{Birthday Party Mermaid Photoprop}

My sister in law, Briley turned 9 this year. She's having a Mermaid Birthday Pool Party.

Lori sent me a pin on Pinterest of an Ariel photo prop and asked if I could do one for Briley's party. 

I knew I already had a tall piece of wood left over from the scoreboard and knew it would last longer if I did it on wood instead of poster board. 

So Hubby cut out the face hole for me again. He's so good to me with all my projects!

(plus he's sexy)

Then I sanded the opening really really good so I don't get sued for getting a splinter in some poor girls face. ;)

And did a light sanding over the surface.

And all the edges (for carrying it around)

 See? Super smooth!

I used Gesso (I don't suggest this for most people. Gesso is expensive and white paint would do the job perfectly) But I have a ton of Gesso that needed to be used anyway before it goes bad.

So I did a Gesso coat over the whole thing to start. 

Oh, and here's my sketch of how I wanted the mermaid to look and how she would be....standing....lol floating!

And yes, I admit, that more often than not, my plans/sketches/drafts of my artwork is done on Post-It notes, using pens and highlighters......(receptionist problems)

So I got to work that night, drew her on and started painting.

I even used pearl paint for her necklace and other small details on her tail.

And then added glitter to her tail as well. You can see it best in the very last pic.

ALSO, the face opening was actually just an oval. But it seemed too big so I used thick painting paper and painted the front of her hair and cut them out and velcroed them onto the front so we can adjust it a little if necessary. 

Sheridyn (my art student) tested it out for me. :)