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windfalcon — Patina - Revised
Published: 2009-03-22 21:53:16 +0000 UTC; Views: 5925; Favourites: 145; Downloads: 82
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EDIT - Sorry everyone, the first scan was driving me crazy. I finally had access to a good scanner so I'm uploading a better version. The colors are more accurate in this version. Sorry for having it pop up on your devwatches again!In the depths of the most remote seas lives a rather strange creature. Unlike the usual mermaid, she simply is not content to simply adorn her hair with pretty shells and pearls. No, her eyes desire the glint of metal - bronze and brass - that the land-walking humans carry on their massive ships.
With her armored tail, she tears holes in the hulls of their wood ships, slowly sinking them down to her awaiting hands, where she tears the glimmering metal and attaches it to her tail with hooks and leather straps.
In time the bronze begins to dull with the patina that water inevitably brings. But she is a vain mermaid, and wants her tail to shine like the sun that warms the uppermost waters of the seas.
So as her tail begins to streak with green, she takes down another ship. All this for the beauty of her tail, perpetually to replace the patina with fresh metal from the lands above.
This is in response to an art challenge by ~mistressofspam to paint a steampunk mermaid. Now up until now I've been avoiding the steampunk craze like the plague, but after talking with my friend, ~Imoendraco who knows more about its origins than I do, I decided to give it a shot. I tried to use the steampunk elements in a realistic way, instead of just giving her arbitrary goggles and keys simply because they're 'steampunk.' I figured taking down ships to add on to your own body modification seemed 'punk' enough.
Details of the painting can be found here: [link]
Watercolor and white gouache on Arches cold-press watercolor paper, about 9X12 inches
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Comments: 39
I like your picture AND your story line - unique!
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You have been featured here > [link]
STEAMPUNK AQUATIKS CONTEST inspired
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Wow, that tail is amazing! I agree that it looks so much better because the steampunk aspects are there for a reason.
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Fantastic work!! She looks very dangerous and beautiful!
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I love this take on a Mermaid with a steampunk twist. Never done a steampunk merperson before. 
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This is a really intriguing mermaid design. I love the spiny fins that you've given her and the way the plates of metal on her fin are shaped a bit and overlap like scales over her own.
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It does look prettier now
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Lovely! 
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Oh this is fabulous! I love the way you added the steampunk details without some of the cliches.. it's very well done!
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Excellent execution, especially the way you used the watercolor and colored pencil layering in the background. Lovely details on that mer-critter as well.
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I really love the tail design! She looks quite dangerous..
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This piece of work is amazing for its wonderful textures and details and fantasy. The superlatives could keep coming about this picture
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That looks really nice! I especially love her tail!
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Your starting sketch did not do her justice! This is beautiful! I love how fine her hair is and how her tail has those lovely flashes of scale. I certainly much prefer it to my thus far digitally coloured mermaid ^_^ - Eliza
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I like the spread of her tail. Not sure what to think about how the pole ends though....feels a tad awkward.
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Thanks! Though which poles? The ends of each 'fin'? I was trying to have them fade a bit into the depths of the sea.
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^.^
Oh...right...the largest one pointing down to her hips. The fade feels a tad fast for the angle of the pole. I sort of guessed that was your intention, but it's the angle/direction of the fade that makes it look a little strange. I almost want to say that it might make more sense that there's more detail near her, where the light is and have it fade off to the right where the light drops off. If it were fading into the distance, it should be darker rather than lighter like how you have the water gradated at the bottom...unless of course there was another shaft of light coming down further back that would highlight the pole. Still, there would be darker waters in between. Hopefully that makes sense and I've not rambled too much? Lol
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Ah! You mean the wooden poles of the ship (sorry, I don't know ship terminology). I was aiming for a feeling of depth, since in the sea (especially farther down) things tend to fade quickly as they head away. Things that go farther back tend to get lighter with less contrast (atmospheric perspective), though I'm not entirely sure how that would happen underwater. I figured maybe the water was a bit murky (since a ship just sank and there's probably stuff in the water. Though perhaps I should have given it a bit more definition.
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Lol it's ok. My ship related vocabulary is slim as well.
Atmospheric perspective above water will make things lighter the further back they go, but water has a tendency to do interesting things with light depending on the depth that's being depicted and the supposed lighting conditions above and angle.
Going to note you some links to better explain what I'm trying to mumble at ya.
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This came out really cool, and I think you did the very right choice in making her make sense instead of just having goggles.
Awesome answer to the challenge 
Her hair looks very, very pretty, somewhat like a... sea anemone? No, that's not the word... ... like a white jellyfish! Sparkle! (I would have said 'electric' had she not been underwater)
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Heheheh ironically, my friend has been ranting about all the steampunk art/clothes/etc that have been more simple Victorian-with-technology rather than 'steampunk.' Goggles are fun and all, but I thought, "why would a mermaid need goggles? She's designed to be self-sufficient in the sea." I figured the tail-decorating thing would fit with the whole 'mermaid finding pretty things to adorn herself with.'
And underwater electricity would be interesting indeed.
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Goggles may be more cyberpunk anyway 
Yeah. Or... not really. There are electric eels already, right?
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There are indeed electric eels, though I'm not sure what it looks like when they try to shock something.
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I've heard gouache is nice to paint with. c:
Well, anyway, the details were amazing, but in the piece it's even better 8D
I love the pose and all the objects and things...scales...and stuff. c:
Well done :3
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I've heard good and bad about gouache. It's called opaque watercolour for a reason and some people hate that quality about it. I like it for that quality. I will usually mix it with watercolour though. Not together, but use both on the same painting.
The downside of gouache for me (or at least the stuff I have) is that it comes off more easily if it gets wet and isn't supposed to. It's also more powdery than watercolour.
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sorry to intrude but I hope you find this interesting:
you can use an acrylic gouache if you want it to be permanent. there are 2 types of gouache, acrylic and gum arabic based. the gum arabic is more like watercolours and the acylic based is opaque and matte, and compares more to a fluid acrylic. once it dries, its permanent.
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Huh. Never heard of the acrylic variant. Sounds interesting. I use the waterbase stuff mainly because I can go back and change things. That's kind of a good and bad thing with my indecisive habits. *shakes head* For more permanent washes, I've been just watering down acrylics and glazing them like watercolours. It works reasonably well and if I catch a mistake soon enough after it dries, I can still scrub it out without too much effort if it's a lighter wash on something that won't pick up a stain.
Thanks for the info!
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Ah, I see. Well, I'd certainly enjoy trying it, just to see how it plays out. I've never been good with colours, so I'm not sure 8D;;
Gouache seems to be nice if wet, yes, because you can easily repaint over a messy part or something >3<
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