La Sirena

The tradional mermaid is just a human torso bolted onto a fish tail (inevitably green) which is a terrible design from a biological sense; you'd never see that anywhere in nature. I decided to base my siren off a lionfish, partially so I could use an Asian skintone but mostly to include those deluxe fins and tigerstriping. While the original design was able to convey the physiology and taxidermy of what I considered an actual mermaid might look like, this version was intended to cultivate a more commercially viable approach

To that end, I have introduced jewelry and attempted to capture a sense of contrition. However, I am not yet convinced that she has genuine remorse; do a mermaid's tears differ from crocodile tears? Bulfinch doesn't address the issue so I am hopelessly lost at sea in this matter, if you'll forgive the analogy

Since I already resolved the physical issues in my previous attempt, I felt comfortable focusing on technical details like the way scales catch the light and letting the ocean spray get out of focus to indicate depth of field. Put differently, my first attempt was concerned with concept and this version addresses style

Nevile Page claims that hair must be done strand by strand. As much as I would love to prove the man wrong, it turns out that if you want to do hair even remotely right, you have to do it strand by strand. Even taking liberties and doing the eighties style hair, I was forced to resort to a one pixel brush to get it done