Shattered-Earth on DeviantArthttps://www.deviantart.com/shattered-earth/art/Mermaid-Emergency-259643004Shattered-Earth

Deviation Actions

Shattered-Earth's avatar

Mermaid Emergency

Published:
8.4K Views

Description

O hai, I finally finished :la:

This is a redraw of an older drawning as voted upon by my watchers and friends in this poll: [link]


It took forever, but I'm finally at a point where i can call it done without wanting to tear my eyeballs out. It's been through so many changes, especially her face which has changed probably 100 times at least. So much surgery to make it acceptable D:

In some ways i'm happy with how it came out.. but in others i'm really disappointed in my self. I'm happy that it's done and it's one of the only backgrounds i've ever drawing. I'm happy I was able to put a lot of effort into the wings, something i used to enjoy drawing as a kid but now hate because they take too long to be up to my standards.

I'm sad because colorwise, it's a real mish mash, the composition isn't strong, there are some value issues for sure. It's just to ME not cohesive. I also didn't polish it as much as i probably should have (tail, blood, waves), but I've already put it off for so long I didn't want to KEEP DRAGGING IT UGH. anyway, what's done is done, right?

To #Improvement-Club and potential critiquers (be gentle? T_T): Please, help with the face if you can, I've literally changed it so much SO much, it's gotten so much better but at the same time it's not as good as I'd want it. The face should be like "omg wtf is happening" but not ugly, lol. My friend said there's something weird about the wrist/hand too, size / perspective issue? And of course help with how to make the color composition and values work more.. OH and tips on quickly but accurately portraying white caps and splashes without just copying a photo, how are they structured?? :faint:

Things you might not want to mention because I'm aware / intended: Wing anatomy, I know they're not accurate to bird wings but I used this time to try something new with the floofy sharp knife like feathers, not intended to be realistic. The tail is pretty half assed and I couldn't decide between making the water more opaque or transparent so it's kind of a toss up there. Rocks are also not very rock like I realize, *snort* OH and I did intend to make the rock darker where water would splash on from her "landing" but I couldn't figure out how to do it so it's just bleh, just saying, i did think of that >_>


You can see WIPs here: 1: [link] 2: [link]
Image size
916x1200px 1.63 MB
© 2011 - 2024 Shattered-Earth
Comments93
Join the community to add your comment. Already a deviant? Log In
yurionna's avatar
I really like how three-dimensional the wings look at this angle, you could almost feel the musculature underneath. :love: I personally would still make the mermaid's torso larger in comparison to the wings despite the angle, though, because it looks like she won't be able to support wings that large, unless that's the point ^^

I think that the face could look better if her eyes were less cartoony and the highlight and pupils were smaller in relation to the rest of the eye (surprised looks tend to be drawn with narrowed pupils and wider eye-whites, too large pupils make the eyes look dull). Maybe you could also move the eyes farther from the nose, lessen the almost-angry shadow on her face, and make thinner eyebrows as it's a female mermaid? :?

I'm afraid I can't suggest anything regarding sea waves, as I just make random white lines ^^; You're a much better digital painter than me regarding color values, as it shows in the way you painted the skin and fish scales to reflect the light. I think the tail's alright because sometimes just a suggestion is enough :aww: . This work is definitely a huge improvement over the original :D I hope this has been of some help :paranoid: