Mermaid's Retreat | A Mixed Media Art Project

A playful project I wanted to share just because I love mermaids and their fantasy stories. For my current mixed media art project, I decided to portray a mermaid out of water. Perhaps she lost her way and was forced to rest along the seashore. Other marine life came to her defense and surrounded her.

Below are my procedures:

I utilized Canva to blend the different type images. I leave with you my procedures which begin with a blank, white canvas. I then add layers of elements in accordance with my upgraded Annual Pro Membership that includes tools to remove backgrounds, resize, filter, duplicate, and reposition items as required.

Perhaps of all the tools, the ability to remove backgrounds thereby creating transparencies of the images is crucial to the blending process.

• To a blank canvas, I added the scroll frame; resized it to fill the left hand side of the canvas. Realized I needed to duplicate it in order to fill the entire canvas to be used as the background.

• Added the large female mermaid image. She was already lying on her side as I wanted to portray, so I didn't have to reposition her. My thought was to have her lying down as if in distress.

• Added the smaller female black and white mermaid; duplicated the image to place in various sections on the canvas.

• Added the various birds in different areas on the canvas. Removed their backgrounds where needed; then resized and positioned them.

• Added the ball. Duplicated it to place on both sides of the female mermaid. Colorized one a purple hue.

• Added the landscape water and rock features from the LMAC database images.

• Added the black fish sculptures as landmark feature, then duplicated it.

• Finally, added the water glass with the bird and wine bottle inside.

The images I included to capture the surreal environment of a marine creature out of her element are listed below.

^{Background scroll ~ Female mermaid ~ LMAC Round 223 Contest landscape image ~ LMAC Round 219 Contest landscape ~ LMAC Round 200 Contest Image ~ Body of water - Contributed to the #LIL by @onyechi ~ Fairy riding hummingbird ~ Gull with wings spread - Contributed to the #LIL by @agmoore ~ Gull perched on post - Contributed to the #LIL by @redheadpei ~ Little Egret - Contributed to the #LIL by @digitalis ~ Glass with bird and wine ~ Public art at "The Egg's Costumes" garden in Holon - Contributed to the #LIL by @alex2alex ~ Mermaid Yoga - Contributed to the #LIL by @alex2alex}