Le Mere Weeks

The whole painting; digital painting, comic style: Merindiana Jane, a mermaid resembling Indiana Jones, dark blue hair, a stingray as hat, looking determined, holding a deactivated Light Sword (Star Wars), swimming towards the right upper corner of the painting, dragging Ceratia with her, a mermaid bases on and anglerfish including a light bulb on a rod originating on her forehead; above both a seal diving into the water; in the background a dark bottom and the wreck of the Nautilus (submarine), two divers apporaching the wrack in front of the shadow of a giant octopus; next to this wrack a giant black dead starfish; in the right corner a submarine hill with corals and sea anemones, two shadows in the most right bottom corner; there are schools of fish in the water; in the right upper corner a yellow part of land with the back legs and the tail of a giant turtle, a red and white striped lighthouse and a palm tree on top of this island with a black flag showing fishbone; text: "The Return of the Merindiana Jane".

The Return of the Merindiana Jane – 4WeeksMermay Week 2

The first week of Mermay is over. While the first week’s painting came together part by part on social media, I already was working on the second week’s one and I still am. Tbh, I’m not sure if it will be finished before the start of the second week but every day’s prompt I manage to add to the painting will buy me time.

In the past week there were some lovely entries from other artists who joined the 4WeeksMermay. You will find their work under the respective Hashtag on Instagram.

Please feel invited to join any time!

The Return of the Merindiana Jane

The first painting of this year’s Mermay features my OC Merindiana Jane on her way back to the surface, dragging Ceratia behind. You will find the progress in my Instagram gallery, on Ko-fi, Twitter and on this website’s 4WeeksMermay page.

According to the prompts, I added another detail every day: Deep Sea, Coral, Seal, Star Wars, Octopus/Kraken, Beach, Island. Within these details there were several references and Easter eggs to discover, if you know my paintings of the last years or browse through them again.

Both characters and their stories are quite obvious to spot. But did you spot the two shadows in the right bottom corner, too? The corals are from last year and it seems, a certain („We are not!“) couple isn’t this far away yet.

Mermay3, "Coral", digital painting, comic style: Nema, the clownfish mermaid with short orange hair standing behind a big red coral in front of a lot of sea anemones. In the right corner of the painting Merdusa, the Medusa mermaid (greyisch blue skin, white snakes on her head, white tail with yellow spots) crossing arms, text: M.: "Still not ready?" - N.: "DON'T peep!" - M.: "In your dreams."

Then, there is the Death Starfish. It showed up in Mermay 2019 but also the mermaid light swords were established back then. Please have mercy, it was right at the beginning of my renewed art journey.

From the very beginning you also could spot the sunken submarine and if you looked closer, two figures diving towards it. On day 5, the Kraken emerged. You already saw this scene, last year, from another perspective:

Mermay 27, "Nautilus", digital painting, comic style: A wrecked submarine (the Nautilus) seen from far, Engineeriel and Fabricius diving towards it, a dark shadow in the foreground, title: "Engineeriel - Her Greatest Discovery"

Last but not least, I took the opportunity to honor Nick Burgoyne (again), whose stories and novels („The Deepest Shore“ and „The Hearts beyond our Roots“) took me on a fantastic journey which still sticks in my head.

I had the idea of this kind of island some time before I read the books. After reading the first book, I noticed the similarity and took the opportunity to honor the turtle Gaw with this specific lighthouse.

If you don’t know what I mean, just read the novels. The physical copies of them are really well made and you cann appreciate the drawings to the fullest. Of course, you also can give the e-booke a try first to see if you like them.

Week 2: River

Back to the hatching place.

Second week again comes with a cutout and an introduction of the oncoming prompts. As usual, you will find them on the 4WeeksMermay subpage but they will be on my Instagram account soon, too.

This means, starting tomorrow I will build up a new painting, featuring another mermaid. And, to tease things, add two more. I’d ly, if I’d say they are familiar mermaids, but the won’t be new either …

Here They Are Again

Digital painting, comic style: Merindiana Jane, a mermaid resembling Indiana Jones, dark blue hair, a stingray as hat, looking determined, swimming towards the right upper corner of the painting, dragging Ceratia with her, a mermaid bases on and anglerfish including a light bulb on a rod originating on her forehead; in the background a dark bottom and the wreck of the Nautilus (submarine), two divers apporaching the wrack; text: "Rising from the depths - Merindiana Jane heading back to the surface after her unplanned descent into the deep sea trench - dragging Ceratia behind".

4WeeksMermay Week 1 – Rising from the Depths

Welcome back not only to this PaintLog but also to Mermay. First thing I did last week was to finally translate the old Mermay pages into English. So you not longer have to translate them with Google translate to get a (more or less) accessible version.

Now that the countdown is down, you will get a new part of my Mermay week’s painting every day.

Enjoy the ride!

Week 1: Ocean

The place where alle life emerged.

One day ago we shared a cutout of our prompt board, showing the prompts of the first week. There also is a short introduction to every prompt. You will find them on the 4WeeksMermay subpage and on my Instagram account, of course.

The purpose was not only to remind you of our Mermay (again) but also to give you inspiration what you may make of each prompt. Still, feel free to go beyond those interpretations, let your fantasy fly!

Cutout of the prompt board, you can see the prompts of the first week: Week 1 Ocean (1th-8th), Deep Sea, Beach, Coral, Seal, Star Wars, Octopus/Kraken, Island.

Rising from the Depths

This is the first part I’m going to reveal of the 1st Mermay’s week. If you follow me and this website long enough, you will remember that my OC Merindiana Jane got thrown into a deep sea trench by Captain Tigra „Sushi“ Selachii in Mermay 2020. Last year, in Mermay 2021, she fell into the arms of Ceratia, my anglerfish mermaid.

Ceratia always had trouble making friends because of her grand appetite and the abyssal instinct to catch everything in front of her mouth that’s small enough. Merindia being too tall to be eaten, Ceratia finally literally found a friend.

Now that she freed Meri from her sushi wrapping, she of course will accompany her back to the surface.

I’m honest, I like how I’m spanning a story over three years, actuallyl four because I introduced both characters already in Mermay 2019.

I redrew Meri some weeks before, not exactly preparing for Mermay but the redraw still was a great help when now painting her again. Ceratia however is a full and new redraw I did just for this painting. By doing this the design changed hardly visible (the shoulder pads). There are other features I’m going to give her but I will wait for it for the time I paint her for the Mermay Squad.

Of course there also are other things to spot from previous Mermays. You will learn more about them in the course of the next week …

Merlamander

Character sheet, digital painting, comic style: Merindiana Jane, a mermaid resembling Indiana Jones, light brown skin, bluish black long hair, brown fish tail with a golden tail fin, bellyfree tanktop, a belt across her hips with a light blue whip at her left hip, she is looking determinded putting a ray as hat in her head; the background is pergament coloured, resembling a journal page; explanatory text: "Merindiana Jane - Restless Raider of the Sunken Arks -; Inofficial leader of the Mermay Squad; Adventurous treasure hunter and enterprising explorer, risk-takingly eager to swim where no mermaid had swum before; Discoverer of the Lost Pineapple, finder of the Golden Spatula, Seeker of the Dentist's Bubble Chest; The whip is made of jellyfish tentacles; The hat always comes back to her (because it's a stingray); Always getting in trouble but also being able to wriggle out of it; Coffee addict since an adventure involving a sunken truck, hot underwater springs and a wagonload of best Arabica-Coffee Extra Strong; She only fears Seantipedes: Giant underwater centipedes haunting the Lost Pineapple Plains and other places; Archrival: Captain "Sushi" Tigra Selachii, Pirate of the High Seas, Terror of the Seven Beaches since they are usually hunting the same treasures; Met Ceratia the anglerfish mermaid (and became her friend) after she had to walk the plank over a deep sea trench".

Merindiana’s Character Sheet – Weaving Magic

Another week flew by, some more paintings got finished and since it’s beginning of April, I already started preparing for Mermay (this time the actual Mermay, not the redraws of my old Mermay mermaid OCs). I can’t tell you yet, so please stay patient.

In the meantime more ideas grew regarding Crissy and Raven + Samandra but I’m not sure when (or if) I will be able to finalize them. But don’t let’s talk about what I may not be able to, let’s see what I managed during the past week:

Merindiana’s Character Sheet

In the beginning of the past week I finally finished Merindiana’s character sheet in addition to the last week’s redraw. It mentions a lot of events from previous Mermay paintings depicting her.

I also love to put in pop cultural references into my paintings and my OCs. In this one, there are at least nine different ones. Leave a comment, if you can spot them!

Weaving Magic

Another follow-up to last week’s PaintLog is the continuation of Raven the Witch Apprentice’s story.

Last week, I introduced Samandra Elvennewt. This week, I threw more light onto Samandra’s witchcraft skills. The painting kinda got out of hand since I originally only planned a quick, tiny drawing, not necessarily even with Raven in it. However, this is a crucial part of the story of their relationship, so Raven had to be with part of the picture. And after this, I got carried away more and more.

I tried to change the body poses a little bit and to play around with blur and lighting. Then, in the middle of the drawing process, I got this idea of Sam’s spots glowing whenever she does magic.

First I thought of her living in some kind of closet with clothes hanging in the foreground but then I loved the idea of a full moon shining on the two of them and her sleeping place actually being in the attic of her witch’s hat (the only place she could spare as she hexed her into human being):

Saying Samandra was a great fabric mage wasn’t just figuratively speaking. She found her special field of study in bewitching clothes. This came handy after Raven nearly lost her amulet in the course of an unintented form-changing frog moment. The amulet was all that remained of Raven’s family. Sam, after having learned about this, tailored her a special collar to make sure this would never happen again.

Salamermays

Digital Painting, comic style: Raven, a young woman with light rosy skin, short white hair in sidecut, barefoot, wearing a golden brown dress, tied with a rope in the middle, a pouch and a necklace with a raven charme, the left hand and the right foot are turned into frog hand and foot, Raven is looking amused towards the right, her her left a small pink frog sitting on the floor, Text: "Raven Frogfeet"

Raven and Sam – Merindiana Jane and The Mermay Squad 3/X

When reading these words you surely will notice, I’ve switched to English language when writing my PaintLog. Last week it was the second birthday of my website. It started as a German speaking website since I only had a German speaking target groupe. This changed in the course of the last one and a half year since I started posting on Instagram and joining English speaking Discord servers.

Even then I stuck to German and just added an English translation but since my target groupe became more international and the translation (and linking in both columns) always needs its time, even with DeepL translate, I’m going to try to skip the German part and writing in English right away. I’m also going to change the PaintLog’s structure a little bit (well … giving it structure!):

Raven and Sam

Last week I introduced my new OC Raven Frogfeet, my entry for the SoG Moodboard Challenge but also an OC who enriched my imagination. Not long after submitting my entry, I painted her in frog form and after that I now created Samandra Elvennewt, her companion and soulmate.

These ideas were heavily influenced by the Tiffany Aching novels of the late Terry Pratchett. They have some nice witch apprentices interactions within them and somehow like this witches‘ universe I imagine my witch universe with Raven (and now Samandra) in it.

The witches are less morally integer than Granny Weatherwax, obviously, turning people into animals and vice versa on purpose. They may not intend any harm and in fact Raven as well as Sam are quite content with their new lives, still this is a mistreatment they will struggle with, a plot point for further exploration later on.

After finishing the introducing Samandra charachters sheet, I also gave them a sheet of their own:

$Digital Painting, comic style: Raven to the left, a young woman with light rosy skin, short white hair in sidecut, barefoot, wearing a golden brown dress, tied with a rope in the middle, a pouch and a necklace with a raven charme, the left hand and the right foot are turned into frog hand and foot, Raven is looking annpoyed towards the frog foot; Samandra to the right, a young woman with brown skin and yellow frackles and spots on her body, neck long red hair, barefoot, wearing light brown leather trousers with buttons on the sides of the legs, a red tailor's bag by her side and a grey apron-like dress held by some ropes as straps, a scissor and needles tucked into a band on the of front part of her dress, a ruler in her right hand; she's looking amused towards Raven, covering her grin with the left hand; Text: "Samandra Elvennewt", "When you are a witch apprentice, you meet other witch apprentices. One of them was Samandra Elvennewt. She was a natural with needle and thread and experienced in retailoring clothes of people who occasionally turn into animals (you get them a lot around witches and wizards). She retailored Raven's dress which was no more than a mere sack before and together they travelled around a lot.>>"$
$Digital Painting, comic style: Raven to the left, a young woman with light rosy skin, short white hair in sidecut, barefoot, wearing a golden brown dress, tied with a rope in the middle, a pouch and a necklace with a raven charme, the left hand and the right foot are turned into frog hand and foot, Raven is looking amused towards Samandra, to her left a small pink frog sitting on the floor; Samandra to the right, a young woman with brown skin and yellow frackles and spots on her body, neck long red hair, barefoot, wearing light brown leather trousers with buttons on the sides of the legs, a red tailor's bag by her side and a grey apron-like dress held by some ropes as straps, a scissor and needles tucked into a band on the of front part of her dress, a ruler in her right hand, a tall fire salamander's tail appeared on her back, waving the back of her dress into the air, she's looking embarrassed out of the corners of her eyes towards the tail, blushing, still covering her mouth with the left hand, right to her a small fire salamander; Text: "Samandra shared Raven's fate in reverse. Originally she was a fire salamander. The whitch she was apprentice of was in need of a helper who could do the chores she wasn't able to do anymore. So she simply turned a newt into a human being. Since Sam was a fast learner and also showed talent in witchcraft, she finally raised her as her apprentice. Although not completely voluntarily drawn into apprenticeship, she, like Raven, preferred her new life to the old one (not having many memories of it anyway)."$

Merindiana and The Mermay Squad

Well, no, your calendar is not wrong, it’s still March, it’s still a month to go until Mermay. Still, you may remember that I started to redraw my Mermay OCs in the beginning of this year.

I already did redraws of Nema and Merdusa, this week it was Merindiana’s turn. I wasn’t able to finish the character sheet yet but i surely will be next week (it’s always good to have a painting for the next PaintLog up the sleeves).

Merindiana is one of my most often drawn mermaids ever. I created her for my first Mermay participation in Mermay 2019 in which she had four appeareances and once again four times in Mermay 2020 and in Mermay 2021. In the meantime there even was a cameo in my Inktober 2019 painting.

In all this time there were visible design changes and this time I changed her slightly, too. The most obvious item is the belt to fix the whip (it was never depicted how she actually carry it along before). Other changes were made with the fin tail, it’s more transparent now, the top has become bellyfree, she got more muscles and visible abs and the hip crest and the top are torn at some points.

Of course, I put her together with Nema and Merdusa into The Mermay Squad painting I talked about some time again. There are still some of my Mermay OCs missing but now it’s coming together.

Merindiana Jane

Die Reise geht weiter

Und zwar im doppelten Sinne, auf einer Meta-Ebene (komme ich gleich zu) sogar vierfach:

Luca, die Prinzessin und Orphelya stolpern weiter durch die Everrecksümpfe. Da sie auf diesem Weg aber auch Neues entdecken, konnte das Herbarium heute erweitert werden. Außerdem habe ich die Navigation in den beiden Kapiteln etwas angepasst. Diese ist nun doppelt vorhanden (deshalb mein genial-kapriziöser Meta-Meta-Verweis weiter oben, höhö), sodass ihr euch sowohl zu Beginn wie auch am Ende jeden Teils durch die Kapitel klicken könnt und nicht jedesmal nach unten scrollen müsst (obwohl … ihr sollt das ja eigentlich lesen … äh … ich meine … das macht es euch einfacher, da ihr die vorherigen Teile ja alle bereits kennt).

Digitalzeichnung, Comicstile: Rechts vorne im Vordergrund die Prinzessin, sie schaut mit großen Augen in die Kamera. In ihrem Ausschnitt ist der Kopf einer gelben Ente zu sehen, links im Bild hinter ihr stehen Oprhelya (ganz links) und Luca (rechts daneben), Orphelyas Augenlider und auch die Schwingen hängen recht kraftlos herab, an den Krallen der rechten Hand hat sie mehrere rot-rosane Beeren, die sie gerade isst, einen Kern hat sie ausgespuckt, der sich noch auf dem Weg zu den Kernen in ihrer linken Hand befindet. Diese reicht sie Luca, die wiederum die Kerne in ihrem Beutel zu verstauen versucht, einen skeptischen Seitenblick jedoch Richtung Prinzssin wirft. Alle drei Charektere sind noch mit dem Dreck des Sumpes auf Haut, Kleidung und Haar gezeichnet. Im Hintergrund ist eine Reihe Büsche mit eben diesen Beeren zu sehen, dahinter Bäume und hinter diesen ein verwaschener Grün-Himmelblauer Hintergrund.

Auf Instagram habe ich derweil begonnen, Bildstrecken und dazugehörige Erläuterungen zu meinen Mermay-Mermaids zu posten. Dies hatte sich eher zufällig ergeben, da ich dort regelmäßiger posten wollte und hierzu alte Bilder, die dort teilweise noch gar nicht veröffentlicht waren, verwendet habe. Zufälligerweise sind die Mermay-Bilder oft auch die, mit denen ich am meisten zufrieden war/bin, sodass sich inzwischen zwei, drei Bildstrecken ergaben.

Den Anfang machte Merdusa, noch ein wenig kurz, ich ahnte noch nicht, welche Ausmaße das annehmen würde: