Mermaid rot (process) (Patreon)

I saw a post about a whale carcass that had fish living in it and thought it was awesome. I love the idea of body horror /and/ drawing mermaid /and/ getting to draw fish. I've been obsessed with drawing fish lately 

Sketch. In a way designed to be the opposite of this one I made a few weeks ago 

i can be ur angle or ur devil .png 

Using a darker palette for once feels weird. Anyway for using blues it's always nice to use a green or purple. Going for a red/warmer colour gives a totally different feel. Blue, green and purple keep it in the cooler section of colours and ya know blue skinned associated with dead things, all that good atmospheric stuff. The lighter fish is for contrast/I thought it was cool 

This just me but I like to colour faces and skin first. It helps me figure out the feel. No idea how people draw them last 

Tried something a lil different this time! I tried to scatter light on the scales with a few different tones. Usually I just slap on a vague light 

Final cleanup: added more 'character' stuff, like more hair strands, a few more fish, etc.