#I'll keep drawing mermaids out of mermay i LOVE mermaids

[rambunctioustoons]

fun and games until you've gotta breathe or something!

[idril-la-wiccan]

Mermay 2023 - 4th Week and last three days

Day 22 - Zodiac

Well, with a prompt like this one, it was a little too easy to go with the Aquarius for Mermay. But... the thing is I have a certain attachement for this astrological sign in particular.

Day 23 - Tradition

And here is "Mahu", the dumbo octopus merfolk from day 21, once more ! I had vaguely alluded to it, but "Mahu" won't be their name, even if this is what I had planned initially. I'll explain why.

You've probably noticed that all of the merfolks I made for Out of the Abyss are strongly inspired by polynesian cultures, the most obvious ones being Hawaiian and Maori. And "Mahu" is in itself a concept of the Hawaiian culture : a third gender of which the name translates litteraly to "in the middle". Mahu people had an important role in Hawaiian society. They taught spiritual and social traditions, which included, among other things, teaching the hula.

And so, for me to have the idea of naming them "Mahu" to begin with, you've probably figured out that it's because this is what they are, traditionally speaking. But as I thought about it, I realised naming them by what they are would be like naming a cat, well, "Cat". It's a bit dumb.

Basically, I want to give them a new name. I'll certainly keep a two syllables name to at least keep things simple.

Hmm... In fact, maybe I could find them a name that has something to do with traditions ?

Day 24 - Zaddy

I made this character on the spot as I wasn't really inspired by the prompt. But I think I managed well with it nonetheless.

Day 25 - Food

No matter his form, Humphrey will always be a big glutton. (Even if, thankfully, he doesn't have the same voracity as when he used to be an actual whale.)

Day 26 - Jewel

"Shiny... For me... ?"

Day 27 - Halle Bailey

Ok, I'm not gonna speak on the matter of the Disney remakes as I believe everybody knows and that everybody roughly agrees about it.

No, here, the subject is Miss Bailey. I think no one can deny it, her voice is magnificent. And no matter the state of the movie, if she took pleasure in playing Ariel's role, then I am gald for her. And I also wish her a good continuation in her career.

Day 28 - Sailor

Alright, I might be cheating a bit with this prompt here. But the idea had been floating in my head for a while now and I finally had an excuse to put it on paper.

I don't know if I was the only one to have this idea, but I saw no one imagine the Captain Caviar ending up with a merman form as a result from being cursed by Black Pearl.

And yet, I saw many people draw him as a merman, so I'm surprised I haven't already seen this idea roam around...

Day 29 - Barbie

I loved the Barbie movies when I was a kid, especially the Fairytopia series. Here, I drew Elina, main character of this movie series, who takes on a mermaid form for a good part of the movie "Mermaidia".

Day 30 - Blue

I had mentionned this on day 21, but I'll have to reiterate it for this prompt. Leviathan is a blue whale merman.

It's in fact for this same reason he's the tallest amongst his peers : blue whales are the biggest mammals known in the world. Even Humphrey, a little humpback whale merman in comparison, is no match.

Well, perhaps that under his original form, Humphrey could have surpassed Leviathan.

Day 31 - Good night

I never would have guessed that I needed to see Dino-sour be a father figure to a half dinosaur baby cookie in my life.

Yes, the previous sentence makes no sense out of context.

I no longer play Ovenbreak ever since... well, ever since even before what happened with Yogurca (the less we talk about it, the better), but I'm still trying to follow the stories on YouTube. And honestly, I think that Pond Dino is the best thing to have happened to the "Rise of the Blue Dragon" update. I get how their design bothers some (it's rather overloaded, let's admit it), but... Just...

Baby... <3

Baby that sleeps like an otter. <3

*****

*~ Third week ||

Like my art ? You can commission me !

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[cogroni]

The way you do shadows and light is gorgeous! How do you do it? (If you don’t mind me asking)

Thank you very much. I love shading, to me, one of the best things about drawing. It can easely change the mood of an illustration and I do love me some drama in my art :)

I don't mind, I love sharing my knowledge.

That depends mostly on the picture itself but there are things I'll do the same. I'll give a rundown of my " Day 16 - Mermaid" illustration.

It's a little bit darker, so a lot of shading but that mostly works for lighter projects too.

For my art, I mainly use Clip Studio Paint, but most other programs have the same settings. Also, for the whole drawing, I use a boring round brush and smudge the edges when I want smother shading. 

I color the whole painting in their natural colors (flat colors) and give the skin tone of the character a little bit of shading/blush to make the character look more lively. 

I start with a colored layer, just to get rid of every color that could distract me from drawing the shadows. Sometimes if I'm not sure, I mess around, loosely drawing where the shadow and light should be, using blue for shadows and yellow for light. 

I use at least two layers, one light, one shadow. I change those layers settings. Now bear with me, my program is in German, so the names might not be right. The shadow layer is set in "Multiply" and the light layer in "Add (Glow)". I mess around with the intensity of the layers. Mostly the Light layer, so it isn't to intense. 

Those are the colors I used in Mermay for shading and light. It's mostly related to the environment that's why there are often blues and greens, naturally I tend to use warm purple colors for shading and a soft yellow to orange for lighting. It gives the character warmth. 

I make a layer and pretend my character isn't in the picture and loosely draw what's behind them. Then I set the layer to "Color" and reduce the opacity to between 10% - 20%. It makes the character belong more in the picture, you could say it's to imitate environmental lighting. 

Since this picture is a little darker and I wasn't happy with the depth of shading, I went over the picture with a broader brush to enhance the shading (again with a "Multiply" layer). I don't go into detail here with cell shading because it can make the picture too busy.

For me, the picture isn't dark enough, so I again used a "Multiply" layer to shade the environment. I keep it light around the face, so it pops out and the tentacles around become background elements.

Lastly, I put in some glow around the eyes and where the lighting hits the character, again to give the character depth.

That is basically what I do. If you have more questions, just ask. I'm always willing to explain my art.