This is a re-paint of a piece I did in 2007, called People of the Lake: http://www.sheppard-arts.com/_img/portfolio/illustrations/people_of_the_lake.jpg

The original was sort of haphazardly drawn- I didn't really have a solid grasp of anatomy, and I hadn't discovered brushes other than the soft round yet... but two years is a long time in terms of artistic skill development.

That said, in this 'remix' I wanted to put the two mer-people in a different situation— in the earlier version I'd received lots of comments asking what on earth they were doing. The original was supposed to have a bit of a danger element, or some tension between the two characters, but I always felt it missed the mark when it came to context. So I concentrated a lot harder on the facial expression, movement, and body language, as well as the scenery.

I channeled memories of the intro to Tim Burton's "Big Fish" where the camera takes you under the river with all the fish lures hanging down. My original idea, creating the shadow of a fishing boat's underside, just wasn't clear and was distracting from the power of the highlights.

I'm still working on facial expression, muscles (particularly mens' torsos), and movement. Also working on improving my use of perspective a bit.

I hope you enjoy, and any critique on this is appreciated.