Her tail and the two fish are the elements that I think about most, I don’t really want this piece to be about her hair but a funny thing happened...
(Since drafting this post I completed one of the fish, that turns out to be a shark but I gave him scales. Not sure if other fish will be the same? I like the idea of male shark and female shark being different. If the next shark turns out better, this shark will have to have a new look.)
As I gave the mermaid’s features form, I could see the original drawing for the woodcut suggested somewhere in there. That was a complete surprise and actually magical, because now I’m really back in the past.
I think this is quite a pious image along themes of hope for safe journeys, sort of thing, because if you look more closely you can see her hands look as if she’s praying, she’s wearing a modest chemise and her hair is covered.
I also think she was younger in the original design drawing than in the woodcut, but that’s what happens when you start gouging at delicate faces with wood carving tools...it’s all about the “quality of the line”, as they say.
I think the fact that her bosoms are not on show and she is altogether a demure mermaid, make her to me, seem more like the guardian angel of the ship, than pure fantasy borne of physical longing...?
Her tail is going to be hard, as are the fish. Why? because if it ain’t hard, it ain’t worth doing.
Hard is when you learn, when you find things out and when you develop as an artist.
Hard can also produce dreaded banishment to the attic for several years but, hey, better late than never, right?
I’m already working on my next project, which is going to be very different indeed and in fact I’ll tell you now because I’m super-excited...it’s going to be of a soldier about to go off to the Battle of Waterloo.
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