Finally the pages I’ve been itching to show off! This double page spread is the turning part in this chapter, and I had such fun painting this. And I finally got to show a mermaid! Don’t worry, there will be lots more in future chapters, and one or two more in this one. Although this is two pages, I’ll be updating as usual on Friday, which kind of counts as three pages this week.

As usual, it’s watercolour with ink, but I used coloured ink for the dream part, and black ink for the “real world” part. For those who are interested, the inks that I’m using are FW acrylic inks, and they are really fun to use. I also changed tools for the outlines — the black ones are my trusty old Pigma Micron pens, and for the coloured outlines of the dream I used a brush, a Dynasty Black Gold number 0. The colours of the inks are so clear and beautiful, I know I’ll be using them in the future for washes as well, as soon as I get control of them — they are permanent when they dry, which makes them several orders of magnitude more scary than watercolours!

I also added a bit of Photoshop magic to tint the mermaid green. I’d already painted her scales (in watercolour) and I didn’t want to risk muddying them by painting a wash over them. I was originally going to leave her blue and white, like the rest of the dream, but a friend suggested it and I thought it was a good idea!

I hope you’re enjoying “Mermaid Music” (and if you just found it, now’s a good time to catch up!). Please feel free to comment, and if you also make webcomics, share your URL and I’ll come have a look!