Arlon and Liliana - Mermaid - 20260509
It's MerMay once again, so I drew Liliana and Arlon as mermaids.Liliana and Arlon are my original characters. This is the first time I’ve ever portrayed them as mermaids. It’s MerMay, so it just felt like the right time. Here they are as children, swimming underwater together, just enjoying being there. Liliana leads. Arlon follows, looking around with that wide-eyed curiosity he has. Their tails are both white — that's always been central to both of their designs, for it represents their bond.
There's also a manatee peeking out. It's my favourite aquatic animal, so it was always going to be in. I gave it a storybook quality, which suited the kidlit art I was trying to work in. It ended up feeling less like background and more like a third character quietly joining them.
Everything in this artwork was drawn and rendered by hand; sketch, lines, soft cell shading, all of it. The coral reef in the background follows a downward arch to create depth without crowding the characters. I added schools of tiny fish in the open water because it needed life and bubbles. After all, underwater scenes always need bubbles.
The poem on the right was written by my friend. It's good, but a bit too long for the provided space. It's my fault anyway for not planning the layout better. Something to keep in mind the next time I put text into the artwork.
Did it turn out well? It's fine. It reads more like a colour script than a finished kidlit illustration, and I know that. The anatomy, the lighting, the colour harmony, the rendering consistency, all things I'm still working on. But Liliana and Arlon are mermaids in this artwork, and that underwater world exists, and I made it. For a first attempt, that's enough.May 9, 2026
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