Mothers day and the first week of mermay

Welcome back to my blog!

It’s officially over one week into May, so for artists you know what that means!! MERMAY!!! This is my first year participating in MerMay. If you aren't in the know, MerMay is a daily art challenge, where for every day in May, you make a mermaid! I made my own list of 48 prompts in order to fill my whole 24 page Arrtx coldpress watercolor paper sketchbook. As of writing this, I haven't missed a day, or a post.

For Day one I did three prompts, just to get rid of the uneven page numbers. I could have just done one, but I felt like doing three, for no particular reason. These first three prompts were tsunami, tech, and dragon. I don't much like how the tsunami one turned out, but I do like tech and dragon’s outcomes!

A space mermaid surrounded by stars and planets, and a Mermaid laying on top of clouds — Day 2, Space and Clouds

Day two was galaxy and clouds. I love these two, although I notice some issues with them both.

A porcelain mermaid and a skeletal mermaid — Day 3, porcelain and bones

Day Three was porcelain and bones. The porcelain one came out well, but I'm not a huge fan of bones.

a lunar mermaid and a solar mermaid — Day 4, moon and sun

Day Four was sun and moon. I really like sun, but moon is lacking. Someone mentioned they thought the moon was the Death Star for May the Fourth Be With you. I think that could have been fun!

a crystalline mermaid and a mermaid portrait with many horns — Day 5, crystal and horns

Day Five was crystal and horns. I based the crystal one off the Spyro statues all the way back from the very first game! It's very nostalgic to me. Horns doesn't have a story, but I think they look cool, if not a little extra.

a witchy mermaid and a mermaid with a sword — day 6, witch and sword

Day Six was witch and sword. The witch is fun and cute, but I don't like how sword came out.

Day Seven was chains and koi. I tried a lighting effect with chains and don't think it came out all too well, certainly not how I wanted it to. However, Koi is actually my current favorite. They're so cute and have great contrast!

a royal mermaid and a mermaid covered in mushrooms — Day 8, royal and mushroom

Day Eight was royal and mushroom. I think these are both just okay, even if royal’s tail color is my favorite color!

Day Nine was swamp and warrior. I loved the sketch for swamp and I also love how it turned out. It reminds me that in July we’re going to New Orleans for a family vacation! We only get three days and three nights there, so I plan to make the most of it! Warrior is alight. I wanted them to be an archer rather than a typical warrior, as id already done a sword-based mermaid. I know the bow came out a little wonky, alas.

a mermaid with sparkly wings and a bioluminescent mermaid — Day 10, wings and bioluminescence

Day Ten was wings and bioluminescence. I kind of like wings, but there's a lot I’d change. I do really like how the wings themselves came out, though! I really like bioluminescence, but my white and blue acrylic paint pens aren't as opaque as I’d like, especially for this piece. I have horrible luck with opacity for white markers, pens, and inks. I've tried them all, I swear!!

a seal mermaid on ice, with a seal in the background, and a ghostly mermaid — Day 11, arctic and ghost

Day Eleven was arctic and ghost. I love them both! The arctic mermaid is based off of a seal (with a little one in the background, even!). The ghost is great, although suffers from the aforementioned opacity issue.

Day Twelve was rainbow and siren. For rainbow, I was excited to try a holographic effect for the tail, and I think from a distance it looks decent, but up close its kinda... meh. The siren looks great though!

a candy mermaid and a mermaid swimming through seaweed — day 13, candy and seaweed

Day Thirteen was candy and seaweed. It was a lot of fun to make the candy mermaid look like gummy candy! I'm not sure how successful I was, but I like it overall! The seaweed took a while, but I also like how it turned out as well!

Day Fourteen (today!) was baby and flower. I really struggle with cutesy and chibi designs, so the baby one was quite hard for me, although I think they came out well! The flower mermaid was based off of a specific flower that I cannot for the life of me find the name of, but they look alright as well.

As it's the first weeki-sh of May, that means it was also Mother's Day! I opted to buy a few crafty things from Micheal’s to customize myself as gifts, alongside a few other little things, for one of my grandmas, my mom, and my partner’s mom. I'm close with all three of them, and I love them all very much!

For my grandma, I got a Mother-of-Pearl inlayed yarn bowl, and a little wooden butterfly (not shown).

For my partner’s mom, I got this groovy looking wooden abstract flower decor piece. It made me think of 60’s-70’s vibes, so I painted it orange, red, yellow, and gold. We also got her some chocolates.

For my mom, I got a mushroom vase and a little plaster butterfly magnet.

For better or for worse, I painted all the crafts with just acrylic paint markers (Arrtx and an unknown cheap brand), and varnished them with a matte paint-on varnish.