Tiffany Birthday 2020: Make Tiffany Mermaid Fly

“So just like the mermaid
I will swim up to the light
Just like that little bird
It’s time for me to fly”
A Girl Called Eddy
/
“Play with fairies
Ride a unicorn
Swim with mermaids
Fly to the moon”
Unknown
/
“Leaving home is going to a different dimension by spreading your wings to fly high.”
Little Mermaid

#200801#

This idea I had for Tiffany’s birthday artwork this year was pretty much stimulated while I was working as a temp staff for SafeEntry at Takashimaya Shopping Centre for the past June and July. There had been a couple of signs which I spotted during my time there.

This photo below was taken when I had my workstation located at level 2 entrance just next to Tiffany & Co jewellery shop.

When I saw the slogan on their diamond ring advertisement that says “Make Hearts Fly”, I had an idea – why not make Tiffany the Mermaid fly? Then I imagined her in her signature pink crystal mermaid tail flying up into the sky with a bunch of balloons. It would be a combination between the concepts of all my past Mermaid artworks of Tiffany and this one-off Runaway artwork FOR TIFFANY: LET’S RUN AWAY TO YOUR LA LA LAND which features a little girl flying up into the air with colourful pom pom balloons.

So I began to contemplate for a long time how I was going to make this artwork to portray the flying mermaid concept. I wanted to reuse most of the same materials that I had applied on my last year’s TIFFANY BIRTHDAY 2019: SAILOR MERMAID TIFFANY YOUNG artwork as I still had leftovers from last time. As for the balloons, I was initially unsure what material to use until I woke up one morning and had an idea to use painted seashells! I also chanced upon a perfect scrapbook paper design at Popular one day which would make a brilliant background of a pink sea, light brown beach sand and a light pink sky!

Just a day before I was about to get started on this artwork, it seemed like Heaven gave me a nod in the head when I came across a cake shop selling a mermaid cake named “Tiffany Mermaid Cake” during my lunch break at Takashimaya!

So let’s quickly get into the whimsical mood and make this fantastical artwork come alive!

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Some details about the artwork:

The vintage frame was purchased during my trip in Penang last November at a pretty affordable price. I already had a vision that I would use it for my next birthday artwork for Tiffany back then. 😆
During the process of covering the mermaid tail and gloves with a layer of pink glitter tape and cutting away the excess, this seemingly safe and harmless step actually caused me to accidentally cut my fingers and bleed without noticing until a little later. I could have been a little too reckless as I was eager to complete the whole artwork quickly in between my schedules.
The seashell balloons were painted using poster colour paints.
I noticed one of the original seashells that was painted yellow was a little chipped off at the edge so I replaced with a new one and painted it yellow again.
I originally wanted to use an orange paint for one of the seashells but the colour turned out too close to the other red paint, so I mixed it with some white paint and surprisingly it came out in a pretty shade of pink – Tiffany’s favourite colour!

So here you go, more photos of the completed artwork, lifting Tiffany Mermaid off the waters of her pink ocean and up into the pink sky with her colourful seashell balloons! 🎈🎈🎈🎈🎈