HOME | DD

Description
Swamp
~While most species adapt to their environments, these mermaids change the environment to suit them. Through a mix of agriculture and enzymes they cause extreme eutrophication, causing algae to bloom uncontrollably and choke out all life in the area. While this grants them their food, it is often so successful that they themselves can no longer breathe in the water and have to spend most of their time at the surface.~

"Get outta my swamp!"
"This isn't even a swamp, it's my backyard rock pond! GLADYS, THAT MERMAID'S BACK AGAIN!"

My brain went way too far into the socio-political aspects of these guys instead of the biology. On the one hand, they're basically eco-terrorists: the algal blooms choke out all the oxygen and kill all of the life in the area of whatever lake, pond, wetland, etc. they've moved into. If this was any other species, eradication would be the only option, and they wouldn't think twice about it. But these guys have intelligence on par with human beings. It would be murder at best and genocide at worst. So what on earth would humans do in that situation? I can very much see them trying to say "We've set aside these areas for you to live so the other ecosystems can stay healthy" and the merfolk making it very clear that humans don't get to tell them where they're allowed to live. The human governments would try to claim that they own the lands while the merfolk would argue that you can't own nature, and that they simply govern the humans within it. It would be a bad situation and I honestly don't know how it would be resolved. *starts foaming at mouth*

As for the actual biology, I figure they'd have similar armor as crocodilians in both scales and horn-like outcroppings of bone (for protection until they're the only thing left), that they can breathe in well-oxygenated water but also have lungs for when they're a little too successful and need to breathe the air instead, and that they use echolocation more than their vision, though they do still have decent vision above-water. Despite their fearsome appearance they're vegetarians (they eat the algae), though they might also eat insects to help get the nutrients they need to produce the enzymes that cause the algal blooms.

This whole piece was a long never-ending chain of "oh crap, how do I fix that?"
Streaks of white opaque ink ended up getting mixed into the background, the paper ripped when I removed the masking fluid (never did that before; I think it had something to do with the white ink), I realized I forgot my pencil crayons at home and had to do most o her colouring with watercolor ink (which I'm bad at), I forgot to mask off a space for a text block...so all things considered, I'm actually pretty happy with how it came out. Didn't turned out as planned, but after all that hassle it certainly turned out better than expected. (Then when I finally had it finished, scanned in, and fully edited I went to do a tiny edit, the file freaked out when saving, and not only would it not allow me to save but it completely deleted itself (disappeared from my recycling bin as well) and I had to do it all over. Then it refused to load to my Facebook page. Shrekmaid did not want you seeing her swamp.)

Done with Marabu Aqua Inks for the background (plus Speedball white acrylic ink, though that was unintentional) with Polychromos for detailing afterwards.

Description
Swamp
~While most species adapt to their environments, these mermaids change the environment to suit them. Through a mix of agriculture and enzymes they cause extreme eutrophication, causing algae to bloom uncontrollably and choke out all life in the area. While this grants them their food, it is often so successful that they themselves can no longer breathe in the water and have to spend most of their time at the surface.~

"Get outta my swamp!"
"This isn't even a swamp, it's my backyard rock pond! GLADYS, THAT MERMAID'S BACK AGAIN!"

My brain went way too far into the socio-political aspects of these guys instead of the biology. On the one hand, they're basically eco-terrorists: the algal blooms choke out all the oxygen and kill all of the life in the area of whatever lake, pond, wetland, etc. they've moved into. If this was any other species, eradication would be the only option, and they wouldn't think twice about it. But these guys have intelligence on par with human beings. It would be murder at best and genocide at worst. So what on earth would humans do in that situation? I can very much see them trying to say "We've set aside these areas for you to live so the other ecosystems can stay healthy" and the merfolk making it very clear that humans don't get to tell them where they're allowed to live. The human governments would try to claim that they own the lands while the merfolk would argue that you can't own nature, and that they simply govern the humans within it. It would be a bad situation and I honestly don't know how it would be resolved. *starts foaming at mouth*

As for the actual biology, I figure they'd have similar armor as crocodilians in both scales and horn-like outcroppings of bone (for protection until they're the only thing left), that they can breathe in well-oxygenated water but also have lungs for when they're a little too successful and need to breathe the air instead, and that they use echolocation more than their vision, though they do still have decent vision above-water. Despite their fearsome appearance they're vegetarians (they eat the algae), though they might also eat insects to help get the nutrients they need to produce the enzymes that cause the algal blooms.

This whole piece was a long never-ending chain of "oh crap, how do I fix that?"
Streaks of white opaque ink ended up getting mixed into the background, the paper ripped when I removed the masking fluid (never did that before; I think it had something to do with the white ink), I realized I forgot my pencil crayons at home and had to do most o her colouring with watercolor ink (which I'm bad at), I forgot to mask off a space for a text block...so all things considered, I'm actually pretty happy with how it came out. Didn't turned out as planned, but after all that hassle it certainly turned out better than expected. (Then when I finally had it finished, scanned in, and fully edited I went to do a tiny edit, the file freaked out when saving, and not only would it not allow me to save but it completely deleted itself (disappeared from my recycling bin as well) and I had to do it all over. Then it refused to load to my Facebook page. Shrekmaid did not want you seeing her swamp.)

Done with Marabu Aqua Inks for the background (plus Speedball white acrylic ink, though that was unintentional) with Polychromos for detailing afterwards.