VITAL MERMAID
Summer 2023
Digital illustration
Watch the timelapse footage above, and you may notice there’s a major character missing.
I came very close to posting an earlier version of this with no sailors at all, just the mermaid and the fish, but it was deeply unsatisfying to look at. We’re wired to want to see other people, to identify them, to decode their behavior and deduce their motives, and where we see action we look for a complementary reaction. Why would a mermaid goddess spend all night herding around an empty boat in a bubble? I wouldn’t. I dove back in and got to work on the captain and his first mate.
Now we're seeing the (re)action that was lacking before. The poses, gazes, and gestures of the three figures illustrate their social dynamic and lead the eye around the densely-packed frame. What was lifeless and forlorn, tossed about empty on the waves, is now charged with joyous intent, forging toward the horizon. All it took was a couple of little bros in little socks.
The painful personal lesson of this piece hit me at about the 54-minute mark of the video, where you can see me retracing the sails & stripes after accidentally flattening a handful of layers and not noticing until it was too late to Cmd+Z my way out. Copy your file at regular intervals, lock all your layers all the time, and if you’re getting salty and sweaty, just put down the Pencil, drink some ice water, and take a walk around the block.
I didn’t recognize it until writing about it and titling it, but this one owes a lot to Studio Ghibli’s Ponyo. There is nothing new under the moon or sea. –A∙
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