Gesture Drawing: How to Draw a Mermaid

Gesture drawings can help take the fear out of drawing the human form. If you ever thought that you can't even draw a stick figure, I've got great news for you folks! I don't consider myself to be Michael Angelo at drawing mermaids or the figure in general but I can tell you that gesture drawing helped me more than I could have imagined.

Serafina mermaid as stick figure gesture

I went from drawing this simple sketch above to the drawing you see below. One thing to keep in mind is that this drawing was pieced together using several drawings. Hey, that's why they invented tracing paper but you'll learn more about that later.

Serafina mermaid final drawing

Kell Bell studio is pleased to present a short series of videos on how to use gesture drawing to draw a mermaid. The only things you'll need to get started are a pencil, sketch book and a little imagination. Let go of your fear and have fun, it's just pencil and paper. Erasers are optional!

The Face of the Coraline Mermaid

1 week and 12 faces later, I've done it! I have finally drawn a face that is exactly what I want it to be and here she is. Perceptually, she doesn't look much different from the last two but there are some subtle differences. The pupil placement is more true to life in the center of the eye than off center even though the latter works in illustration. I narrowed the eye shape just a little and brought the bottom lid up. Lastly, her nose isn't quite so flared, a detail that was bugging me a bit in some of the other renditions.

The face of the Coraline Mermaid

I now find myself ready to progress to the next phase which will be to draw a color versions of the Coraline mermaid using colored pencil. This should not take me too long since most of the leg work was done with the graphite to get the composition and placement right without color getting in the way. I'm so excited! Follow this Kell Belle Studio mermaid journey and watch the evolution and transformation into my first significant mixed media paper sculpture with charm.