Blue and Sea Green Mermaid Tail with White and Gold Top

Click for larger version; click for the list of dolls.

If you like this mermaid, click the “Mermaid Monday!” tag for more — I draw a mermaid, or a mermaid-related outfit, every Monday.

Me and my mermaids! I don’t know when I started drawing paperdolls, but I can assure you there was a mermaid tail or two among those first batches, unscanned and lost. In the doll-drawing process the question “Is she mermaidable?” is a lot more important than “Are her hands right?” (Because the odds are good her hands aren’t right, and I may as well worry about what’s fixable.)

The mermaid tail process has actually been about the same since I started. Consider Exhibit A, one of about a dozen mermaids drawn for the long-gone Paper Doll Boutique, and Exhibit B, Anna’s foray into mermaidhood. I thought I had lost it, but, unlike many things that could be classified as useful life skills, coloring mermaid tails is something I’ve retained, and the basic technique has always been the same. (The main difference between exhibit A and B and the current one is the method used for blending. At the time of the Boutique, I was blending with white and not the colorless blender, which gives them an odd pearly look… Plus the scanner was not as nice as my current one.) I should do a tutorial sometime, it’s really quite easy.

11 thoughts on “Blue and Sea Green Mermaid Tail with White and Gold Top

  1. I think that you should have the old dolls links listed somewhereso that we can see what the outfit looked like on the doll they were drawn for.

  2. I once printed all of your dolls out when I was younger, They were the prettiest things I could find online! Now my neighbor girl loves to take them out and play with them herself.

    Recently I was trying to find your old site again and found it was gone but found this instead. I must say your skill has improved! I do hope you continue making dolls, they’re good enough to be published.

    I had been thinking about making a few of my own dolls and a few tutorials would be great!

  3. Hi everyone, thanks for the comments :D

    You know, I’ve been thinking about doing some tutorials actually… sssh ;) I did some for the very first site, come to think of it…

  4. my first set of paper dolls was ariel from the little mermaid! i LOVED that set. her mermaid outfit was so beautiful, and of course the novelty of changing from fins to legs, legs to fins… :)

    there’s so many fantastical things you could do with mermaid paper dolls, i can’t wait to see if you do another mermaid design!

    (i found your site through dressaday and have added it to my must read list, btw!)

  5. hi liana!
    i absloutly love your dolls,i found ur site from a google image search 4 mermaids and i got 1 of ur mermaid monday designs as a result! i have only printed 1 doll,sylvia but i love her.shes so pretty! me and my father r sick so i printed off the fairy of disease and hope if i get on my dolls good side while shes wearing it she will cure me and my dad. i printed off various gowns 4 her and love them.
    you have a wonderful site! im looking forward 2 ur new dolls! i am srry that there hard 2 make but there gorgeus!
    Sincerely,
    Melina
    .P.S. i love ur blue mermaid tail! it looks really pretty on Silvia but i cant get the tail 2 stay on, maybe the next design u make can have more tabs? thx!
    Melina

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