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Daphne
08-26-2013, 08:36 PM
Hi all :)

My name's Daphne. I'm not a mermaid. Not just yet. I do hope to join that swim team someday, and come up with a clever stage name and everything. I joined about 10 minutes ago, and figured the Chesapeake Pod would be a nice group to hang out in, since I'm up near Baltimore. (Sorry, I mean Balamur :p)

For now, I'm an artist. For eight to nine hours a day, I wear many hats as a print designer, logo/icon illustrator, production artist, cartoon artist, concept artist, comic artist, video editor and occasional copywriter. After that, I spend the few precious I got eating psudeo-real food, playing some D&D with my husband, and/or drawing characters and various things in Photoshop.

And speaking of Photoshop, I've been concepting a lot of tails. It's been my escape...more on that in a minute.

My fascination with this whole mermaid thing stems from my longtime love of mythology and storytelling, and as a former gamer. I used to play World of Warcraft and City of Heroes. I also used to play D&D on message boards and chatrooms, and particularly loved making characters. I loved imagining how they conducted themselves as a race, what they owned, what they wear, how they fought. Sometimes I'd draw them. Of late, my husband and I have tried out an offshoot of D&D that's completely underwater from a guide called "Cerulean Seas." It's A LOT of fun creating campaigns and role-playing through various characters, and working through the underwater equivalents of races, classes, beasts, environs etc.

Around that time I also stumbled upon a Facebook page called Merbella Studios. I didn't even know there were such a thing as performing mermaids back then...much less becoming one. Then several months later, I saw a post of theirs mentioning templates for designing a tail.

Which leads back to my concepting tails. The idea of creating something I can become one day...the idea of becoming the stuff I used to write about, dream about, draw out is, to me, the ultimate apex of freedom. Why live vicariously through some pixel or verbal or drawn-out avatar when I can BE that very thing?

And since I have so many of these tail concepts made, I figured this would be a fitting forum to post them all and see what you think. I'm constantly making more since I'm having a tough time making up my mind on who/what I want to be.

Looking forward to meeting you all.

Ashe
08-26-2013, 08:44 PM
Nice to meet you Daphne!
I'm an artist too (student) and I totally get you with 'why play it when you can be it!' Thing :) Particularly in roleplay. I used to RP a TON. It kinda consumed my life haha! But then I realized 'hey, I spend so much time roleplaying this character... why don't I use that time productively and be​ that character?' (kinda haha) So I became a cosplayer :D I hope to attend a convention soon... ;) Anyways, enough blabbing about me. Welcome to MerNetwork!!! <3

Daphne
08-26-2013, 09:25 PM
Thanks for the welcome Kalani! What major are you going for?

Cons are so much fun...and very much a money sink. We're looking forward to the Comic Con out here in a couple weeks. And I think Dragon Con is happening real soon too. Gen Con just happened, which looked amazing. Attending SDCC is a pipe dream when how convoluted their signup process works. But all the good stuff happens there!

Ever LARP? It cracks me up. But I avoid those to avoid any temptation of punching annoying characters in the face...and claiming it was in character :p

Miyu
08-26-2013, 09:46 PM
((HUGS)) Hi Daphne, welcome! You sound awesome :D

My dad's what I would call an artist, like you - with all the drawing things nicely and making logos and stuff, real artwork :P I'm jealous, because all I'm good at drawing is fashion designs and mermaid tails (apparently, I'd never even drawn one till a month ago). I have no photoshop skillz, so I am automatically in awe of you! I really would like to learn (well, and get a computer that won't commit suicide when I try to use editing programs), because it's so much easier to share designs online (and use templates) that way.

I D&D'ed once - well, for an entire weekend. I loved it and have since been trying to find someone to play tabletop with me since. Of course, I'm the weirdo that likes to dress up and make game-accurate food haha... What I'd really like to do is LARP I guess. I'm the weirdo who the vast majority of my wardrobe is what people call "costumes"... and I wear them whenever the heck I feel like.

And I totally get the feeling of "why play AS this character when I can BE this character?!?". I didn't realize that people did this sort of thing outside Hollywood until I saw Mertailor on TV a long time ago, and I guess it still didn't click? Like... I freaked out about the awesome tails and they're swimmable... then I guess my brain said "pfft, keep dreaming" and just made me forget... Then I don't really remember how I found Mernetwork, but now I'm hooked :P

Sorry for the rambling :D I can't wait to see your designs, and welcome again! *bounces off*

Mermaid Kelda
08-26-2013, 10:51 PM
If there's something I love, it's tail designs! I drool over everyone's amazing, unique designs :3 I can't wait to see all yours!
And welcome to the forum - there's a huge variety of people here, so you'll definitely make some friends, maybe even in your area.

ShyMer
08-26-2013, 11:39 PM
Welcome! Check out the member map to see who's in your area.

I look forward to seeing you around the forum :)

Daphne
08-26-2013, 11:57 PM
Thanks for the welcome all! Some designs are posted...I'll have more in time.

I'm, I'd say, 80% master with Photoshop. I believe I could teach it well. I'm pretty solid with Illustrator, and capable with other Adobe Programs. If you have any questions with it feel free to ask here, on my Facebook, whichever. I don't have tail designs on FB...I'm a tad self conscious with them and I can't shoot the trolls.

And I lost my train of thought...

Mermaid~Summer
08-27-2013, 12:07 AM
Welcome to the Network! You sound awesome and we can always use more awesome in the Mer community :D

Anahita
08-27-2013, 01:45 AM
Welcome Daphne! Awesome to see another D&D player on the forums! You definitely got my attention with your off shoot of the game, it sounds really interesting. Oh, and you totally got my attention in the other thread with your gorgeous tail designs!

Merman Arion
08-27-2013, 03:02 AM
Welcome! Here, we love artistic mermaids, your designs were really cool!

We will be watching you ;)

http://i50.tinypic.com/2ro5grl.gif

Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!
08-27-2013, 03:22 AM
Nice chatting with you, Daphne!

Daphne
08-27-2013, 11:41 AM
Aww thanks guys!

Since ideas must flow like the Spice: Anahita, I'm assuming the characters above your name is your name in Persian? Just think it'd be cool to see that like a gold patterning on the side of a tail. Like vertical type.

Makes me want to try some characters on a tail, like words in Chinese, Japanese, Korean or Thai. Just have to make sure it doesn't translate into something weird like Monkey Butt or transfer server error (an actual food court name in a touristy part of China).

Yay stuff to explore tonight!

PearlieMae
08-27-2013, 12:17 PM
Nice to see your face in the place! (Figuratively speaking...)

Anahita
08-27-2013, 06:49 PM
Yeah, that's my name. Though, I don't think it'd look so good on a tail; the script doesn't work vertically, and as a personal preference I really avoid any "man-made" looking things on my own tails... After all, my human skin wasn't born with script on it, so I doubt my tail would be (especially since that script is a relatively new occurrence in comparison to the culture using it). I like to keep my own tails "natural" looking, because not only do I like the way it looks on me more, but everyone around me seems to like it more as well.

Daphne
08-27-2013, 11:44 PM
Right on. My head exploded at the idea of using that king of calligraphy to make patterns. That's totally understandable. I do like the natural looking stuff a lot, though I also like pushing around the envelope to see how far I can take it in different directions while still retaining a natural sense. I also kinda nerd out on type.

I might ask you at some point on how you got to have your name in Arabic as live text there, and how would I go about getting a word translated to that live text.

Anahita
08-27-2013, 11:53 PM
Oh, actually, my default keyboard on my computer is Farsi. So I actually typed my name into my signature with my regular keyboard, then I switched it back to the QWERTY English Keyboard.

Sea Pearl
08-28-2013, 06:36 PM
Welcome to MerNetwork :)