I just ordered little Nerissa to create for my mermaid-fan partner for her birthday in the fall!! I’m looking for ideas and tips on painting the tail. How do you make it look more real? I’m thinking scales should be almost an ombre tone, and the tail should probably be glossed at the end. Looking at the fin at the bottom, I wonder how to add realism to those creases, too.
Time to start studying pictures of fish, maybe … ?
Following. I’m doing a mermaid for my granddaughter also. I want glitter in my paint for her.
GLITTER!! What a great idea!!!
My partner loves black, so I was thinking of doing the tail in deep purples and blacks, but I thought that would be too bland and icky looking - but with GLITTER? Perfect!!
I’m thinking maybe the best way to add glitter would be to add it between a couple layers of sealant/varnish? Sprinkle it over the first layer of varnish when it’s wet, then add several more on top to seal the glitter in … I’ll have to try this on a test limb. Needing test limbs, what a perfect excuse to turn some of those old BB kits into cuddle babies!
Food glitter is super fine. I bet you could use it like the powder colors we use now
I found some super fine glitter at Hobby Lobby I’m going to try. One of the girls on the forum told me they actually make glitter paint for GHSP. I only found it in the UK
great place to start is in the mermaid groups like on Facebook many of these people make there own tails and they are stunning!!! the other place i would look at is youtube
I’m not trying to advertise myself, but I have pounds of premium mica powders because I’m a soap maker. If you would like to try some just pm me 
I made a mermaid out of Shyann using a shawna clymer tail. I used air dry paint for the tail (my first ever attempt at using air dry, and I used ghsp for the arms and head) and added a Golden medium (iridescent pearl) to the paints to make it sort of shimmery. I also attempted an ombré look. It didn’t turn out exactly how I envisioned, but i was satisfied. Here’s a pic:
Here is my mermaid, Mishell Clymer. I loved painting her tail. I used genesis paints to give the scales some color, then rubbed pearlx powders over the scales to give some shimmer to them and then sealed with gloss. She was fun to do but a lot of work to get all the colors in.
That looks really, really good.
Thank you Jean!
That looks awesome!! This is the same tail that I have for mine.
She’s gorgeous!! I love her tail!!
Thank you Cindy.
