MerMay | Day 3 | Citrus
- GenreChowderStudios
- Jun 6, 2018
- 2 min read
Citrus
Illustration done with pencil on 4.5 x 6.5 white cardstock.
Finally, a piece I actually like. And only three days in, too!
Yes, this piece was the first that I was very proud of. The initial idea was to create a mermaid based on a citrus fruit. I was specifically thinking of an orange, but other citrus fruits might offer other possibilities, so I didn't want to pigeonhole myself. Which I ended up doing anyway, but hey, I tried.
A lot of the original versions had her just being a mermaid with citrus slices/sections on her tail or else somehow incorporated into her design. Not a terrible choice, but not particularly interesting, in my opinion, at least the way I did it. I wanted something more intriguing, something with some visual interest, something to keep you looking.
Upon searching Google Images for inspiration, I saw this cool picture of an orange with half of its peel coming up and spiraling above it. I thought "Neat!" and tried to do something like that, but I couldn't jimmy it somehow. But the peel itself... That had its possibilities. It looked like an eel, so that's the aquatic thing down, it has the visual intrigue of the twisting ribbon effect (that's not a term, it's just what it looks like), but it also has that asymmetrical texture of the dimpled outer rind and the flaky, fuzzy, pithy inner rind. That defines what side is facing us when the "ribbon" twists around itself.
I think that's why I like it. It's just strange to look at. Even her blank face adds to it. What I really look forward to, honestly, is the digital version I, God willing, plan to do. This will be an orange peel (here comes le pigeonhole again), so it'll be tangerine HAH! no, orange in hue while the background will be blue in hue. The pith will be lighter and paler than the rind, which will be shinier and more saturated than the pith. That "ribbon" effect will be far more pronounced than in the traditional one.
In terms of composition, it's fairly balanced. The shape of the mermaid combined with the bubbles prevents too much being weighted to one side or another. If there's one gripe I have, it's that the complexity I have in the piece is sort of focused on the center/left because of her face, her segment tail, and where the majority of the overlapping body is. However, I don't think it's that big of a dal since the rest of the balance is there.
Very thankful I was able to make this so soon into MerMay. I feel like I would have been really discouraged if three days in, I hadn't produced anything at least semi-decent.
Thanks for reading.
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