Little Mermaid Promotional Art

I was inspired by Disney's reimagining of The Little Mermaid to make my own fantasy portrait.

I photographed myself on the couch, lit by my own studio lights to composite myself into an ocean scene which is composed from over 20 stock images.

I created 3 custom brushes to aid in my creative composition and add realistic depth and texture. I hand painted the entire tail using only sight references, no base stock images.

Using color grading and several layers of colored vignettes I made the scene look as cinematic and "underwater" as possible. Even pinning my hair down and painting my hair by hand to look floating.