frankenstein-ing Reference

     So I usually don't talk about my process, but people have been asking me how much I make up in my pieces and how much comes from reference.  I make up a lot, or exaggerate things, but I also take a lot from reference.  I usually mix several references together, I call this "frankensteining reference".  Some people will literally photoshop things together, but I usually just look at the various references and then I combine them as I draw. 

First, I start with an idea.  I usually do some thumbnails, but my thumbnails are not really legible to anyone else so I am not going to put any up on here.

After I have a better idea of what I want to do, I start collecting reference.  Usually I like taking my own reference, but for this tutorial I will be using some awesome reference from mjranum.  Here is the photo I decided would be awesome for the body of the mermaid.

I wasn't super excited about the hands in this photo, so I found some hand reference that I liked better.  Let the frankenstiening begin! The hand that I found were still from the fabulous stock of mjranum.  

Feel free to rotate the hands and flip them anyway that suits your needs.  Also, remember that you need to stay consistent with your light source when you paint, even if your light sources are different in the reference.  

Then I start finalizing my sketches.  Here is what my sketch for this project looked like:

I did most of this sketch with regular pencil and paper, but then I imported it into photoshop to straighten some things up and try a few more things with the tail.  I made the tail up completely out of my brain, and I changed a lot of things from the original reference.  Take what you like, but be creative with your work.  Be an artist not a copy machine.  

After the sketch is done and you feel good about it, start painting! I always keep my references around while I paint.  Here is how the final painting turned out (watercolor on arches cold press).