Tag Archives: anatomy

February 9, 2015 · 10:39 AM

Aquatic Interlude

So I drew a mermaid.  And that is all this post is going to be about.

A little context:

1. Somewhat recently I drove from New York to North Dakota to Texas, so I had a lot of time to think.

2. One of the things I thought about was mermaids.  I don’t know why.  But I do know that I always struggled with the concept of the archetypal mermaid (think Disney’s version) because of, um…sex reasons.  Like…fish reproduce outside their bodies, but human beings don’t.  Mermaids have breasts and uteri (never thought I’d need the plural of that word), but no um…vaginas.  So…you know, how does giving birth work?

2.5 While we’re on the subject!  They have knees!  Like even though their lower halves are cartilaginous and fish have no knees, animators and artists always put mermaids in sitting positions where their fins are bent like there’s a knee in there.  As long as people do that, mermaids are always going to look like human women who put on half a fish costume and tried to pretend they were mythological beings.

3. Yes, this absolutely needed to be in list form.

4. No, I don’t expect a cartoon for children to explore mer-vaginas and how they work.  We can leave that to romance novels like this one, written by P. C. Cast.

4.5 Please don’t ask why I know about this book.  Please.

4.75 Cartoons for children can explore mer-knees if they really want to.

5. I started to try to come up with a concept that would work by merging fish and woman and also allowing for more mammalian reproduction.

5.5 Look, I’m not obsessed with mermaids or mermaid sex, okay?  I don’t even know why it bothered me so much.  Probably because it was a really freakin’ long road trip.

6. Obviously, I drew my concept.  I waited until I was settled in my new home.

7. What I came up with looks a little like Mystique from X-Men.  Whoops.

8. First, just a rough sketch on paper:

Mermaid

9. Then I filled in the blanks with Photoshop Elements.

Mermaid copy

10. That’s uh…that’s it.  The above mermaid can have sex and give birth.  And she has knees!

11. Wooo mermaid sex!

12. Sorry for the partial nudity.  NSFW maybe?

12.5 I probably should have done the whole NSFW warning earlier.

12.75 Too late for that now.  The list is set in stone.  It is unchangeable.

13. Okay, I’m done now.  I swear.

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June 15, 2014 · 5:26 PM

Notes to Myself

I have been writing a lot without remembering to advertise!  Blasphemy!

Check out these new things I’ve got in my Etsy shop [EDIT 1/12/15: Etsy shop has since been closed but I’m leaving these images up because I’m a showoff]:

All Leaves 3

Caramel Leaf Earrings 7

Okay on to the blogging.

As some of you may know, I am attempting to write a book almost entirely by hand.  And it’s going well for me so far.  The hand-written method means I am less tempted to reread, edit, and nitpick.  Which is good.  But sometimes three days after I’ve written a page, I remember something I wanted to include in that scene.  What do I do then?  Easy.  I write myself a note in the margin.

Margins 6

Margins 2

Or if I decide I want to embellish a little, all I have to do is go back, add an asterisk and put the extra writing in the margins.  And if I don’t like what I decided to write in that margin, I just leave myself a note to fix it later.

Margins 3

Sometimes I just forget a pattern of colors that I used for a life-sized game board.  The margins are useful for that, too.

Margins 8

And other times when I’m feeling kinda writer’s blocked, I simply doodle until I get back on track.

Margins 4

Margins 5

Margins 1

Lastly, there was this one time I accidentally dotted an E.  So I did this:

Margins 9

Apparently I thought it was necessary for my future self to know why I drew a thought bubble over a word.

What I’m saying is that margins can be useful.  It’s okay to not get it right on the first try.  In fact, it’s preferable.  There’s less pressure that way.

I feel like a lot of people have the wrong idea about the writing process.  Like…they think that first you have to create the skeleton, then go back through and add flesh and muscle, and finally you polish it up with some facial features and pretty hair.  But that’s just not the case.  As far as I can tell, the first step for me has always been figuring out what a skeleton’s even supposed to look like.  My first drafts have a pelvis sticking out of an eye socket, with both arms on one side of the body and the left foot jammed between two ribs.  And that’s okay!  Because the next stage of editing is when you can take a quick anatomy lesson, show your skeleton to friends and have them rearrange some things.  Then, and only then, can you start to think about muscles and tendons.  It’s a tough process, but as I said, it is also liberating.  There’s no pressure to know what the hip bone connects to.  You just go all out, give it your best, and know that no mistake is unfixable.

Soooo…that’s it. I’ll write again soon!  Bye!

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