Illustrating Han Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid

Two front covers for my reboot of this book however the one on the left is a quick version I did digitally, personally I prefer the one on the right, I'm not sure why, it just looks calmer and less chaotic.

Going through what illustrations I have done so far, in order of the book.

 

 Writing on these pages go within the blank spaces e.g. either side of the mermaid on the left. Or I have created boxes for the text to lie in. But most of these are double page spreads with no text.

 I've worked my way through most of the paintings, have got 13 more to go. Also have a critique on Monday when we get back from Easter holidays which is a shame as I'm going to have quite a few paintings to cut out and scan in and fix and edit a little on Photoshop, hopefully I'll have enough time.

Mermaid sister came to the surface at night and lounged on a beach at night, admiring the lights at the city across the sea.

Where the light boxes are is where the text goes, also this is when one of the mermaid's sisters heads to the surface and she sees a dog and is confused and scared as she's never seen one before. Everyone loves a little Scotty dog.

Another mermaid sister rose to the surface to see a huge thunder storm and a ship battling the waves, she sat on an iceberg to watch and feel the wind and rain on her skin and was awed at the loud and sudden sounds of thunder and lightning.

Mermaid spying through the porthole at the Prince.

Here the mermaid has saved the Prince and the sun is rising as the last of the boat is sinking beneath the waves. I'm not particularly happy with this one, colour's are looking muddy.

 Mermaid a few days after she first saw and saved the Prince and she's now upset because she has realized that she can't be with him, the statue in her garden under the sea resembles him. In the Disney version it was actually him however in the book it was merely stated it looked a little like him, so who knows.

This meant to be a double page spread showing the mermaid looking at the witch's house from behind the weirdly alive tree, at first I had planned to show the mermaid looking up at the Prince, who is on his balcony, however I read it through and it looked too instant with 'one minute calm peaceful prince shot then suddenly BAM, witch here' and there was lots of lovely description about the trail to the witch's house. So on the other page the text box will be at the bottom so the house will be on top, so turn the page below upside down basically.

And the final.

Ella Phoebe was my photo reference for the sea witch and also a mermaid sister, later on. I thank her again.

My Sea witch, I decided that I didn't want to make her ugly as it seemed that it is what everyone else has done, besides she was never really described in the book so I took free reign.

Ready for the writing and done.

The witch's bubbling cauldron. I changed it in my book so there is no tongue cutting, the witch just gives her the potion to change herself and that was all. 

This is the mermaid's expression when she learns the Prince is going to go meet this Princess as his parents want him to marry. As she cannot speak all she can do is look at him and convey the message ''Don't you love me more than anyone else?'' with her face. A tad unsure for what I could make the background as it doesn't mention where they are when this happens.

Today at university we had a quick critique about what book covers I had done; I showed a few sketches and reference photo's I had and then everyone commented on one other book cover that I had honestly forgotten about, I'll post them below.

If I choose one for my actual book cover then the other would still be a damn good portfolio piece, obviously neither of them are finished at all (nowhere near). I will be experimenting with Painter and different textures and, of course, more water colour.

Took the last photographs for reference and sketched them digitally: