Surrealism: The Submerged City

For our surrealism project our goal was to reach outside of our "bubble". Trying to create a landscape where at first glance may appear normal, but when looked at more closely,  does not fit. My first four thumbnails all included a girl, where above water she is a mermaid, and under the water she is human.

In my more detailed sketch, I included coral above the water. The coral to the left resembles a tree, while the coral to the right resembles buildings. On the protruding land in front of the "building" coral, two fish are walking on their fins. The mermaid/girl is sitting on a submerged truck. Under the water she is human, while above the water she has her tail and top exposed out of the water. My original plan was to have the water, sky, land, and sand painted in water color, with color pencils highlighting and darkening areas for emphasis. The remaining parts were to be painted in acrylic paint. 

At this stage in my piece, I had completed the background in water color and had blocked in the colors for the objects. To create the texture in the "building" coral, I first painted the coral a peachy color, darkened some of the areas with a darker brown color, and followed through with blue highlights to stimulate the fuzziness of the coral.

In this stage, I had completed the girl's body, and the mermaids top. The "building" coral was completed as well. I had lightly highlighted and darkened areas with colored pencils but it didn't seem to be having the affect I wanted.

This is my final artwork. With the "tree" coral, I added red and blue highlights to have individual branches stand out. The fish were completed, and I added the rust to the submerged truck. The mermaid tail was completed, along with her vibrant red hair above the water and brown beneath the water. But I was still not happy with the water color background. It did not show as much depth as I had anticipated so I decided to paint over the water color with acrylic. The acrylic paint was able to show the depth I was looking for and add the extra emphasis of color I was looking for. At this stage I was finally complete with my art work: The Submerged City.