A while ago I made a drawing at school... A classmate said it looked like a mermaid, so I decided to make a mermaid... But it didn't fit on one sheet of paper... so I used three papers to make something I could put together on the computer...:



Once I had them scanned in, I started to put the pieces of mermaid together... It resulted in this:



I was not satisfied... it looked messy, so after another some hours of work, I had some neat lines instead of a drawing...:



The image above is at 25%, and still looks quite smooth at 100%, so I want to fill it in, or make a wallpaper of it... I think I need some advice on it... I have done a few projects before with filling drawings, but it is still quite new to me...

Who has suggestions for the colours, the way I fill the image, the right ways to make texture, and maybe also advice on the lines...?

Edit 1:


*Yeesh, her skin is shiny* - I know... If it is too shiny, tell me... and I might try to put a bit of texture in the skin with a filter...

The skin is 3 layers... The rest is still one layer... I want to add an odd and fisch-y kind of shine on the tail, like some fish have... but well... I don't yet know how I want to achieve that, will follow later (or maybe not, time will tell )...

And somehow I can't find a fitting colour for her top... I dont want her to look like Disney's little mermaid, so I don't want pink, red or whatever colours... I thought it should more look like a piece of cloth, undyed... And a bit grey-green/yellowish from the time in the water... Any suggestions?

Edit 2:


I added another layer on the skin to make a bit more contrast, and to make things some less smooth. I also added some lighting on her lips, and gave her top some shadow...

Edit 3:

First lighter layer added on the hair. I'm not sure about it though, although it looks better than my previous attempts (which is one of the reasons I didn't post anything about this past few days)...
 I need some comment on the hair cause im not entirely sure about it (I always find it difficult to make something look like hair).
 I also want to make the head smaller. I know, I'm very late with that, but I think I might be able to resize and reshape things so it looks better (The head just looks too big, it should be about 2.5x the width of the head to match the width of the shoulders (thats what has been told to me)... And its about 2x now...
 And as a last point, I might wanna make the area around her hips, where it merges into her tail, wider. Maybe the whole tail a bit bigger. It looks kind of small compared to her upper part of the body right now...
(If you think I am wrong about these things, I would like to hear ).

Edit 4:

I changed quite a lot on it;
- I shortened the right arm
- I made the head smaller
- I made the fingers of both hands a bit longer
- I gave the left arm an other angle
- I gave the belly less length
- I edited the tail (A bit larger and higher)

Things I will do during colouring:
- The shape of the nose
- The blush

Any more suggestions on the linework can be given now, because I'm not gonna redo the whole colouring again...

And to more easily see the difference between the two:


Edit 5:

The new tail. I also redid her upper right arm, and her armpit. Also, her body is a bit bigger, as you can see on the animation below:





Edited by Varock Shade - 14 January 2008 at 7:37am

Ok, thanks. Below is the first edit:


*Yeesh, her skin is shiny* - I know... If it is too shiny, tell me... and I might try to put a bit of texture in the skin with a filter...

The skin is 3 layers... The rest is still one layer... I want to add an odd and fisch-y kind of shine on the tail, like some fish have... but well... I don't yet know how I want to achieve that, will follow later (or maybe not, time will tell )...

And somehow I can't find a fitting colour for her top... I dont want her to look like Disney's little mermaid, so I don't want pink, red or whatever colours... I thought it should more look like a piece of cloth, undyed... And a bit grey-green/yellowish from the time in the water... Any suggestions?

So you suggest I would add another layer for a darker colour on the skin, for higher contrast?

And what do you exactly mean with the last bit about the top?

Crazy how you put this together! Looks amazingly seamless.

I dont see the logic behind that... I thought you would rather say that her head looks big and she looks like trying to keep it up with her right arm  but what should I change in her expression according to you?

Edit 2:


I added another layer on the skin to make a bit more contrast, and to make things some less smooth. I also added some lighting on her lips, and gave her top some shadow...


Edited by Varock Shade - 06 January 2008 at 12:11pm

You really have to change the horrideble nose. It looks cool in your original drawing, but here you changed the light source, and now it just looks weird. Also I would not go for a pointy nose...
For the rest, its awesome! Especially the idea that you drew this in 3 pieces!

While I'm inclined to agree with Leel that the colouring style doesn't entirely suit the linework, the skin tones are quite nice   A few suggestions:
-for the hair, I suggest using smaller brushes.  I admit I'm not a fan of the airbrush look (I used harder edge brushes), but in general small brushes are needed to follow the curves of the hair and add detail.  Don't be afraid of breaking the smoothness
-her arms are different lengths.  I think the lower one could be longer, while the raised one could be shorter
-if you're willing to rework the tail, I think changing the angle might help a bit... since we're seeing her torso head-on, and the tail is angled a lot to the side, they don't seem very continuous with each other

Nice work so far, keep at it!

I'm sure that you were the least femenine mermaid ever hatch.

With my long girly hair and pendulous manboobs, I though I looked strikingly beautiful. The moustache sort of ruined it, though.

I would erase the... the.... umm... lines under her eyes (las lineas de las mejillas, o cachetes, si alguien lo quiere traducir). They look really nice in the line art, but when it's coloured they lose all purpose. i don't see any critical mistake. the "tail in her side" problem it's really really easy to fix.



I made it quikly, but you can see that it isn't too hard fix her tail.

Good luck

I know, I was planning that, but didnt do it yet  anyway... I have the choice to either redraw some parts, scan and clean them... or I can try it digitally... but I don't know whats gonna be the easiest option, but 1 thing is sure; ill probably have to (partially or for quality reasons complety) redo the colouring...

So, here's a list of (very likely) edits:

- Lines that make the nose
- Removing the lines on the cheeks and replace for colour
- Shortening left arm
- Making the head a bit smaller
- Redo Hip-tail joint
- Redo tail
- (And maybe also the left arm a bit more to the back/side)...


Edited by Varock Shade - 10 January 2008 at 12:38pm

Regarding Delfos' tail edit, I think it's deffo an improvement, but, in addition to the point leel made, I think the angle and position demand foreshortening of the proximal end of the tail.

I think her arms are too thin. her right arm (our left) has something a little odd, but i can't put my finger on it (i hope that expression its right).

Edited by Delfos - 12 January 2008 at 12:24pm

She still just looks so flattened. What about something like this:



I ws very out of my element editing that, and I'm well aware its got its own set of problems, but it definitely has more depth.

Note: my arm looks terrible

Sorry about this, but I'm bumping the topic... I haven't got any comments about the latest edit (probably cause I made it an edit of my old reply, and it was almost on the second page already)... 

Or, actually I do have a small edit... I added the scales;



Edited by Varock Shade - 14 January 2008 at 7:36am