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

Head of Jokes

Digital Painting, comic style: Nema, the clownfish based mermaid with short orange hair wearing a rainbow colored shiney belly top and skirt made of shells, the pansexual pride flag is attached to her rised right arm, the fish body is covered at the front with the transgender pride flag

Mermay 30, "Crown", digital painting, comic style: Nema, the clownfisch mermaid, standing behind the the big heap of golden coins, jewels and necklaces from Mermay 2. She is holding the scepter in the left hand and some coins in her right hand, looking on the sceptre with bright, shiny eyes. On her head is a crown. Dark blue rock formations in the background as well as the dark shadow of Captain Tigra Selachii approaching from behind. Title: "Nema's Gambit"

🇩🇪 Diese Woche kann ich gleich zwei gute Vorsätze der letzten Woche einhalten.

1. Nach Merdusa habe ich nun auch Nema fertiggestellt und ihr ebenso einen Charakterbogen gegönnt. Während meiner bisherigen Mermays hatte sie bisher insgesamt 11 Auftritte, 3 in 2019, 3 in 2020 und 5 in 2021. Auch hier habe ich, im Vergleich zu 2019 deutlich, im Vergleich zu 2020 immer noch erkennbar, eine leichte Designänderung hauptsächlich an Kopf und Gesicht vorgenommen.

Nema ist eine Clownfisch-Meerjungfrau, weshalb sie einige Merkmale mit dieser Fischart gemein hat. Nema und Merdusa verbindet eine innige (mehr Hass denn Liebe) Hassliebe. Wo Merdusa eine ernste Herangehensweise im Leben hat, genießt Nema die Leichtigkeit des Seins. Dies färbt zugleich auf Merdusa ab, die dieser Leichtigkeit eine gewisse Faszination abgewinnen kann, Nema zugleich aber immwieder auch aus gefährlichen Situationen retten muss, denen Nema sich nicht einmal bewusst ist.

Aufgrund ihrer clownfischeigenen Immunität gegen vielerlei Gifte, war es ihr möglich, bereits während des Mermays 2019, Merdusas Garten zu betreten und dort allerlei Unfug anzustellen. Auf diese Weise sind die beiden sich begegnet (und schließlich nähergekommen):

🇬🇧 This week I can keep two good resolutions from last week.

After Merdusa, I now completed Nema, too, and granted her a character sheet. During my Mermays so far she had a total of 11 appearances, 3 in 2019, 3 in 2020 and 5 in 2021. Compared to 2019 clearly, compared to 2020 still recognizable, I have made a slight design change mainly to head and face.

Nema is a clownfish mermaid, which is why she has some characteristics in common with this species of fish. Nema and Merdusa share an intimate (more hate than love) love-hate relationship. Where Merdusa has a no-nonsense attitude to life, Nema happy-go-luckily enjoys the lightness of being. This also rubs off on Merdusa, who is fascinated by this lightness, but at the same time has to rescue Nema from dangerous situations, of which Nema is not even aware.

Due to her clownfish immunity to most poisons, she was able to enter Merdusa’s garden already during Mermay 2019 for joking around thorougly. This is how the two met (and eventually became close):

Digital Painting, Comic style: Below sea level, sea's bottom, rather dark water, "Merdusa" in front view, a mermaid whose lower body part is the body of a white sea snake with yellow stripes, the end of the tail is flattened. She's got snakes instead of hair. The arms ar crossed, she is looking out of the corner of the eyes to her right, in the foreground are some water plants, in the background some blurry rocks, a school of fish can be seen in the upper left corner, water and light are creating a pattern on Merdusa's skin and hair.

Bleistiftskizze: Merdusa, die Medusa-Meerjungfrau, von hinten betrachtet ihren mit "Statuen" bestückten Garten, die Statuen haben Clownsnasen und falsche Bärte, es ist zu sehen, wie Nemas Schwanzflosse (Clownfisch-Meerjungfrau) noch gerade so hinter einem Felsen verschwindet, Titel auf englisch: "Nonsense"

Digitalzeichnung, Comicstil: "Nema", eine Meerjungfrau mit dem Unterkörper eines Clownfischs, Seeanemonen als Bikinioberteil, sehr kurze, rot-orangene Haare in sichelartigem Style, am Hinterkopf noch weiter gekürzt, versteckt sich hinter einer Statue, die eine Clownperücke trägt, andere Statuen tragen Partyhüte, falsche Bärte, aufgemalte Münder und Luftschlangen, von links erscheint drohend der Schatten Merdusas, der Medusa-Meerjungfrau, Titel auf englisch: "Party Hard"

2. Mein erster Beitrag für das Arcryla-City Valentins-Event ist fertig. Zuletzt wurden Crissy und Paula während eines nächtlichen Zeppelinfluges gesehen. Das Anschlussbild hierzu ist noch immer in Bearbeitung, dennoch sind die beiden inzwischen soweit, dass Paula Crissy ihre Lieblingsblume zeigen kann:

My first entry to the Arcryla City Valentine’s event is finished. Crissy and Paula were last seen at a Zeppelin Night Flight. The follow-up painting is still in progress, yet the two are now ready for Paula to show Crissy her favorite flower:

Flowers

The day Paula showed Crissy her favourite flower – and the flower showing a good taste in Crissy.

Digital painting, comic style: My OCs Crissy Faith (to the right, 3/4 front view, short purple hair, big round glasses, yellow bellyfree top, yellow and black striped trousers) and Paula (to the left, side view, light green short hair, bangs turned to the right side of the head, wearing a bellyfree brown leather top, fingerfree gloves two smaller and one big girdle, the lips are coloured green, she hat nail polish in the colours orange, white, rose and purple on the visible fingers); Paula is holding a pot with a carnivorous plant, the plant looks satisfied, on it's "head" a tiny daisy is growing; Crissy is blushing and sucking the digit of her right hand, looking suspiciously to the plant; the blurred background is the frame of some windows, you can see some green outside of the building.

Head of Stone

Digital painting, comic style: A character sheet of the Medusa mermaid Merdusa, light, pergamentlike background, Merdusa in the bottom right half of the sheet in front view, she's a mermaid whose lower body part is the body of a white sea snake with yellow stripes, the end of the tail is flattened. She's got snakes instead of hair. The arms ar crossed, she is looking out of the corner of the eyes to her right, there is grey rimlight and a grey shadow beneath her, in the background a pale school of fish; in the upper left half of the painting text: "Merdusa - Stunning Stone Queen of the Sea -; Aristocratic ancestry; Soft but resistant skin + scales, mimicking stone surface; Lower body of a sea snake, poisonous snakes as hair; The poison petrifies whoever get bitten by them, it also can be spewed into the water for broader (but less effective) impact (this rising the rumor, just looking at her would turn everyone to stone); She has a no-nonsense attitude to life but at the same time she is attracted to nonsense; This leading to her love-hate relationship - well, more love than hate - with Nema, the clownfish mermaid, but she won't admit her affection for Nema easily.

Digitalzeichnung, Comicstil, Ausschnitt aus einem Bild: Merdusa, die Medusa-Meerjungfrau, graue-blaue Haut, gelbe Stellen auf der Haut, weiße Schlangen auf dem Kopf von vorne, der Oberkörper ist zu sehen, die hat die Arme verschränkt, guckt ungeduldig nach links (vom Betrachter aus gesehen). Korallen und Seeanemonen im Hintergrund.

🇩🇪 Die Neu-Zeichnung Merdusas von letzter Woche sollte nur der Auftakt zu einer Reihe weiterer Mermaid-OC-Bildern sein. Und diesmal habe ich es sogar geschafft (zeitnah) diese Reihe weiterzuführen … sort of.

Mein nächster Mermay-OC befindet sich bereits work in progress, zuvor jedoch habe ich diese Woche noch einen Charakterborgen für Merdusa erstellt, um diese endlich einmal richtig vorzustellen, abseits dessen, was ihr hier auf diesen Seiten und in diesem PaintLog in der Vergangenheit bereits habt erfahren können.

Doch auch an anderer Stelle kündigt sich Neues am Horizont an:

Aus Arcryla City stehen gleich zwei neue Bilder ins Haus. Passend zum Valentingstag gibt es ein Valentings-Event mit einer Promptliste und ich werde natürlich nicht zögern, hier etwas zusammenzuzeichnen.

An dem anderen Bild arbeite ich bereits seit einer geraumen Weile zusammen mit meiner Kollaborationspartnerin Potato Beta. Es wird die Geschichte von Paula + Crissy und Potato + Conway, fortschreiben, die mit dem Sleepover begann und bisher bis zum Zeppelin Night Ride führte. Bislanng ist noch nicht abzusehen, wann es fertiggestellt sein soll, ich hoffe jedoch, dass wir es in den nächsten Wochen finalisieren können.

🇬🇧 Last week’s redraw of Merdusa was only meant to be the kick-off to a series of more Mermaid OC paintings. And this time I even managed to continue this series (in a timely manner) … sort of.

The next Mermay OC The next character is already work in progress, but before that I created a character sheet for Merdusa to finally introduce her properly, apart from what you have already learned here on this website and in this PaintLog in the past.

But there are also other news on the horizon:

There are two new pictures going to come from Arcryla City. Fitting for Valentine’s Day there is a Valentines event with a prompt list and of course I won’t hesitate to draw something together here.

I’ve been working on the other painting for quite a while now with my collaboration partner Potato Beta. It will continue the story of Paula + Crissy and Potato + Conway, which began with the Sleepover and has so far led up to the Zeppelin Night Ride. As of yet, there is no word on when it will be completed, but I hope we can finalize it within the next few weeks.

Digital Painting, a collaboration project in comic/anime style: The Arcryla City OCs Potato Delta, Conway, Crissy and Paula on the dancefloor, Crissy/Paula to the left, Potato/Conway to the right; Conway is a huge guy in a blute coat and a dark tophat with white-blonde hair, holding Potato tight who is leaning against him with closed eyes, Potato is wearing a golden and blue shoulder free dress with golden frills, she has orange short hair, two long strains falling down her cheeks; Paula has short, light green hair as side fringe, purple lips and is wearing a bellyfree button-down shirt without sleeves, platform boots and a skirt with frills, all clothes are green, she also wears black bands around neck and wrists; she is holding Crissy tight and leaning over her while Crissy is leaning backwards; Crissy has short purple hair and big round glasses, she wears a bellyfree corsagelike purple top, a short light purple skirt and purple toefree boots, she is blushing; in the backgrpund people at tables and a big window with flying glowing fish; to the right there are mechanical music instruments which are playing themselves, a pipe, a saxiphone, a cello and a violin; in the foreground two chanedeliers and the contours of people

Digital Painting, Comic style: Two young woman, Crissy Faith (short purple hair, big round glasses) and Potato Delta (long brownish red hair) in Crissy's flat in pajamas on a couch which has been transformed into a bed, sitting on rose, and brown blankets and cushions, Potato holding a glass, Crissy looking sideways down, pressing her stuffed water bear towards her belly, blushing, bowles and bottles around them, pizza boxes on the floor, a table with more bowles, an aquarium, a slate, a notebook, light bubls hanging from the ceiling; huge, wide windows in the background, the scenery showing zeppelins, clouds and a huge building with a blue glowing clock tower in front of a night sky

Slowly …

Digital Painting, Comic style: Below sea level, sea's bottom, rather dark water, "Merdusa" in front view, a mermay whose lower body part is the body of a white sea snake with yellow stripes, the end of the tail is flattened. She's got snakes instead of hair. The arms ar crossed, she is looking out of the corner of the eyes to her right, in the foreground are some water plants, in the background some blurry rocks, a school of fish can be seen in the upper left corner, water and light are creating a pattern on Merdusa's skin and hair.

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, behind her you can see the Lesbian Pride flag text: M.: "Still not ready?" - N.: "DON'T peep!" - M.: "In your dreams."

🇩🇪 Nachdem der letzte Sonntag bzw. die Woche davor mich nicht haben hetzten können, um um jeden Preis irgendwas Neues präsentieren zu können, kam ich in der vergangenen Woche langsam zurück ins Leben und habe erneut einen meiner Lieblings-Mermay-OCs gezeichnet: Merdusa.

Wir erinnern uns: Das erste Mal zeichnete ich sie im Mermay 2019, gemeinsam mit ihrer („Nenn sie nicht so!“) besseren Hälfte Nema hatte sie im Mermay 2020 eine wiederkehrende Rolle und war auch im Mermay 2021 wieder mit von der Partie. Vor diesem hatte ich sie außerdem als druckbares T-Shirt Motiv bearbeitet und hinterher auch noch zusammen mit Nema für den Pride Month 2021 dekoriert (siehe Bildergalerie).

Bei dem jetzigen Bild haben wir es nicht so mehr mit einem Redraw zu tun, sondern mehr mit einem Verschmelzen bisheriger Bilder. Das Design ist seit Mermay 2020 relativ konstakt (der größte Sprung ist aufgrund geänderter Zeichentechnik von 2019 auf 2020).

Eigentlich hatte ich weder einen detailierten Vorder- noch Hintergrund geplant, sondern den ersten Part für ein Gruppenbild aller meiner Haupt-Mermay-Meerjungfrauen. Merdusa sollte die erste sein, Hintergrund unnötig. Da sich ein weißer Körper auf beigem Papier(hintergrund) aber nicht sonderlich verträgt, kam eins zum anderen und plötzlich hatte ich ein vollwertiges Bild.

Besonders spannend fand ich diesmal, mit der Beleuchtung zu spielen. Die Wellen und Lichter im Wasser erzeugen Muster auf Merdusas Haut und das Grün des Meeresbodens spiegelt sich auf den Schuppen des Schlangenkörpers.

Hervorzuhaben ist zudem, dass Clip Studio Paint Zugang zu einem umfangreichen Arsenal von Pinseln und Farbverläufen bietet (und, wie ich kürzlich erfuhr, sogar Photoshop-Pinsel importieren kann). Auf diese Weise kamen sowohl der Farbverlauf des Meereswassers wie auch die Fische im Hinter- und die Pflanzen im Vordergrund zustande.

🇬🇧 After last Sunday and the week before I didn’t allow them to press me to present anything new at any price, I slowly came back to life last week and drew one of my favourite Mermay OCs again: Merdusa.

We remember: The first time I drew her was in Mermay 2019, together with her („Don’t call her that!“) better half Nema she had a recurring role in Mermay 2020 and was back again in Mermay 2021. Before the latter, I had also created her as a printable T-shirt motif and afterwards also decorated her together with Nema for Pride Month 2021 (see picture gallery).

The current painting is not so much a redraw, but more a merging of mentioned previous ones. The design is relatively constant since Mermay 2020 (the biggest jump is due to changed drawing technique from 2019 to 2020).

Actually I didn’t plan neither a detailed foreground nor background, but the first part for a group painting of all my main Mermay mermaids. Merdusa should be the first, background unnecessary. Since a white body doesn’t quite match with beige paper (background), one came to the other and suddenly I had a full-fledged painting.

I was particularly excited to play with the lighting this time. The waves and lights in the water create patterns on Merdusa’s skin and the green of the seabed is reflected on the scales of the snake’s body.

It’s also worth noting that Clip Studio Paint offers access to an extensive arsenal of brushes and gradients (and, as I recently learned, can even import Photoshop brushes). That’s how the gradient of the ocean water came about, as well as the fish in the background and the plants in the foreground.

Best of

🇩🇪 Das neue Jahr ist natürlich wieder voll Karacho in die erste Arbeitswoche nach den Feiertagen gestartet. Dies bedeutet, ich sitze zwar bereits wieder an neuen Zeichnungen dran, habe diese aber noch nicht vollendet.

Das ist aber insofern von Vorteil, als dass es mir die Gelegenheit gab, den Jahresrückblick 2021 nun endgültig abzuschließen. Denn eine Collage fehlte noch: Die Best of 2021.

Wie auch in 2020 findet ihr hier meine persönlichen Favoriten über alle Themen verteilt. Die meisten davon habe ihr bereits in den anderen Rückblicken gesehen, folgt ihr zu der oben genannten Seite, erwartet euch jedoch auch dieses Jahr ein etwas tieferer Einblick zu den jeweiligen Bildern.

Hier gehe ich nicht nur darauf ein, was auf den verschiedenen Bildern zu sehen ist, sondern ebenso auf deren Entstehunsgeschichte, besondere Herausforderungen beim Zeichnen, sowie kleinere Geheimnisse und Eastereggs, die sich im Bild wiederfinden und die ihr vielleicht noch gar nicht entdeckt habt. Da sich außerdem ein guter Teil Fanart unter den Bildern befindet, solltet ihr jedoch mit Spoilern zu The Owl House, Amphibia und Arcane rechnen:

🇬🇧 Of course, the new year has started full speed into the first working week after the holidays. This meaning that I’m already working on new paintings, but I haven’t finished them yet.

Still, this is an advantage insofar as it gave me the opportunity to finally conclude the recap 2021, one collage still missing: The Best of 2021.

As in 2020, here you will find my personal favorites across all subjects. Most of them you have already seen in the other recaps, but if you follow above-mentioned link, you will get a deeper insight into the respective paintings.

I’m not only going to explain what can be seen in the various paintings, but I also will talk about their creation process, challenges in drawing them and small secrets and eastereggs that you may not have discovered yet. As there is also a good deal of fanart among the paintings, you should beware of spoilers about The Owl House, Amphibia and Arcane:

Revelations

🇩🇪 Nach dem durchaus intensiven (Mer)Mai ist nun wieder der Alltag zurückgekehrt, zeichnerisch wie broterwerbsmäßig. Soll heißen, mein Output zielt nicht mehr auf ein Bild für jeden Tag des Monats ab, dafür werden die Pausen länger und die Zeichensessions kürzer. Auf die Dauer sicherlich auch besser so.

Auch habe ich nunmehr die Arbeit am nächsten Teil Cedrakon wieder aufgenommen. Das Bild kommt gut voran, es fehlt aber noch ein bisschen. Da es ein wenig umfangreicher ist, hoffe ich auf nächste Woche (Work-in-Progress-Zwischenstände gibt es wie immer aber drüben auf Patreon).

In der letzten Woche gab es aber noch einen kleinen Beitrag zum Pride Month. Ich hatte es, denke ich, ja bereits öfter angedeutet und so schwer herauszulesen war es auch nicht, dass da zwischen meinen beiden Mermay OCs Nema und Merdusa irgendwas am Laufen scheint. Nun erfolgt noch einmal die offizielle Bestätigung: Ja, die beiden sind als zwar ungleiches aber doch als Paar angedacht. Sie wissen es nur selber noch nicht, sondern sind noch in der Findungsphase.

🇬🇧 After the actually intense (Mer)May, everyday life is back – regarding my drawing process as well as the bred and butter job. This means that my output not longer aims towards to be able to sharing one painting per day, instead the breaks will be longer and the drawing sessions shorter. In the long run this surely is the better strategy.

Recently, I continued my work on the next part Cedrakon(🇩🇪) . The work is processing fine but there still is some work to do. Because it’s a particular detailed painting, I’m looking forward to next week (work in progress as usual on Patreon, though).

Last week I did another contribution to Pride Month. I think I hinted it before and it’s not too difficult to read between the lines: Nema and Merdusa, two of my Mermay OCs(🇩🇪), are a thing. Here again the official confirmation: Yes, they are a unlikely couple but they are thought as couple. They didn’t find out it yet, though.

Und dann startete gestern noch die zweite Staffel von „The Owl House“. Fanart hierzu habe ich bereits in der Vergangenheit erstellt. Nach der ersten Episode der zweiten Staffel musste ich sogleich ein weiteres Bild dazu malen und habe erneut auf meinen minimalistischen Stil zurückgegriffen, da es einfach raus musste, um alles zu verarbeiten. In meinem Post auf Instagram findet ihr auch eine kurze Kritik zu der Folge (Vorsicht Spoiler!). Wenn ihr könnten (aka Möglichkeiten findet), schaut euch die Serie an!

Last but not least the second season of the show „The Owl House“ started yesterday. I did fanart (🇩🇪) about it in the past and after the first episode of the second season, I just couldn’t resist to do another painting. Again, I did in in my minimalized style because I had to process the episode very quickly. In my posting on Instagram I also wrote down what I think about this episode (spoiler ahead!). If you can (meaning „If you’ve got the possibility“): Watch the show! You won’t be disappointed!

Résumérmay

🇩🇪 Vier Wochen sind rum, in denen ich jeden Tag eine Meerjungfrau gepostet habe, sieben Wochen Vorbereitung insgesamt, in denen ich (fast) täglich an einem Meerjungfrauenbild gesessen habe. Im letzten Jahr hatte ich mich auf „einfache“ Monochromzeichnungen beschränkt, da ich aus 2019 noch in Erinnerung hatte, wie stressig es sein kann, jeden Tag eine farbige Zeichnung präsentieren zu wollen.

Dieses Jahr hatte ich mich trotzdem wiederum daran versucht und konnte glücklicherweise Anfang April mit den ersten Bildern beginnen und Mitte Mai knapp zwei Wochen Urlaub nehmen. Andernfalls wäre das Ganze kaum schaffbar gewesen. Aber auch so habe ich stellenweise gezweifelt, ob ich es wirklich schaffen werde, für jeden Tag im Mai ein Bild zu zeichnen.

Am ersten Bild saß ich mehr als eine Woche, das zweite hat ebenso mehrere Tage gedauert und das dritte ging gefühlt viel zu langsam voran. Dann gab es wiederum Bilder, die ich an einem Tag gezeichnet habe und die Bilder für die Tage 28, 29 und 30 entstanden sogar alle am selben Tag. Zuweilen habe ich ein wenig getrickst und das Setup der Bilder von vornherein so aufgebaut, dass ich große Teile für einen weiteren Teil verwenden konnte.

So kam es dann auch, dass ich tatsächlich gut eine Woche vor dem Maienende fertig war.

Trotz all der Arbeit hat es dennoch großen Spaß gemacht. Ich habe die Geschichten bekannter Charaktere fortführen können, neue Charaktere sind dazugekommen und der eine oder andere Ansatzpunkt für eine Fortsetzung im nächsten Jahr wurde angelegt. Auch habe ich beim Zeichnen der Bilder einige neue Techniken und Vorgehensweisen ausprobiert, habe herumspielen können und schauen, wie es aussieht, verworfen, neu ausprobiert, Erfahrungen sammeln können.

In jedem meiner Mermays gibt es außerdem ein paar „geheime Achievements“, die ihr vielleicht, vielleicht auch nicht bereits entdeckt habt. Dazu gehört z. B. die jährliche Spongebob-Schwammkopf-Referenz. Mit Bild 17 habe ich diese dieses Jahr erreicht. Nicht erreicht habe ich hingegen, das Urzeit-Meerjungfrauen-Motiv, das ihr sowohl im Jahr 2019 (mehrmals) und im Jahr 2020 (einmal) entdecken konnte. Wir werden sehen, ob ich sie nächstes Jahr wieder schaffe.

Als Dank auch an euch fürs gemeinsame Durchhalten, findet ihr auf dieser Seite heute auch bereits Tag 31 (auf Patreon seit gestern schon). Zudem habe ich die „freie Woche“ genutzt, um an einem DTIYS auf Instagram teilzunehmen (Originalbild siehe dort), das ihr hier ebenso weiter unten sehen könnt:

🇬🇧 Four weeks passed, a time I posted a mermaid day by day. Seven weeks of preparation with working (almost) every single day on a mermaid painting. Last year I painted monochrome since I remembered of 2019 how stressful the goal can be to present a coloured painting day by day.

This year, though, I tried it again. Luckily I could start with the first paintings in the beginning of April and I got a vacation from work in the mid of May. Otherwise, this output wouldn’t have been possible. Nevertheless I sometimes doubted if I will gain the goal to prepare a painting for every single day.

The first painting nearly took me week, the second one several days and the third also felt as if it took much too long to be in time. Whereas there were paintings which only took one day and the paintings for the days 28, 29 and 30 I painted on one and the same day. Sometimes I cheated a little bit by arranging the setting of the painting a way, I easily could reuse wide parts of it for a followup painting.

So, I actually finished the last picture one week before the end of May.

Albeit all this work and stress it was a lot of fun. I continued the stories of my familiar Mermay OCs, new characters turned up and the one or other sequel for the next Mermay has been indicated. Additionally, I tried some new technical features and drawing techniques while preparing the paintings. I played around just to see how it turns out, abandoned it, made new experiences.

Additionally, I’d like to tell you that every Mermay there also are some „secret achievements“ which you may have or may not have discovered already, e. g. the Spongebob Squarepants reference which I achieved this year with painting number 17. What I didn’t achieve this year is the prehistorical mermaids motif which you can find in Mermay 2019 (several times) and 2020 (one time). Will I achieve it next year? We will see.

To thank you for following me on this way through Mermay, you will find the Mermay 31 painting right now on this site (on Patreon it already it has been online since yesterday). Finally, I took advantage of the „free week“ and participated in a DTIYS on Instagram again (original painting see on Instagram) which I also present you here:

Mermay 24, "Weapon", digital painting, comic style, a redraw of a 2019 painting (more elaborated): A "Zora", a creature from the video game "The Legend of Zelda - Breath of the Wild". They are a folk of humanoids with long linmbs, fins attached to their elbows and a head resembling marine life (fish like) forms where otherwise would be the hair. This one's head and colouring resembles an orca: Face, chest, belly and parts of legs and arms are white, the rest is dark grey. She is wearing golden jewelry with green and azure gems, a bright grey collar and holding a spear. The ground she is standing on is covered with water, the center of the background ist a deep blue, white strokes are suggesting water falling from above. On the left and right a brighter blue. Title, written in the font of the title of the video game: "The Legend Of Zelda #Breath Of The Wild - Rise Of The Zorca"

Mermay 25, "Deep Sea", digital painting, comic style: Ceratia, a mermaid based on an anglerfish, catching Merindiana Jane (Indiana Jones based mermaid) who is wrapped as big sushi rolls and falling from above. Rice is floating upwards as well a Merindiana's whip which is made of jellyfish tentacle. The only light source is Ceratia's light bulb an a rod on her forehead. Merindiana is saying: "Don't ask!", title: "Ceratia finding a friend - finally!"

Digital painting, comic style: A mermaid with turqoise tail and a long, bifurcated fin, there is also a smaller fin at her hip, the bra are two blue mussels. She's got red hair which is styled in a sidecut, falling straight from her right side of the head and winding along her belly to me meet likewise bifurcated with the tips of the tail fin. She is wearing a starfish, a shell and a sea snail's shell in her hair, the starfish fixed with a headband made of algae. The left hand touches her left ear, the right hand is flat under her chin, her left eye is winking to the viewer

May the End be with you

🇩🇪 Letzte Maiwoche voraus und ich kann verkünden, dass fast sämtliche Bilder für den Mermay 2021 bereits vollendet sind. Lediglich das letzte ist noch im Werden, sollte im Laufe des Tages jedoch fertig sein.

Somit werde ich mich ab nun wieder anderen Projekten zuwenden können und evtl. mich auch noch an dem einen oder anderen Mermay-DTIYS beteilligen. Für Ende Mai ist außerdem noch ein kleines Resumee des diesjährigen Mermays geplant und auf Patreon stelle ich für Patrons inzwischen die Mermay-Meerjungfrauen der nächsten 3 bis 4 Tage zur Vorschau zur Ansicht.

Und dann gibt es natürlich weiterhin die Meerjungfrauen der Woche:

🇬🇧 Last week of May and all but one paintings of Mermay2021 are finished. The last one will be ready today in the evening, so I guess.

So, I can turn towards other projects again, perhaps participate in some mermay DTIYS challenges. I’m also planning a short resume in the end of May and Patrons on Patreon will find the Mermay mermaids of the next 3 to 4 days as preview now.

Of course, there are the mermaids of the week, too:

Mermay 17, "Starfish", digital painting, comic style: A mermaid seen from behind, she has purple-black neck long hair and is wearing a squid as hat, her back resembles a manta ray, covering her body like a coat, in the left hand she is holding a staff in the form of a belemnite holding a white pearl. On the sea floor there is a pentagram built from stones and pebbles, above it is floating a ghostly appearance of "Patrick Star" (Spongebob Squarepants). The mermaid is looking into a book with instructions (chapter "Cønjuring") which she is holding in her right hand. In the background some dark rock formations, title: "The Little Sea Witch and the Failed Conjuring"

Mermay 18, "Scepter", digital painting, comic style: Nema, the clownfisch mermaid, standing behind the the big heap of golden coins, jewels and necklaces from Mermay 2. She is holding the scepter in the left hand and some coins (some of them falling down) in her left hand, looking on the sceptre with bright, shiny eyes. Dark blue rock formations in the background. Title: "Entering the Tigress' Lair"

24 out of 31

🇩🇪 Mitte Mai und die Mermay-Vorbereitungen nähern sich dem Ende, ebenso allerdings mein Urlaub. Da mein Zeigefinger heute außerdem einen Küchenunfall hatte, bin ich um so glücklicher, genug Puffer eingeplant zu haben und somit noch immer im Zeitplan zu liegen.

Ich bin dennoch nicht unglücklich, wenn der Mermay 2021 vorbei ist und ich mich auch wieder anderen Zeichnungen widmen kann (insbesondere Cedrakon natürlich).

🇬🇧 Mid of May and the Mermay preparations can see the end of the line. So can my vacation. Since my digit had got a kitchen accident today, I’m glad to have planned enough buffer to be still on schedule.

Still, I won’t be unhappy when Mermay2021 is over and I can return to other projects (Cedrakon in particular, of course).