CGMythology's Sketchbook (nudity)

Looks good. I like that dark bit in the sheen of the chest piece. It almost looks like the reflection of the viewer and makes you feel as if you're really there in the scene.

Ready to begin a new painting! I wanted to tackle a mermaid theme this month for 'Mermay', although we'll see if I'm actually able to finish the painting in time, but we'll see. I finished up work on a sketch depicting the sirens, and the figures themselves were reference from Howard Loyn's photography /reference pack. I'm fairly happy with the composition and theme of the sketch, but please feel free to let me know any feedback before I proceed painting. Here is the sketch:

I think it mostly looks great, and I'm impressed by the scales (doesn't matter how many help lines etc I use I always have to redo scales about 5 million times). Two things that catch my eye (besides the very white bird )
1) The lowermost mermaid's knee - but it might look perfectly fine when it's colour and shading instead of linework.
2) There's a tangent (or very close to a tangent) between the lowermost mermaid's face and the next mermaid's bum. If possible, I think a greater overlap would look better.

Charlotte wrote: 2) There's a tangent (or very close to a tangent) between the lowermost mermaid's face and the next mermaid's bum. If possible, I think a greater overlap would look better.

There's an actual tangent between her hand and the arm of the mermaid above her. Also... Mermaids with knees (I'm going to complain every time I see people do it, you can't stop me )

Yeah, that knee gives the impression that her hips/thighs are leaning toward the viewer, but from the shins down to tail appear to roll away from the viewer. ... Maybe sliding the middle MM to the right altogether may be helpful? - Because along with the Bum & Face mentioned, her hand also actually lines up with with the arm/elbow of the second, and it wouldn't hurt to move her face back some from the furthermost MM's hand either.

EDIT... Didn't see your post, Banj. Must have been near the same time. But the hand/elbow stood out to me as well.

Banj wrote: Mermaids with knees

Did you ever see a mermaid autopsy?
(I generally agree - if they're supposed to have fish tails they shouldn't have knees - but they're mythical beings so maybe they don't actually have FISH tails? Maybe they actually started out human and then their legs got glued together and covered in scales.... Maybe the scales stuck to the glue too... )

Charlotte: Thank you! Great point regarding the knees, just cleaned that up. I took your advice about the overlap, I hope it works much better now!

Banj: I think I fixed the tangent now! And I prefer mermaids with knees, I feel it looks more 'natural', but I guess it's a matter of preference

DigitalDave: Great input, just applied/moved the mermaid as suggested.


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I reworked the sketch a bit and began the painting process, it's come quite a long way. I forced myself to use less saturated colors than normal at the beginning which I think helps, really looks more natural in terms of saturation so I'll be using this technique more in my work. I'm fairly happy with how it's turning out, although it has quite a long way to go. Any feedback welcome and encouraged!

Continued to work on the image, made a ton of progress and it seems to finally be coming together. Any input is appreciated, here is the current preview:

I really like the lighting on the bodies. Looks beautifully radiant.
I think the shoulder at the bottom right corner looks a little sharp but I'm sure you'll soften the shading as you progress.

Valence: Thanks! I softened up the brushwork as suggested, hopefully it looks more natural now!

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I reworked the image quite a bit, focused a ton of values and detail work here and tried to make it look more natural and realistic. I'm calling it done for now as I worked so much on the image that I'm quite exhausted! With that said, I'm fairly happy with how this one turned out, and thanks again for everyone with their input and suggestions, really made a big difference here so I'm very grateful! Here is the final image: