans of drawing hair I think. I adore all your pieces as well. I just wish I had time to comment on every single one of them, but I do look at all of them. You have a beautiful style!
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Thank you again ^-^ It's the same here for me
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