#incoming woRDS jkfgkhd

[salamispots]

Hello, I've seen some of your merfolk stuff, and tbh it, along with other similar artwork has inspired me to make better art of merfolk by incorporating more of the original fish aspect of the tail to look like it fits with the human half (rather than making it look like you just stuck a fish and human together lmao) and while I'm trying my best with it, (mainly practicing with sketches till I make a design I like enough to fully draw and color) I can't quite seem to get it right? Any tips or examples you can give? Or maybe some art tutorials you can link? I'm pretty much a beginner artist but would love to learn how to be better!

Even if not I appreciate just the inspiration you've been to me!

hello! :0 and oohh merm tips? usually for me kinda don't think about the tail and 'human' half as separate things but as one whole? some things I like to keep in mind when I'm researching or sketching things out:

-scales/patterns/fins are a nice way to make the merm feel more cohesive! :0 (like the koi and leopard seal merm below for patterns) or to blend the human/fish part together more if you're doing a more standard merm. I also like using the fins for 'hair' sometimes.

-silhouette of the fish/sea critter (like do you want your merm to be on the classic side or absolutely funky or somewhere in the middle haha) for the most part sharks/a lot of fish/mammal merms fall under the classic merm category for me and when I get to non-fish/fish that aren't the standard shape I tend to have the most fun with those.

top row is pretty normal (koi, sockeye salmon, leopard seal)

middle row (lobster, horseshoe crab, feather pen) they're still pretty humanoid but the silhouette itself is more like the creature they're based off of.

third row (hula skirt siphonophore, hatchet fish, gulper eel) they're still merms but they're not particularly humanoid haHA.

I like drawing merms that also look like their counterpart in silhouette? which doesn't necessarily mean things will match up; like with the gulper eel merm I didn't want to make a merm with a big mouth and came up with her having these funky basket arms that she could 'gulp' or scoop up fish.

here's another example of that when I was drawing an anglerfish merm; at first thought of having usual the whole merm as the anglerfish and then thought it'd be fun if the merm was just the luminescent lure part haha.

hmmm basically it helps if you can incorporate little things/details you notice to the human half? my brain's kinda bouncing around right now haha/all I can think of for now but hope that was helpful anon! :0