2012 Great South Bay Music Festival Mermaid

2012 Great South Bay Music Festival Poster

(If you are interested in a copy, please contact me. There may be some printed copies available)

2012 rolled around and the organizer/producer of the festival wanted a NEW Mermaid and a new look for the poster. We wanted to do something a little different and new, but again, the problem is always that the image and look must be easily adaptable to the variety of sizes we need. 

This was a tough one - I had an entirely different idea and I really LOVED it (and still do). It's a little conceptual, but, to me, in the land of poster design, it wasn't that much of a stretch.

But that one didn't fly...so, back to the drawing board. We moved her around, re-proportioned the festival and the water, but he felt he need to see more people at the festival (making the festival itself more important). 

Some more sketching and we/I came up with a "cartouche" style (is that the right word?) that would stand alone with the name and date and the schedule and other info would go on an area outside the scene.

Oooh THAT mermaid's face is baaaaad. I REALLY liked the other mermaid, so I photoshopped her into this new look.

See? Much better.

With a few revisions - adding a banner at the top, adjusting the banner at the bottom and making it a little prettier and flowy-er. and here's the drawing on the 140lb hot press Arches watercolor paper.

It's sort of light. Can you see it? 

Here it is close up

I like to play with the mermaid's jewelry. Earrings, necklaces and bracelets are so much fun.

I want you to notice that there are NOT hoards of people at the festival.

I love that bird (common tern, for the curious).

This is 21" wide, by 14.5" high and most of those little teeny people are 3/4" high or less. 

Watercolor, colored pencil and ink marker on Arches 140lb hot press paper.

Finally coloring in! The best part. 

I like to borrow from the past mermaids and then add something new. This mermaid is playing the guitar that the 2011 one is riding through the sky.

And, just to cut to the chase, here's the finished piece. Hand lettered. I would like to point out the billions of people in this scene. Every time I showed him the progress he would say - "More people! I want people to know it's a festival! That it's a happening place!" O.M.G. This was a really intense piece.

I had to buy stronger reading glasses after this. 

There are some really fun little people in there - a strong man, a hula hooper, a guy on stilts...lots of people.

As usual I had to scan and piece together in photoshop.

More borrowing: In the finished poster I used the sky from the first painting and the braiding and corner pieces from the second. 

Overall, I think the mermaid in this one is my second most favorite. So far, which is your favorite?

Next up: Mermaid 2013.