A Mermaid Drawing

This may well be the best drawing I've done yet, and one I'm quite proud of for a variety of reasons. It was done for a mix CD cover for a friend of mine. Again though, this is a fairly finished drawing and not a doodle...stupid me can't seem to provide the right art for my own blog:P

So anyways, I've never taken a serious stab at drawing merpeople, but when I approached this I immediately decided they wouldn't be wearing clamsheel bras and things like that...float free in the ocean without tan lines!...so I tried to keep it sorta simple with some basic jewelery and some barnacly-feathery "stuff" growing on her tail.

The other big piece was the hair, which I really wanted to spread and float through the water, almost as if the currents were taking it away.

And finally I used the flower here for a sort of metaphor for being a key or map...sort of that you're surrounded by darkness, but then find something that means a lot to you that shines a light to guide you. Then I threw some fish in there so people didn't think she was a space mermaid or something...