My parents are preparing to publish their very first novel, and I am creating the cover art for them.  The title of the novel is Mermaid Drowning.  The cover art depicts the main character, Evelyn, watching the sunset at the beach with a storm looming on the horizon.

Mermaid Drowning – WIP 3Sketch 2 for the book cover of Mermaid Drowning. They decided they wanted her to be wearing completely different clothing. Aside from the horizon line, the straight lines are all there to help me lay out the composition appropriately for a book cover.

Mermaid Drowning – WIP 412″x16″ gessoboard

To transfer the details of the concept sketch I used carbon paper and traced the sketch using a the tip of a paintbrush.

Mermaid Drowning – WIP 512″x16″ gessoboard

I masked out the central figure so I can seamlessly paint in the background around her. I also masked off the horizon line so I can underpaint a clean and straight horizon. I used ordinary painter’s masking tape of the kind you find at any hardware store.

Mermaid Drowning – WIP 6Oil paint on 12″x16″ gessoboard

The central figure is currently masked out with normal blue masking tape so I can seamlessly paint in the background around her. I also masked out the horizon line before laying down the underpainting for the ocean, but I had removed the tape while painting so I could paint the rock on the right. I’ll be painting the ocean, waves, and sky all in the same sitting so they will accurately show the same colors. The underpainting will help to give the ocean depth beyond the sky colors it reflects.

Project: Mermaid Drowning