4 Weeks Mermay 2022 – Reaching Out – Melis 300
Some weeks are more challenging, some are less. On the private field, last week was quite since I was on leave and didn’t have to bother with my bread and butter job and similar stuff.
This gave room and energy for doing work in the creative field. So, I got time to finish three works I’m not shy to say that I’m quite proud of, each one standing out in its own rights.
4 Weeks Mermay
I hinted at it before and althoug strictly speaking it was the last of mentioned projects, I am so happy to announce it first!
Mermay is coming and as announced earlier, again I was planning something. No, we were planning something. This year I teamed up again with Potato Beta (Instagram). You remember our Arcryla City collabs? Yes, it’s her again.
Together we came up with our own Mermay Prompt Board. Although I somehow always managed to draw every day during the last 3 Mermays, it can be really tiresome and a lot of pressure.
Therefore we created a Mermay which gives prompts for weeks, not for days. Of course you can paint every day but you also can do only one painting for a couple of days with as many prompts as you like.
Of course you can paint every day but you also can do only one painting for a couple of days with as many prompts as you like.
Plus: There is a Joker prompt which allows you to turn any (non-mermaid) character into a mermaid version. And yes, there is a reason why a „Steampunk City“ also is on the Prompt Board. Speaking of … since it’s Easter, there are 3-4 Easter eggs hidden in the drawing. Some of them can be found by knowing earlier paintings of Potato and me (hint: Arcryla City), other ones are not that easy to find but knowing about us and Zelda games may help.
I again adjusted my website and now you not only will find a countdown but also an own 4Weeks Mermay subpage. There you will find the Prompt Board, the guide we wrote and finally my own entries as soon as Mermay starts.
We’d love to welcome you to our Mermay!
Prompt Board + Guide
Reaching Out
Strictly speaking I should have shared this one in this PaintLog already last Sunday. However, I was too short of time to do this and you know what I’m saying „It’s always good to have another painting up you sleeves for the next PaintLog“.
The Saturday before, another amazing episode of The Owl House aired. This led to a new painting of mine depicting the most intense scene of this episode.
I didn’t expect this painting to become my new top posting on Instagram (>70 likes currently), but here we go …
The painting refers to the last few minutes of mentioned episode. You will find a full review on my The OwlLog pages. which of course is spoilery. However, I don not consider the painting itself spoilery, if you know, you know, if not you don’t. Still, please be aware that I will referring to details of the episode while sharing the thoughts I had when painting this art piece.
„Probably doesn’t work that way“, well, doesn’t it? I immediately noticed how the colours of Amity’s adomination goo balloon and Camila’s vase matches each others and there are even the same kind of flowers (but for the colour, obviously).
In a symbolic, metaphorically way it does work, althought not in a strict physical sense, of course.
In my painting I intended to emphasize this symbolism even more. I not only put balloon and vase with the flowers straight one above the other, I also drew the vase’s neck thinner than in the episode, even more, the whole form of the vase basically is just a copied and mirrored form of the balloon.
Apropos mirrored … same applies for the stars in the background. They are exactly the same stars, just seen from the other side, symbolizing that Luz as well as Camila still are walking under the same (mental) sky though divided by dimensions.
But not only balloon, flowers, vase and stars show there connection despite division, I also painted in a band of flying blossoms. They are the blossoms of the Grom tree Luz and Amity created together in season 1 and the scene shows them flying away with the balloon.
At first, I only wanted to paint them into the top panel but then I thought „What if …?“ and this „What if …?“ turned out to create said band connecting both realms.
Honestly, I’m glad that I met the mood of this scene so well.
„Probably doesn’t work that way.
But it’s a nice thought, right?“
Melis 300
Last but not least, one of my mutuals on Instagram, Et_Meli, reached the milestone of 300 followers. Therefore, she hosted a DTIYS I participated.
So first of all: Congratulations to 300 followers, Meli! They are well deserved. Ever since I first saw your art, I loved how cute and how adorable it is. Watching your paintings and your progress makes me happy every time.
In this painting I saw life, I saw vitality, joy and fire, I saw ladybugs and fly agaric. I tried to put all of this into my version.
Along the way I wondered why I saw ladybugs despite white dots (not black ones). Still, I kept this impression but at the same time mentioned fly agaric came up, so there were both.
If you know me, you know that I always try to do something unique with a DTIYS original. This time, I changed the pose slightly. Not only to emphasize the vitality but also to practice painting feet in perspecives I am not used to yet.
I also changed the hair, I shortened it (what could I say? I simply like short hair) and gave it the fire of the sunset.
Because of mentioned impressions, I changed the earring too. First I thought of an earring in the form of a ladybugs but the black dots didn’t show well in this small scale. So, it became a fly agaric, matching the white dots of the shirt.
I had struggles with the baqckground, though. Sunsets usually are fruitful backgrounds, easy to paint, great lighting to gain, you cannot do much wrong with sunsets, especially if you use a gradient layer.
However, I had problems to find the right colours. They had to be as pale as in the original but then they lacked contrast. You wouldn’t have sees the woman this sharp, if I’d stuck to the original colours. So I divided the background colour scheme in two halves with an orange part in the middle and I added a rim light et voila – perfection!
Zum Kritzeleck 