gingerjargogle

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[loish]

How to draw underwater settings: make everything floaty and weightless. Done! ✅ Unless you're a geek like me and want to learn all about how to paint the lighting: the highlights of the ripples, the bluish glow, the reflections.. there's a lot to think about but it's so satisfying once you get it right!

I painted these for last month's Patreon challenge on underwater lighting! If you like drawing challenges, join us: we’re studying wrinkles and folds this month. It's time to walk away from those face-smoothing filters and draw some textured skin!

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 31!!!! Sea Foam 🌊🧜‍♀️

I LOVE the way this mermaid turned out!! Knowing that I wanted her hair to become the sea foam, I had a blast turning the rest of her into the embodiment of the ocean – her torso is a sandy beach where the seafoam of her hair washed up on, and the waves wash up her tail to meet the shore... I think she is so beautiful and etherial 🤍🩵💙

And look at that finished checklist!!! I DID MERMAY!! I'll be so honest, I wanted to give up just past half-way, but my fiance (very kindly) made me keep going. I am SO proud of myself for getting through it all AND getting them all posted on time, and I wouldn't have done it without him.

All of that being said... there will be no more mermaids from me for the foreseeable future 😂

[gingerjargogle]

Mermay Day 30: Chibi✨

I don’t normally draw in this style so it was a little daunting at first, but I actually had a lot of fun trying it out!! I use some similar “rules” for my Lil Bitties… except of course the dot eyes I draw, and the BIG OL anime eyes Chibi characters typically have 😂

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 29: Portals 💙🧡

When you see the colors I chose you might be surprised to hear that I actually didn't play the portal games... I've only played the couch co-op portion of Portal 2 with my fiance, but that's about it.

That being said, the game's blue and orange colors look fantastic together, and I had fun being a little bit more playful with the tail pattern, and incorporating the two different colors of scales and effects.

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 28: Icon 🪕

I've already drawn Ilona Maher and Sabrina Carpenter, and not that there's any lack of Icons to choose from, but one of my first thoughts was the legendary Dolly Parton, and there was no changing my mind! 🩷🤍

[emiebie]

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 27: Iridescent

I tried to just do something simple, just some fun colors on a mermaid tail and call it a day, catch myself back up before the end of the challenge.... But they didn't look good, I had an idea, and I'm an overachiever 😂 Please enjoy my iridescent Pearl mermaid in her clamshell bed 🪸

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 26: Shel Silverstein 🖋️

I enojyed this prompt wayyyy more than I was expecting too 😂 I loved "Where the Sidewalk Ends" and "Falling Up" when I was younger – and if you're familiar, you probably already noticed that I tried to emulate the title fonts from both of those books, lol – I just thought they were so goofy.

After looking at references and reminding myself of Shel's style, I wanted to lean into that. What kind of mermaid would be goofier than a Reverse Mermaid? I probably put a little bit too much stippling on there, but it's all on one layer and I didn't feel like hitting undo a bunch of times... but I think that fits the style.

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 25: Fairy Tail 🧚‍♀️🧜‍♀️

I had zero plan when I started this prompt last night, but we had just been at our local Ren Faire on Saturday, and I thought drawing one of these big princess hats would be fun and different!

The idea was that she was holding a little creature in her hand, but I know frogs don't hang out under watrer... the fiance said seahorses, so that's what happened 😂

We're getting down to the end of MerMay! And the month of May... and I'm getting down to the wire, cause I only just finished this one right before posting, and I don't have tomorrow's started... should be fine though, right? 😅

What's been one of the highlights of your month? One of mine was definitely the Ren Faire — it wasn't too hot or too cold, perfect weather to be done up in a medieval costume, the joust was wildly entertaining, and we came away with a perfect amount of goodies... and a sword 🗡️

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 24: Avant Garde 🎞️

It's that time of year again — what seems to be my third annual Sabrina Carpenter drawing, lol. Not only do I love her music, but her MET Gala dress this year is my roman empire.

I've been binging old seasons of Project Runway, and when it comes to the unconventional materials challenges, I always get so frustrated when the designers who don't take it seriously, and are like "What do you expect from me?" Uh, THE Dior film reel dress, made from actual film reel of the movie "Sabrina" FOR Sabrina Carpenter??

I'll step off of my soap box 😂 What's one of your favorite Avant Garde/MET Gala looks? Treat the comments like a runway 💃

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 23: Olympics 🏅

I knew immediately that I had to draw THE Ilona Maher – olympic medalist, legend, fashion icon. I love her messages of body positivity, encouraging women to be themselves, and her podcast with her sisters – House of Maher – is hilarious! I feel like I've been popped into the family group chat, and as the oldest of three siblings, I relate 😂

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 22: Botero

This was an interesting challenge! I was not familiar with the artist Fernando Botero, and his style of VASTLY different from mine! But I enjoyed approaching this redesign in a way that still stayed true to the original painting ("Tablao flamenco", c. 1932) while also putting my own spin on the mermaid rendition,

I've have been flying through my watchlist while getting all of these drawings done!! So now when I look at my finished pieces, all I can think about is what I watched while I worked... This one makes me think of "Practical Magic", which I hadn't seen until the other day! I get the hype, it's a GREAT movie – cozy and witchy and coastal 🤍

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 21: 8-Bit 👾

If you've been following along, you might recognize this piece from my Day 1 drawing. That's because I've NEVER done pixel art like this, so I figured that would be a good jumping off point.

Have you ever done pixel art? Drop some pointers below! Or if you haven't, what's your favorite 8-Bit game? 🕹️

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 20: Sea Shanty 🏴‍☠️

I had SO much fun with this prompt!! I freakin love pirates, and I had this idea of a Siren who became a pirate herself – at one point I thought that maybe the idea was that she spread tales of her treasure and lured all of these pirates there, only for her to take them down and steal THEIR treasure... which I guess does then make it true that her stolen treasure is there?

At some point I wondered how she would lure pirates, and what would draw her to them, and the idea of this golden glittery mermaid almost being part of the treasure herself was REALLY intriguing to me...

Anyway, there's all my pirate mermaid ramblings 😂 If you were a pirate, what would your signature thing be? I would steal a bunch of artworks, but the trouble of course would be (1) where do you put them, and (2) how do you keep the ocean water off of them? Good thing I'm not a pirate, lol.

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 19: Non Dominant Hand ✍️

I was going to do the entire thing from scratch with my non-dominant hand, but it was ROUGH. So I might have cheated a little bit, I did lay down some guidelines to go off of... but she's still not pretty 😅 And colors?? Forget about it 😂😂

[gingerjargogle]

Mermay Day 18: Miami Vibes 🌴🏄‍♀️

I'm not gonna lie, the only reason I have this to post today is because my fiancé is endlessly supportive. I had ZERO motivation to work on this one, ready to cave and play on our Stardew Valley farm together... but I let it slip that I had a mermaid due. He dangled it in front of me "Didn't you tell your followers you were going to post every day? Don't you want to finally complete MerMay? Draw your mermaid, you'll be glad you did."

I don't love the way she turned out, but given that I literally just finished it right before posting... I'll put a check in the box, and call Day 18 done 😂

I'm in need of some motivation going forward... which one of the upcoming challenges are you most interested in seeing?

[gingerjargogle]

MerMay Day 16-17: Booktok & Collection 📚

Alright, half-way through and I'm starting to lose steam 😅 The days have caught up to me, and while it wasn't my goal, I accidentally made the perfect combination for these next two days.

I'm not super caught up with Booktok, and I figured giving this mermaid a collection of books to get through would be a bit easier than (1) finding what's popular on Booktok, (2) hoping I've read it, and then (3) trying to figure out how to draw characters I've never read a word about. Only now as I'm typing this am I realizing I couldv'e drawn Ryland Grace as a merman...

And then, as I thought "Oh god, I don't even remember what's next. What am I in for??" I realized they went a little to perfectly together, and that I could use a breather 😅

What's YOUR favorite book — either a long time favorite, or something really good you've been into lately?📘