Well life has been getting in the way of art so it’s taken a while to get here, but finally the mermaid cavern is finished and I have been busy photographing scenes for my story. The one above is my Mermaid Sealia calling Nieva into the magical cavern.
I have ended up with about 28 images telling this part of my story. That’s probably sounds a little excessive, but quite a lot happens in the cavern and I was having so much fun posing my characters I couldn’t stop. Of course for every image I kept I had taken several wrongly focussed or badly lit ones! I keep telling myself its a learning experience - go with the flow! My daughter and son-in-law got me some cool lenses for my phone camera and I had some fun using those for special effects.
This little guy “speaks” to Nieva warning her to beware of the Merfolk. I took the photo with a fisheye lens, then did a bit more to it in Photoshop. This weirdo character is a tiny piece of driftwood I found on the beach. It spoke to me too, as I passed it by, so I had to bring it home and put it in my story. ;)
The cavern setup in my studio
Here you can see the scale of the mermaid cavern ( 44 inches wide and 48 inches long) and also what a mess the rest of my studio is! I’m still using my ancient old Imac for image modification but that had to go on the floor as all my table space was used up. It’s not easy at my age to grovel on the carpet to play with Photoshop - good job I’m still fairly flexible, although the knees did protest quite a bit.
I made about 11 feet of rock backdrop, which I painted on paper with oil pastels. It was not easy figuring out how to prop this up and had to resort to using various clips and tape, canvases and cardboard clamped to the table.
Creating the ocean was a fun project. I used scraps of material, lace, tulle, buttons, shells, two pieces of wet felting (a trial run for dragon wings), and covered it all with some shiny blue nylon from an Amazon gift bag - never throw anything away… ;)
Nieva gets to know the Merfolk
Nieva is quite the little actress and does exactly what I need her to do. Posing the merfolk was a little harder as they only have armature in their tails so getting their arms to do stuff required needle and thread, or pins - ouchies!
To create my scenery my table top was covered with brown paper and over top of that I piled rocks, shells, driftwood etc, and sprinkled a thin layer of real sand. Some of the “plants” are felted things I created, and there is an abundance of my crochet “coral”. I need to give a shout out to the friend who provided most of the big shells in my diorama - thanks Priscilla! :) The magical everlasting lights I made out of beading supplies. My husband came home the other day and asked what I had been doing. To which I replied “making crabs”. He didn’t bat an eyelid - knowing full well that I’m always doing crazy stuff! Lol! The crabs were made out of Sculpey clay for a scene where Nieva teaches Kai the merman how to make fire and cook crabs! You can spot the crabs in the Ocean photo.
In one corner I put a little waterfall which my husband got me for Christmas several years ago - I thought Nieva deserved some nice fresh water to drink after having to constantly melt snow on her travels! ;)
In my story Nieva gains several things from her time with the Merfolk. Apart from a couple of the magical lamps, she learns a valuable lesson about cultural differences and communication. She also finds she has a new connection to her animal companions.
Nieva decided not to stay with the Merfolk (beautiful though the cavern is!) so she is off on her travels again. This time she gets to meet the dragon and I have to figure out how to make a meadow. The adventure continues…