MerMay | Day 14 | Beautiful

Beautiful

Illustration done with an HB pencil and white gel on 4.5 x 6.5 white cardstock.

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We can probably put this up there with some of the dumbest things I've ever drawn.

My original idea for this was for the fish to be super cartoony. But the style I'd had in mind looked very similar to another artist's rendition of a "reverse mermaid," so I decided to forego the generalized cartoon fish look and go for something more specific and highly rendered. I don't recall precisely which fish this is, but I know it's some kind of trout. I wanna say either rainbow or golden, but I don't remember which, and I don't even remember if that last one is even real.

I suppose it's rendered well enough. I like the dark flecks and the big stupid mouth. The use of value, the way it transitions in a somewhat smooth fashion, translates to the reverse mermaid herself being sleek and smooth. Also fond of her spindly limbs.

Outside of her pshaw arm being too short, I have only one major complaint, and that's balance. What with the speech bubbles being so high up, the image seems very left-justified. Your eye (or at least, my eye) gets stuck in the middle. I mean, yeah, that's the focal point, but it feels off-kilter. Speaking of the lady, she herself is off-balance. She looks like she would just tip over because of how far back her legs are placed. One of the reasons I gave her a purse was an attempt to balance her out. It's not horrific and egregious, but it's pretty intense imbalance...

All in all, it is far from a bad piece. I like it quite a bit. It's not awful. It's just really, really off.

Thanks for reading.

#beautiful #mermay #mermaid #cartoon #illustration