Oh goodness has it been a hot minute. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.
Let’s start with MerMay, which was an absolute blast to partake in!
This challenge, as probably guessed from the title of it, is about drawing merfolk in May. It’s a fun way to help transition to those summer vibes as spring starts to end.
For this challenge I decided to try not to focus on drawing a merfolk everyday but just to work on one when I had inspiration. It was interesting for me to see where my imagination went as I worked each of these. I ended up with seven total, almost two a week!
All were drawn in Clip Studio Paint, with about four hours spent on each of them. This was during a time that I was trying to create an Instagram worthy daily piece. Four hours spent on roughing out a concept in my head, and putting the pen down when time was up.
Three months later and I can say the specific project of doing that wasn’t as successful as I wanted it to be…per se. But I have a lot to talk about with that subject so I’ll save it for another journal entry.
Some of the merfolk have stronger stories than others. My steam punk mermaid probably has the most in-depth story of the bunch, while most of the rest could be summed up in a sentence. Her story:
“Due to an accident she had to get mechanical legs. However, she took this as an option to get a mechanical tail to go under the sea and continue her treasure hunting job. On the side she also visits aquariums and educates kids about safety.”
If I had the time I would love creating a full comic just based on this, but alas that’s a project that has to be put in the freezer for now. (Get it? Cause it’s further than putting it on the back burner for later?)
A lot of experimenting happened with these pieces as well. For the one below I tried blurring objects so that the merman was more in focus. Overall I like how this effect looks, but the way I did it has some room for improvement.
Honestly not all of them are fantastic, but as I like to remind myself, those pieces aren’t failures if you learned something from them. The eel-man below helped make it apparent to me how stiff I draw humanoids.
When I had this realization, I immediately added to my list of things to study “how to make more dynamic poses.”
I’d like to think the merfolk I’ve drawn since this series have become more expressive overall, though I still have a long ways to go.
Bonus mermaid I drew post-May:
If there is a challenge you’d like to see me take on next, please let me know!
Thanks for reading and hope to type to you soon,
Jessi
ArtsyRobotz 