How to Paint a Mermaid: Step by Step for Beginners

A mermaid is the painting that makes every beginner equally excited and terrified. Excited because mermaids are glamorous and dreamy. Terrified because there are so many elements (hair, face, tail, background) that it feels like too much to tackle. The truth is a mermaid painting is easier than it looks once you break it into clear steps, and the flowing hair and tail actually forgive a lot of beginner mistakes because they are meant to look soft and undulating.

Here is the full step by step from the Paint Juicy team. The underwater background move, the hair-flow trick, the iridescent tail technique, and the soft face approach that avoids the dreaded uncanny-valley beginner face.

What you need before you start

Mermaid palettes are dreamy and watery. Mostly blues, purples, teals and soft warm tones for the figure.

Acrylic paints in these colours: Titanium White, Mars Black, Phthalo Blue, Cerulean Blue, Cobalt Teal, Phthalo Green, Quinacridone Magenta, Burnt Sienna, Yellow Ochre, and Cadmium Red. The blue-teal-green combination gives you the underwater background and the iridescent tail. The warm tones handle skin and hair. Our guide on the best paint for paint and sip projects covers basics.

A canvas in vertical (portrait) orientation. Mermaids are tall and elongated so portrait suits them. 30cm x 40cm or larger.

Brushes: a wide flat for the background, a medium round for the body and hair, a small round for the tail scales, and a fine round for the face details.

Plus pencil, palette, water, paper towels and an old shirt.

Step 1: Paint the underwater background

Mermaids live underwater so the background is a watery gradient. Same technique as the seahorse, vertical blend from deep at the top to light at the bottom.

Load your wide flat brush with Phthalo Blue and paint the top portion of the canvas. Work wet on wet, adding Phthalo Green as you move toward the middle (for that underwater teal effect). Then add Cerulean Blue mixed with more white as you approach the bottom. The gradient should move from deep blue-purple at the top through teal in the middle to pale blue-green at the bottom.

While still wet, add a few subtle streaks of even paler blue or white in diagonal bands across the background. These represent light beams filtering down through the water. Keep the streaks subtle, not bright stripes.

Let the background dry completely before sketching.

Step 2: Sketch the mermaid figure

Mermaid proportions are important. Take your pencil and sketch lightly.

Start with the head. Draw a small oval for the head near the upper third of the canvas, slightly off centre (never dead centre). The head should be small relative to the rest of the figure, roughly one sixth of the total figure height.

From the head, draw the neck and shoulders. Then sketch the torso as a gentle curve downward, with one arm raised slightly (for graceful movement) and the other arm relaxed at the side or resting on the tail. Do not overthink the anatomy, simple flowing curves work better than trying for realism.

Below the waist, the figure transitions into the tail. The tail starts at the hip line and flows downward in an elongated S-curve. The tail should be longer than the body, roughly the same length as head-plus-torso. At the end of the tail, sketch a small fluke (the fin at the tip) that spreads out horizontally like a fan.

Finally, sketch long flowing hair streaming out from the head. The hair should flow naturally as if moving with underwater currents, curving and wisping in different directions. Generous amounts of hair are a mermaid hallmark.

Keep the pencil light throughout.

Step 3: Block in the skin and hair

For the skin, mix Titanium White with a touch of Yellow Ochre and a tiny touch of Burnt Sienna and a touch of Cadmium Red. You want a soft warm peach tone. Avoid going too pink or too tan, soft neutral skin looks best.

Load your medium round brush with a double load (your base skin tone plus a slightly lighter version on one side). Paint the face, neck, arms and torso (down to the waist where the tail begins). The lighter side of the brush should face the imagined light source (usually coming from above or from one side).

For the hair, pick a colour. Red-gold (Burnt Sienna plus Yellow Ochre) is classic mermaid. Dark brown (Burnt Umber) is more mysterious. Silvery white (Titanium White with a touch of Cerulean Blue) is fantasy. We will go with red-gold.

Paint the hair in long flowing strokes that follow the curving shapes you sketched. Use your medium round brush with confident long strokes, not short dabs. The strokes should feel like actual flowing hair movement.

Step 4: Paint the iridescent tail

The tail is the showpiece of a mermaid painting. Make it count.

Start with a base colour. Mix Cobalt Teal with Phthalo Green and a touch of Titanium White for a vibrant mermaid teal. Paint the entire tail shape using your medium round brush with long flowing strokes that follow the S-curve.

Let the base layer dry, then add colour variation. Using your small round brush, add streaks of lighter teal (more white added) along one side of the tail and streaks of deeper teal (more phthalo green) along the other side. This creates the shimmering iridescent effect that real fish tails have in sunlight.

For the scales, use your fine round brush with a darker teal (teal plus a touch of Mars Black). Paint small curved C-shapes across the tail in rows, starting at the top of the tail and working down toward the fluke. Each scale is one small C-shaped stroke. Do not try to paint every scale, hundreds of small marks clustered together suggest the scale pattern without driving you mad.

For the fluke at the end of the tail, use long fan-shaped strokes with your medium brush, going from the centre of the fluke outward. The fluke should look like a spread fan of translucent fin tissue.

Final touch. Add a few tiny highlight dots of pure Titanium White along the top edges of the tail where light would catch. These small white sparkles are what create the iridescent magic.

Step 5: Paint the face (carefully)

The face is the trickiest part of any figure painting and the part beginners most often rush. Take your time on this step. A soft, slightly stylised face works better than attempted realism.

For the eyes, paint two small almond shapes on the face using a fine brush. Do not paint them too detailed. Simple almond eye outlines in Mars Black, filled with Cobalt Teal or your chosen eye colour, then small black pupils, then tiny white catchlights. Elegant simplicity beats attempted realism every time.

Above each eye, paint a thin curved eyebrow line using a darker version of your hair colour. Mermaids have graceful arched eyebrows.

For the nose, paint the softest possible hint of a small shadow along one side of where the nose should be. Do not paint an actual nose shape, just imply it with a faint shadow. Beginner painted noses almost always look wrong, so suggesting them instead works better.

For the mouth, paint a small soft-curved horizontal line in pink (Magenta plus white), with the upper lip slightly darker than the lower lip. A closed gentle mouth, not smiling, not pouting, just serene.

Add a light flush of pink to the cheeks using the same pink mixture, very thinned down. A tiny touch only.

Step 6: Final details and atmosphere

Finishing touches turn a good mermaid painting into a great one.

Hair highlights. Take your fine brush with a lighter version of your hair colour and add thin highlight streaks along the flowing lines of the hair where light would catch. Just a few strokes, not many.

Water bubbles. Add small circular bubble suggestions rising up from the tail and around the figure, same technique as the seahorse tutorial. Small curved white lines suggesting the top edge of each bubble. Six to ten bubbles, scattered.

Starfish or shells. If you want to push the mermaid theme, add a small starfish in the hair (as a decorative accessory), a shell bra detail on the torso, or a few scattered starfish in the background. Keep it subtle, do not clutter.

Light beams. Strengthen the diagonal light beams in the background with very thinned white paint, adding a few more soft streaks filtering down through the water. This enhances the underwater atmosphere.

Stand back from the canvas about two metres. The painting should feel dreamy and flowing, not rigid. If anything looks stiff, soften it.

Common mistakes and how to fix them

The face looks uncanny. Almost always because the features are too detailed or too symmetrical. Simplify. Reduce the eyes to almond shapes with just catchlights. Remove nose detail entirely. Let the mouth be a single soft line. Beginner faces work best with minimal features.

The tail looks flat. You skipped the iridescent effect. Go back over the tail adding light streaks on one side and dark streaks on the other side, plus a few white sparkle highlights along the top edges. These small variations make the tail look alive.

The hair looks like a solid blob. You painted it as one mass instead of flowing strands. Use your fine brush with a darker hair colour to add thin flowing lines through the hair mass, suggesting individual strand movement. Suddenly the hair has movement.

Why we know this works

Mermaids are an aspirational beginner subject and we have taught many variations at Paint Juicy sessions, particularly at paint and sip for hens parties where the dreamy fantasy subject matter is a hit. The simplified-face approach is the most important lesson in figure painting for beginners. Our FAQ on what to expect at a session covers the format.