MAY 2018
An Instagram Design Challenge by Tom Bancroft
The previous month I participated in the #MerMay challenge created by the amazing former Disney Animator Tom Bancroft. The main part of the challenge is to paint a new mermaid for all 31 days during the month may. This challenge is mostly known and executed by Instagram artists from all over the world tagging their artworks with a #mermay hashtag.
"I actually realised: tomorrow is MerMay!"
2018 was my first year fully participating in the challenge. I know there are lots of artists who are preparing their paintings months before the challenge starts. Honestly, I had the same thing in mind since I'm working full-time and on weekends as a freelancer. I'm very busy and thought I couldn't handle posting a painting every day. Well I'm very bad in those kind of things and one day before May 1st, I actually realised: tomorrow is MerMay!
"I really enjoyed keeping my mermaids simple with little, but the right amount of detail and a strong focus on color schemes"
Sooo... I had to draw a new mermaid each day. It was definitely hard and there were days where I was super late with posting my art because I had other appointments or just went out with friends/family. But I managed to finish a painting every day which became kind of a routine after 2 weeks. I noticed I've got faster. A mermaid painting took me on average 1 hour. Sometimes I had no time to think about a great concept and most of the mermaids started without any plan in mind. I really enjoyed keeping my mermaids simple with little, but the right amount of detail and a strong focus on color schemes.
Well as much as I love the challenge, I'm glad to take a break from drawing mermaids and going back to my regular schedule! A huge thanks to Tom Brancroft for creating this wonderful mermaid challenge which makes May such a colourful mermaid month on Instagram!
Feel free to check out the official MerMay website (www.mermay.com). My Mother's Day Mermaid also got featured there. Below you'll find some of my favourite mermaids. The others are on my instagram @meikeARTS
