Hello Everyone! <3

[Mermaid_Aurora]

Hello everyone! I'm a week or two late introducing myself, I didn't even see the introduction forum until now, but better late than never!

My mer name is Mermaid Aurora, and I'm 23 years old. I have loved mermaids almost my entire life. Actually, fantasy has always been a passion of mine. I think the movie The Little Mermaid had to have been what started my interest, I use to watch that movie over and over again. But as time went on, I kinda just stopped focusing on them, until they showed up again in Pirates of the Caribbean, which rekindled my fascination with them.

I didn't even know people could dress up as mermaids. The most I ever saw were children's mermaid costumes with the holes in the bottom so they could walk. I never knew actual tails even existed until a few months ago, when I found a bunch of mermaid videos over youtube and got extremely fascinated. Then one day I decided to search the internet to see if people made and sold these tails. Merbella's was the first tail maker I ran across, and ever since then, it created a spark for a dream that has not left me. I decided I finally knew what I wanted to do with my life, and that was to be a mermaid model and entertainer.

I'm still saving for my tail, doing little art commissions on DeviantArt and through a "ChipIn" donation pool I started a month or two ago that's still ongoing, that a few of my friends have already donated to to help me out a bit. Blue mermaids are my favorite, so my first tail is definitely going to be colorful shades of blue. It's interesting how I decided to become a mermaid, I'm not a very strong swimmer and I have a phobia of drowning. Actually, I almost drowned a few years ago, and I haven't touched a swimming pool ever since, though I have been in the ocean several times afterwards. I'm hoping my absolute NEED to follow my dream to becoming a mermaid can help me overcome my fears.

My mersona does have a story, though I have not written it in great detail yet. So far all I have down is that my mersona is one of Poseidon's many children, who was captured by a pirate captain and there's a bit of a "Disney love story" between the two, if you get my meaning. The pirate of course, being played by my significant other- who coincidentally has been dressing up as a pirate long before I decided to become a mermaid, so it fits rather well. Both me and him made a page for our characters on a roleplaying website to help us get the major details of our story developed so we can play it out better in person. He has been REALLY supportive through the whole thing and keeps me going even when I'm doubting myself, so really I owe it all to him, as my dream has now also become his <3

The problem is keeping the motivation. It's a little hard for me, as I grew up with self esteem problems that never went away, and was always bullied throughout my life and still am from time to time, along with a few other traumatic events that I will not go into. My family does not support my modeling dream, in fact they have specifically told me to forget about it. They seem to think I'm not pretty enough, or tall enough, or skinny enough, or that I wont be able to handle it, which is a real motivation breaker. Asking for help has been really hard, as nearly everyone I have asked, or explained my dream to, responded with "get a real job", that I do not deserve help, and that I should be "miserable like everyone else". I've tried getting a job for years, that didn't work, so I turned to the only other thing I was good at, art. It's not profitable, but it makes me happy. Life's too short to do anything that doesn't make me happy, I refuse to do things that make me unhappy. Why? If I died tomorrow, I don't want to look back on my life and say "Darn, I'm unhappy. I should have lived life my way instead of living by others expectations." I guess part of the spark driving my will to make my dream become a reality, is so I can prove all these people wrong.

SO! With that being said, I have learned a LOT just reading through this site already, I hope to learn even more about mermaiding and everything it involves! I'm already enjoying the short amount of time I have been here, even though I've only posted a few times and have mostly been lurking (I'm a bit of a shy person). I didn't even know there were other California mermaids! I had never seen them or heard of them before, so of course, I HAD to become a part of the pod! I'm really, really, really glad I found out about this place and about mermaids in general :)

[Kanti]

Sorry it took so long to respond, I wanted to make sure I read it all first.

Anyway welcome to the forums!
It's nice to see that there are lots of people who like mermaids that aren't on the younger side haha. But it is a weird thing to sort of reveal to people. I especially understand that someone would give you crap for wanting to get a tail for $3000, something that they see as nothing more than a hobby or something.

I admire that you want to do something that makes you happy! I'm sort of at a turning point in my life where I want to be a biologist/vet but I'm actually making money via my art and it's something I actually like doing. I mean, I like animals too it's just, the school is literally killing me at this point.
I think most people just have an automatic tendancy to freak out when you tell them you want something other than what's considered a "normal" job.

[Mermaid_Aurora]

Yeah, I just wish more people had an open mind about such things. I mean, in my spare time sure, I'll swim as a hobby. But, I have a LOT of idea's and possible plans for using my tail in a career way, so its waaay more than just a hobby.

I understand the school thing though, even when I was taking online college it was stressful. I tried out the whole vet thing as well, actually. But, after jumping into it, I just couldn't do it. I mean, I scored wonderfully in school, but once I jumped into the actual career.... Let's just say I started off at a very bad hospital that made me not want to do it ever again. Not to mention, I simply couldn't handle putting animals to sleep. I had to help put down a very GORGEOUS dog, and it took all my willpower to retain the professional outlook when I actually wanted to run into the bathroom and cry. Kinda just went downhill from there. The hospital was mostly to blame for my bad experience but I believe I'll enjoy myself MUCH more doing this.

Sure its not a "normal" job, but then again, I've never been a "normal" person xD

[Kanti]

Yea it's really hard.
Also as a vet I'm not sure you exactly can win at the whole "putting an animal down" appearance. When you don't cry and seem upset people always assume you're cold hearted. We had to put our dog down and the vet didn't cry she just said "trust me, I know how it is, I'm really sorry" and my mom ended up being like "gosh she was so cold she didn't seem to even care!" so it's like, even when you DONT cry people get a bad impression it seems.
But yea, I find it hard to work for anyone. I always get frustrated when certain protocalls have to be met that don't seem to make a whole lot of sense and whatnot.

[Mermaid_Aurora]

Yeah, true. I'm just glad the family decided they didn't want to watch. Made it a little less embarrassing. I couldn't handle the in general pressure of working at an animal hospital. Though, like I said, it was a pretty bad hospital to begin with. I probably would have better enjoyed working for the vet I take my own animals to, we've known him for 30 years at least, but he had all the employees and interns he could handle.

I'm MUCH better at being my own boss, I've noticed. Much less pressure, which results in my work being done with much better quality and I'm much happier doing it.

[Kanti]

I agree!
I'm still at the stage where my parents think I NEED to get a degree when I make more money from my art that I can at a job that pays $12 an hour. Plus I work less, I get to wake up whenever I want, take my time, be my own boss so it's great!

That's sort of why I'm trying to get into mermaid tails.
It seems like a great step for my business to gain a ton of popularity.

[Mermaid_Aurora]

Agreed, though I'm more of the unknown artist, so I only get a commission maybe once a year if I'm lucky. Luckily I mostly do digital, so I'm not going through expensive supplies when I make a lot of other art for myself or do requests for friends. OH MY GOODNESS waking up whenever you want, that to me is the BEST part! My sleeping schedule is all over the place. One month I could be awake at normal hours and the next I'm a complete night owl, not to mention there's no strict set of working hours so I could sleep half the day if I felt like it xD AND you can make your own wage. Though, from what I have noticed, experience extremely outweighs a degree. You can have a degree for anything, but someone without a degree and lots of experience will still get hired first. At that point having a degree just seems to me like an extra bonus rather than a strict requirement.

I hope once I'm done working on, in my opinion, the best drawing I've ever done so far, I'll start getting more commissions. I specialize in dragons and critter-fantasy, animalistic non-human stuff, and my recent WIP is a major jump in art quality compared to the rest of my gallery. I'm hoping to make mermaid tops someday too, I LOVE mermaid shell tops and they look so fun to make, but I have no idea where to get those fake plants or any of that without destroying expensive fish decorations.

I wouldn't be surprised if it helped it gain popularity! They're so unique!

[Kanti]

Bleh I used to take a few commissions on deviantart but it just got old very quick for me. Not to mention I felt bad charging for my work and, yea, it seems like it's hard to get commissions since DA is such a huge place.
I was thinking of having a tumblr dedicated to drawing and adding that in later to help manage stuff.
And.. Well might sound a bit weird but I was planning on taking up NSFW(not safe for work) art. Sometimes it's not the most proud or nicest way to get money, but I've realized people who can draw a genital or two really get considered a LOT more than people who won't. I've drawn a couple of sex scenes as well and people will pay you a lot for that.
I mean again, sounds REALLY weird and bad to say but it's true. Also I'm not really a prude in any sense of the word so I honestly don't mind drawing anything.
EXCEPT FREAKING MACHINERY PARTS I hate that damn stuff haha.

[Mermaid_Aurora]

Yeah DA doesn't seem to work very well. I post pictures I do for fun as well as the ones I took my time on, but everyone seems to judge my entire gallery off the ones I /didn't/ take as much time on. Or, in other words, the fan art. I draw a LOT of MLP fan art, as all my friends are bronies, so they often request me to draw their RP characters. They don't take very long to do, and I'll do anything for my friends (within reason lol) and to be honest I really only posted it there because a few successful artists specifically told me fan art brings in watchers. Which it has gained me several.

But, sadly, my art as a whole is being judged by it, even though my regular art is so much better and those were gifts for friends. So, I don't see what the problem was. If they didn't like my fan art, they wouldn't all be swarming me with requests, is the way I see it. I've even been told that I'll never be a successful artist if I don't stop drawing just fantasy critters and branch out into scifi and sports and learn to draw humans. But, why should I? There's artists on DA who only draw literally ONE thing and have their commission slots over filled. One problem with DA though, is its filled with too many immature people. Too many young ones want things for free or next to nothing, thinking anything over 10 bucks is too expensive. I've gone as low as offering sketches for $1 just to see if people would buy it, and they still didn't. So, I've kinda given up advertising commissions on DA. I do have one repeat customer who commissions me every so often, and I'm happy with that for now.

Yeah, I try to keep my work as PG as possible, but, I also try to be realistic. If I'm drawing a creature who would have their genitals show (like any male animal for example) I will draw them if it's at an angle where it should be visible, though most the things I draw are female so it hasn't really mattered much yet. I understand why genitals and sex scenes would get a lot of attention, especially if your art is appealing to the furry audience (I know not all of them like that kind of stuff but a large amount of them do) or simply, people who prefer more realistically depicted images without being censored. I once knew an artist who'd get irritated whenever someone would draw a picture perfect male lion and NOT draw his "parts" because it took away from the realism.

MACHINERY PARTS! I refuse to draw them. Actually, I refuse to draw any inanimate object that isn't a natural part of nature. Buildings, fences, objects in general, though I can draw them with effort I'd much rather not. I can't STAND drawing feathers (even though half of everything I draw has feathers, go figure) and tree's, but I'd rather draw those than man-made creations xD