MerMay | Day 12 | Pearls

Pearls

Illustration done with HB/4H/3B pencils on 4.5 x 6.5 white cardstock.

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You know what this is like? This is like that thing when you're playing a tourney or a tournament in a video game, and you win, but then they win, but then you win and then they win and it just goes on and on and on. Right now, I've just lost.

It's not a total failure. The movement of the hair is decent enough. Very good, in fact. So's its texture. I meant it to fill the majority of the picture, and so it very well does. The differentiation in scale is not half bad, either. Plus, the swoopy hair makes neat areas of negative space.

But there's plenty wrong. The value is completely janky. I wanted to have the background black with ink and crosshatched into a light penciling to really pull that head of hair forward. Ran out of time, though. Or didn't plan properly. Probably that last one. Whatever the reason, the result is muddy.

Also, the whole point of the title seems to have been forgotten. "Pearls." Yeah, there're some pearls around that clam thing, but there're so non-distinct, they might as well be butterflies. Speaking of non-distinct, the hair wraped around her feet were supposed to resemble a mermaid tail. But they just kind of phbbt around in the water.

I've had this version of mermaid in my head for years: a humanoid that uses their hair as tentacles. I would imagine their hair would also drift through the water almost like jellyfish tendrils when not in use. ALSO also, their hair would be wrapped around their bodies like clothing. This looks nothing like a traditional mermaid, so I was worried that it "wouldn't count." But a mermaid is, as far as fiction is concerned, a half-human, half-fish person. The fish part is just in the hair this time.

Besides, it's all fake anyway, so people can do whatever they want. Within reason, of course. Drawing your poodle and calling it a mermaid is just dumb, but adding to the mythos helps keep things fresh. I don't know why people have a heart attack when people change a minor thing about classic creatures like werewolves or vampires. Maybe it's that "classic" tag, and obviously, you don't want to add anything ridiculous, and yes, I'm fairly sure we're thinking of the same thing. Still though, it's really not worth the arrhythmia.

It's not a literal potato, but really, what even is this? I'm powerful disappointed...

Thanks for reading.

#mermay #longhair #mermaid #cartoon #illustration