Mermaids on my mind

Finally, I am back at my drawing table. And charged with the delicious task of illustrating a month for next year’s NPR calendar.
Yay!
The piece must show my public radio listening experience. While I was sketching, I heard an interview on WMEA 90.1 with an author of a new book on biodiversity. He mentioned horseshoe crabs, critical to testing the toxicity of antibiotics. Who knew? There are so many species we know nothing about yet our very survival depends on them. I started drawing an underwater scene, which had to include a horseshoe crab and a mermaid. Plenty of mermaid folklore around an island. I’ve been drawing them for years.

This one combines two favorite subjects, the moon and a mermaid.

This is a real place, which we call Billygoat Rocks, with an imaginary mermaid lounging before the twilight stage.

I was so captivated by this spot. I drew a mermaid sunbathing there, too.

This piece is called “Surfacing”…..

Anyway, when I sat down to work on this NPR thing, I submerged myself in all things mermaid. Just finished reading
The Tail of Emily Windsnap by Liz Kessler with my daughter. And she just got the sequel.

Got out the mermaid dolls for fun. This one was bought from a beach vendor at the St. James Club in Antigua.

And here is a Groovy Girl mermaid.

I needed my NPR mermaid to be listening to her iShell, so got my best model to pose real quick.

The illustration is about submerged frequencies, and All Songs Considered, literally and metaphorically.

I drew my mermaid separately, so I can move her around underwater. Playing with layers in Photoshop is akin to collage; so many accidental possibilities: I loves it!

Stay tuned for the final piece. I gotta go finish it!