MerMay Behind the scenes + a treat!
Happy MerMay!
Well, shell-o there! And happy Mermay to you!
In case you missed it, Mermay is basically my favourite time of the year, art-wise. So I've thrown myself into everything mermaids and I maaaaaay have bitten off more than I can chew - as per usual. I swear I didn't mean to! I had grand plans to keep everything simple and easy. I'm a mom of three with a day job and books to write. Take it easy on yourself, my rational brain advised. Keep the drawings minimal and easy.... and then Mermay released the prompts and well, the ideas they inspired were less simple than I'd hoped for.
Reader, I've planned backgrounds.
Nooooooooooooooooo! Nothing sucks up time and energy like drawing backgrounds! I've heard tale of background painters - artists whose entire job on an animated feature is to draw backgrounds. They have gifts and patience I can only dream of. But alas, the only way I could conceive of communicating some of this year's Mermay prompts was to draw them with backgrounds. So I will draw them them, by god, and accept the consequences of my actions - which could indeed be burn out, but still I go forth.
And you know, maybe I'll learn something useful about drawing backgrounds that I can keep with me forever. Mermaids are nothing if not optimistic! Unless you're this kind:
Then you're just hungry. (sidebar - i love scary mermaids, don’t you?)
So with that, here are all the illustrations I have planned - these are my rough sketches, some rougher than others.