Colouring mermaids is one of our favourite things to do, as it combines all the creative aspects of fantasy colouring, with the challenges and opportunities of colouring figures. Here at Colouring Heaven, we love the magical underwater world of mermaids and the beautiful colouring that can come from them.
Plus, this month is MerMay, so there couldn’t be a better time to bring you our ultimate guide on how to colour mermaids!
With their magical nature, you can really experiment and have fun with picking colours for your mermaid colouring page. Do you want to choose warm, welcoming colours for a mermaid bathed in sunlight? Or dark, gothic tones for an evil siren lurking in the depths? The choice is yours, but make sure you give it some thought before you get started, as you can transform your mermaid from magical to monstrous using colour alone!
For more tips about using colour, take a look at our article about colour theory, and our advice for choosing a colour scheme.
The most exciting and potentially daunting part of colouring a mermaid is of course, the tail. You want to make the scales shimmer and look like a realistic fish in water, catching the light! This all comes down to using different tones and colours within your scales. You can use whatever colours you like, but if you use similar colours with one contrasting dark and one contrasting light, this will be sure to make it pop. If you have a silver pencil, now is the time to use it to pick up on all the highlights! We love this mermaid tail tutorial from Michelle Kahler.
With their long flowing locks, mermaid hair can also be a little tricky. Once again, you want to avoid having one flat colour and be sure to pull in multiple tones. With hair, what is important is the movement of your markings. Take time on your mermaid’s hair and work strand by strand, to make it look like it is moving. Watch our video tutorial about how to colour hair.
You could go for a natural skin colour of any shade, or you can use this as an opportunity to push the boat out (pun intended!). Why not try a shade with blueish undertones, as though your mermaid is part of the water? Whatever colour you go for, again it’s important to vary the tones and blend!
Take a look at our video tutorial for how to colour fair skin – more skin tone tutorials coming soon!
Before you start colouring, decided whether you want the background of your piece to be lighter and have your mermaid bolder, or if you want the whole image to be vibrant. It’s up to you! It’s likely that you’ll have an under the sea background, so be sure to focus on the water and the waves. Again, it’s another chance to get creative, play with the light, colour and texture through your colouring and explore an underwater world.
We have an amazing tutorial on our YouTube channel all about how to colour water and bubbles, which you can watch here.
Is there an opportunity better than colouring mermaids to add a glittery shimmer to your colouring pages?
For top tips, take a look at this tutorial for how to add glitter and sparkle to your colouring pages.
Now that you have some techniques under your wing, it’s time to start colouring some mermaids! And the good news is we have some brilliant issues of Colouring Heaven to get you started. Here are our favourite issues of Colouring Heaven for magical mermaid colouring pages…
First up, our new Colouring Heaven Mermaids Special is full of stunning mermaid designs by colouring artists from around the world!
For more amazing mermaid pages, check out our Colouring Heaven Presents Mermaids Compendium for all our best mermaid designs.
Designs from Colouring Heaven Mermaids Special.
With colouring in general and especially with colouring mermaids and other fantasy figures, there are no rules! Be sure to have fun with your colouring and allow yourself room to explore and get creative with it. We love seeing all of your amazing colouring and can’t wait to see what you make!
If you like our how to colour guides, check out our guide on how to colour dragons, how to colour flowers and how to colour a unicorn.
Coloured a beautiful page and want to share it with your friends and family? Take a look at this article about how to photograph colouring pages.
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