My mermaid was quilted, and she looked pretty good;  but the problem was, the rest of the foliage and things that I had so laboriously quilted in, now faded into the background.



So, some painting was in order again.

I used some thinned out acrylic craft paints - and I mean really thinned out.  The paint on the brush was more of a wash than anything else (this learning came with lots of practice. Anything else leaves the fabric crunchy and hard or too heavy; and any boo-boos are easily scrubbed out with a wet washcloth. I tried a Tide pen but it doesn't seem to work on paint.)



I began by painting in the leaves on the little bushes...


first in pink/purple/metallic burgundy and highlights of metallic gold



and then green, yellow, orange and metallic gold highlights again. I also re-painted the little "grasses" in different shades of green (as they were quilted) and added some "sand" coloured paint to the ocean floor - which had really interesting effects on the base fabric which I quite liked.




And then she was done.

<phew!>

(I love her braids!)