This is the piece I did for Isa’s girl couples postcard project. I’ve been sitting on this since November, and I thought it was finally time to post it.
Happy birthday, honey. You are one of the MOST amazing people in my life, and I’m so grateful to know you. You make me happy every time I think of you. There is nobody else like you!
(And of course you know why I made coarsefur a pirate — because she stole your heart! Arr!)
Good time to post this lovely thing. Since the Namesake book is finished (yaaaay) it’s time to re-open the project :D
You may also want to check out http://chael.deviantart.com/ They do fantastic ‘full’ mers and don’t only stick to fish. You should see their seaslug character :3 Adoreable.
Ooh!! I love them all, especially the sea slugs! Ahhh so cute!
dear people who draw mermaids. FISH DO NOT HAVE KNEES,I REPEAT FISH DO NOT HAVE FUCKING KNEES. WHY ARE YOU GIVING MERMAIDS KNEES. ONE OF THE MAIN THINGS ABOUT A MERMAID IS THE FUCKING FACT THAT THEY DON’T HAVE LEGS. DON’T HAVE THE TAIL BEND LIKE THEY DO, PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF SOMETHING STOP IT. It is way too common in mermaid art! WHY????? IT RUINS A OTHERWISE VERY NICE PICTURE FOR ME!!! FISH ARE FLEXIBLE1!! HAVE YOU SEEN A FUCKING FISH?? RAAARRRRRRRRRR
I sometimes draw mermaids with “knees” but not nearly as much as I used to. It was hard not adding those knees because I think a lot of us, when we see mermaids, we… well, we put ourselves in their fins. Seeing them without knees used to send me into a panic because I would imagine my knees being bent backwards, or my thigh bones breaking in half, rather than imagining myself with a different bone structure. Plus, lots of mermaid art is drawn from models, and those models have knees.
But the more I drew mermaids (and I have done a LOT of that) the less I get squicked out by the prospect of not having knees, and the less I draw mermaids with knees. It is more realistic, if the word realistic can apply to mermaids. And now they do look weird with knees.
I pretty much ALWAYS see people’s “mermaid” art as “girls wearing fins” because most people draw mermaids as totally human up top, with this sudden inexplicable shift to fish somewhere below the belly button. Like a human and a fish were cut in half and glued together. This is the most common type of mermaid and also my least favorite, because… well, I like my mermaids more like this:
These awesome designs are by one of my favorite mermaids artists, solipherus. Unfortuantely, she has deleted some of my favorite art from her gallery- she used to have a lot more mermaids there. ;_; She’s also made a mermaid comic called “Sea Princess Azuri.”Her example of basing mermaids on real fish really inspired me, especially since my whole family is kind of ocean-obsessed. All the mermaids in Sister Claire are also based on real fish:
It’s a bit silly to talk about “realistic” mermaids, but if they existed, they wouldn’t look so much like humans. And they DEFINITELY wouldn’t all be skinny, white Disney mermaids with shell bras. That’s a huge peeve of mine.
a girl soldier is pulled into a pond by horny mermaids
All my favorite things~
I stumbled across this just now while reading about the Little Mermaid tv show:
Gabriella - (voiced by Cree Summer) A deaf-muteLatina mermaid who dreams of becoming a singer. Gabriella’s sign language is translated by her octopus friend Ollie (who is voiced by Gabriel Damon). This character is based on a real person who was a fan of the show and died during its first season.
I’m pretty sure she is also the only non-white mermaid in this entire francise.
Yamino (aka Elena Barbarich) is a self-published, freelance artist graduated from the Savannah College of Art and Design, majoring in Sequential Art. She was born in Rome, Italy, but has also lived in California, Austria and Belgium. She is fluent in English, conversational in Italian and French, understands most German and Spanish, and is teaching herself Japanese. Her favorite drink is bubble tea (aka boba.)
In the future, she hopes to finish her webcomic series "Sister Claire", and continue working on several others she has planned. Ideally she’d like to have a steady job as a concept artist/storyboard artist/comic artist/illustrator. She would also like to teach English in Japan.
Other than writing and drawing comics, her hobbies include voice-acting, dancing in front of the mirror, travel, learning languages, creating custom clothing, speaking in the 3rd person, and posing for pretentious photos.
If you follow Yamino, expect:
Fanart, Tutorials, social justice, Adventure Time, Ponies, femslash, inspiration, nomadic tales, and the occasional GPOYs.
contact info:
elena AT yamiloo.com
