Help with learning how to sketch Mermaid items??

[Mermaid Silverlilly]

Hey all!

So I have a ton of mermaid ideas in my mind that I want to sketch out for eventual stuff that I want to sell however I seem to be incapable right now of drawing it how I want or how I would like it to be!

I am good at drawing flowers but not much else hence my unsucessful attempts at drawing my eventual designs I want to make. I have so many ideas floating around in my head that I would be fine if I had all the materials yet (damn post and E6000 glue not showing up yet! Still in its time frame though) But I would have no problems putting my ideas together on my top but I want to be able to sketch it first as I know clients that ask for a custom order will want a sketch of the item first so they can say what they like or don't like etc! plus it would help me to be able to work out where I want things based on the sketches etc!

My question is can anyone help me out with ways to improve my drawing skills as most of the time I do it too small and don't fit all the details in or I do it too large and don't know how to draw what I want.

I know practice is one and possibly having the materials in front of me which I don't have yet! But I need to get these sketches onto paper now as I have so many ideas for tops, armbands, bracers, hairpieces, necklaces, and waist bands that it is putting stress on me and making me unable to think and I am not achieving everything I want too! Including keeping my beading going with my etsy store.

Please help me or show me ways I can sketch these things??

I would much appreciate it as I need to get them out of my head onto paper! So I can once again think clearly and get everything done that I want.

Thanks and in the meantime I will just keep trying to get them down onto paper but I hope some of the good drawers here can give me some hints and tips please!

[Spindrift]

You could trace shapes that will come up often - shape of tails/flukes. Then modify them from the trace.

[Mermaid Silverlilly]

Thanks for the idea!

[Aziara]

I find it easiest to sketch something that I have right in front of me. You could practice with seashells, or maybe some fake seaweed. That way I can pick the item up and look at it from multiple angles, to get a better idea of how to sketch it.

[Maclanahan]

I've found that if I have a reference of something, usually a picture of it from google image search, I do a series of very rough and quick sketches in order to get a feeling of the shape, then I try to draw it for real.

[Mermaid Momo]

1)Always start with the basic outline if it has a difficult shape (or even a simple one too)
27242
The top I sketched is an example of starting with an outline to get the basic shape down, see where I left one half blank and added the details to the other half? (that's actually because I was being lazy lol, but you get what I mean right?)

2) draw lightly! don't press too hard with the pencil, you might need to practice line weight and putting pressure on your pen/pencil. (you know you're good with line weight you can draw something in pen and have markings so light you can barely see them. ) here's an example of a pen drawing I did. Can you see my super soft lines?
27244

3) invest in a nice sketch book :) and learn what kind of pencils you like best (for example, I love using fine point things like pens and 0.5mm lead in my mechanicle pencils because it gives me super fine lines and detailing is super easy)

4) This is just me, but I like to keep my sketches nice and clean, so that mean erasing a lot (I don't erase much though because of #2. I draw out the "blue print" so to say very very very lightly then if I like it, then I draw it on a bit darker, but not too dark so that if I erase it'll still be there.)

5)Don't try and force it, if you aren't into it, draw something else. I have so many unfinished drawings in my sketch book lol. if you force it, it won't turn out good at all.

6)Just sketch random things too, practice making circles, spirals, etc

7) I always find that adding color can sometimes make a sketch look a lot better (like this one I did a bit ago)
27245
I don't color it like it's going to be in a gallery, just the basics, what color is x, in relation to x, etc.

I hope I helped! I'm sleepy atm so I know i left a lot out or wrote it confusingly probably, but if you want me to clarify on something, I'd be more than happy to :)

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