Outside our small safe place flies Mystery... A snake beneath the forest floor, a whisper: Melusine

After working a long while (about two weeks) on this painting, I began to see the Betta Mermaid as a Merman and, in my mind as I tried to sleep, I keep seeing a few different female versions of a Siamese Fighting Fish-maid.  The name that comes to mind is that this "guy" is Abernathy.  I've always liked that name.  Sounds antique and nautical to me, like he was discovered in an old sea coastal town...

When we last left our buddy, Abernathy, this is how he looked:


Sometimes, in order to finish a really good painting, you have to stop work on it and just stare at it for awhile.  After that while, I realized that the scales should appear more translucent. Normally I don't use a lot of white watercolor, I usually just erase color with water, but since I put a lot of dark color on his scales, a washing out would overall give a more gray lavender sheen underneath the scales. So here is the result:


Here's a close-up of the detail I put in his mysterious eyes:

Can you see how he has started to seem more male in personality and appearance? I love how character develops like that. Start with a few strokes of the brush and pencil lines and soon someone you didn't expect at first appears!

Here is where I started to become more and more satisfied with the appearance of the scales. This was the moment I came to know the figure as "Abernathy" and started to fall in love with him.

What would you do if you encountered this Merman? Doesn't he look fierce?

To show you the scale of the painting, I took a photo of Mr. Snuggles carefully stepping around my drawing board.

To check my detail, I often take a photo of a painting in black and white. I also, if I have enough time and computer access, scan in the painting, invert the colors, and/or reverse it to see how it would look in a book. I do this not just to gauge a different perspective, but to see if I got anything in improper perspective. Then it's back to refining the image.

I don't think Abernathy would be totally alone in his tank, so as I began to detail the bubbles in the water and background, I lifted some color with water to allow some space for a few new watery friends...

Enter a goldfish and a guppy! Now we can really see how small (or is that how big?) Abernathy really is. Considering the size of the other fish, I now see him as being almost as big as a kitten.

And now we are nearly done with the painting. The goldfish and guppy (someone wanna come up with some names for them?) are more detailed and Abernathy is looking more and more pleased with himself. I imagine a male Betta merman would be kind of like a peacock -- not necessarily conceited, but happy being the only one of his kind and secure knowing that he is the most beautiful thing in his world.

If you are keen to notice, our Abernathy is ready to mate. He has begun to build a nest of bubbles at the surface of the tank. He doesn't know yet if there are any female Betta mermaids to be found, but he's willing to send out a mating call into the universe.

From close-up you can see a slight smile on Abernathy's face. Maybe all he needs is you?

Wait and see.