As of the 2013 year I was accepted into a group called Girls Drawing Girls, and while it was discontinued for a while they’ve started doing Weekly Themes again. This week’s theme was Mermaids! I’ve been reading Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and just happened to stumble across the History Channel’s documentary about the first footage of Giant Squid…! That, and having just finished up my sea-themed mural… I’ve got oceans on the brain, so this just happened to be the perfect theme.

My first thought was to do a cute retro style pin up mermaid, like the ones in Disney’s Peter Pan. I love how they look (and I may still draw one…) but then I read another chapter of my book and they were talking about the deep deep sea and bio luminescence. I started thinking of a creature that could live in the deep lightless ocean, rather than a bright happy lagoon. And suddenly she went technicolor!!

 

I was going to give her bright blue eyes to match her fins… but she looked so sweet. With the yellow eyes she looked just a bit more predatory. Like she’s cute… but she might bite your arm off.