Tieri's Tail Designs - Advice Please?

[Starfrit]

So since joining this forum I've really started kicking my ass into gear with designing my mersona. Since reading Raina's book "Fishy Business: How to be a Mermaid" I've decided to hold off on getting any sort of mer-tail for now-- though I'm still saving for a monofin so I can practice for when the day comes!-- and focus on what my persona/character would be like, how she looks, the personality, things like that.

The current designs I have so far aren't particularly exciting, but I'll be adding more here as I come up with them!

I used the Merbella template, because their templates are so easy to work with, though it's purely for color references and designing patterns and such; I haven't really decided on my mersona's fluke and fin shapes yet.

The biggest part is finding colors that work for me; I have a visual color deficiency, basically colorblindness only it affects all colors (they're a lot less saturated to me, so telling the difference between tones/hues can be tricky sometimes). It really helps me to have a second pair of eyes around when it comes to these things!


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On the one hand, I'd really like something bright, colorful and eye-grabbing like the orange and white one on the bottom, and in fact I was trying to do some designs based off of really colorful birds (another passion of mine), but... I'm also really liking the middle one with the orca marking; it's not particularly flashy and fabulous, and it's really simple in its design, but I've always felt a pretty deep connection to orcas which was kind of why I tried that design in the first place, and the little mermaid swimming around in my head seems to be really liking the design, too.

What sort of colors and patterns would you suggest? I'm a big fan of colors, swirls, stripes, and I'm suuuuuper obsessive about symmetry. :P

[Starfrit]

ACK, the tail pictures came out huge! D: Sorrysorrysorry, I thought it would do the preview-thumbnail thingy I've seen in other image posts!

[Ilyena]

I like the first and the third one, though the colourful one, it's like a cross between a clownfish and a few other things XD

[*Celine*]

love the third one!!!

[Starfrit]

Thanks, guys! :D And yeah, Ilyena, I was actually going for a clownfish-based design on the third one. The purple was a left over layer from a blue and silver design I wasn't having much luck with, and then applied accidentally instead of the red layer I'd originally made from the clownfish. It worked out surprisingly well!

[Ilyena]

A little better than well I think :D

[MermanZen]

Love the second one!!!!! That exactly what I'm hoping for with my tail

[Mermaid Tula]

Love the first and third. They're both lovely <3

[MerEmma]

I really like the first! But maybe that's because I'm imagining how amazing it would look with Raven's expertise. :P

[Mermaid Adriel]

I like all, but I opt for the third one :D

[Mermaid Zaffiro]

Also for me,the third one ^_^

[Starfrit]

Okay, it's happened. I've been trying to make this one work for two days, and it's 3AM right now, but I think I've done it. I think I've figured out the direction I wanna go in with my dream tail. The colors, underside, and the fluke really feel perfect to me. I might change the gold markings on the back, but so far, I'm in love.

Based off of an old animal-shapeshifter character I had named Starfrit, so I was kind of expecting attachment to the color scheme from the get-go. And I'm really starting to lean towards "Starfrit" being my mer name! ... even if it is the name of a brand of frying pans SHHHH.

I'll probably be doing some side-on sketches over the next day or two to get a general idea of what I want the dorsal and side fins to look like. I'm thinking long and flowy!

Thoughts?

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[Mermaid Kelda]

Looks gorgeous! Regal, almost, like a princess of the night sky :)

[MerEmma]

Wow, it's a great mixture of all three of your first designs! That looks great. :D

[Starfrit]

Thanks, Emma and Melaina! :D

[Mermaid Jaffa]

I like the 3rd, 4th and 6th.

Let's see that wavy stripe going all the way down the tail but without the spine like in 2nd of the blue pic.

[Starfrit]

@Ireneho - I tried doing the stripes going all the way down the back, but I found that it made the pattern look a little too "busy." :P


In other news, more progress! Mostly on fin shapes, really; my sketches weren't coming out right so I decided to just try them out on the MerBellas template and Koral's beautiful tail template (http://mernetwork.com/index/showthread.php?3491-Tail-Designs-public-tail-base-amp-weekly-designs-by-Koral) in PaintTool SAI.


The back fins look alright to me. Long and flowy! The side fins, though... ugh, I still can't figure out the shape! :P I tried looking at other tails for inspiration but my attempts at drawing it out in SAI just aren't working, haha.


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(Sorry for the size of the pictures! I have no idea how to make them into thumbnails. :c )

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Looking good! Can't wait to see the real thing.

[Starfrit]

Thanks, Ireneho! <3 Admittedly it may be a hell of a long time before it's actually made. I'll need to try and track down someone who can make a design like this on neoprene... And that's not even counting how long it'll take for me to fundraise for that if I do manage to not find someone... XD

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Maybe you can find someone to make the tail in the base color and then you can have fun painting it up!

[Starfrit]

Oohh, that could work! I have a buddy or two locally who might be willing to loan me / help me with their airbrush machines, and commissioning the tail in a base color would definitely be easier and likely cheaper!

In that case, I'll just have to find somewhere to get a good neoprene tail with fins like the ref. :P

That's a really great suggestion, Ireneho, and it'll definitely help me out a lot! Thanks! <3

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Np! Its what I'm thinking of doing once I get better at swimming and maybe doing some parties.

[MerAnthony]

I really like the first one. I have had trouble comming up with an idea for my new neoprene tail. My base is going to be black. Could I use that pattern as a base but with some differences in the fluke?

[Starfrit]

@MerAnthony - Sure thing! :D I've* decided I won't be using that design at all, so if you wanna use any part of it it's fine by me! :)



*edited because apparently my keyboard switched to french mode and inserted an é where there should have been an apostrophe, oops!

[MerAnthony]

Thank you lady. You are so kind

[Mermaid Zaffiro]

@Tieri (starfrit is a cute name ^.^ ) your last pattern and the design looks gorgeous! Regal, like an arabian princess *_* I love it!

[Starfrit]

Thank you, Zaffiro! <3 I'm really proud of the design. In fact I actually finished up an alternate version of it!

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I'm thinking I might try going with this design, since I'm aiming for a neoprene tail and the flowy fabrics on the fins and fluke would go really well with it. :D

[Mermaid Jaffa]

Ooo nice! I've only seen 1 or 2 other videos where the person can swim well with all those flowy frilly things!

Most of them look like they're struggling to swim in their tails.

[Starfrit]

Oohh, I hadn't considered that... Would the fabric cause a lot of drag, or something? I saw this video (http://youtu.be/DE-kyUDmAMs?t=2m41s) which is where I'd gotten my inspiration for the frills from, and assumed that since it was such a light material it wouldn't really be that much of an issue.

[MermanZen]

I love that tail!!!! It kinda reminds me of flounder from the little mermaid

[Mermaid Jaffa]

I just assumed you were a good swimmer and can prob deal with the drag.

[Starfrit]

Oh, probably! I'm a pretty good swimmer (been pretty rusty at it for the last year or so because of a back injury I got, though I just need to get to the pool more!) so the drag probably wouldn't be too much of an issue for me once I got used to it. If it did turn out to be pretty difficult I could always just shorten or remove the frills. :P

[Starfrit]

Okay. Okayokayokay. I think I've finally got it figured out.

I've been thinking long and hard about my mersona, Starfrit, and I'm really feeling confident about this newest version of her design.


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The more I think about her, the more I see her as, like... A dolphin, or whale-type of mermaid; one of the versions that I see of her would be having more of a skin like orcas and dolphins do, as opposed to scales. I could definitely see her as a scaled version, as well (especially if I do eventually progress to a silicone tail, though that likely won't be for a couple of years yet, as much as I hate waiting!), but she's definitely more of a dolphin-type of girl, so I designed her dorsal and pectoral fins with that in mind, and I think it's much better. No need for flashy flowy fins with fabric, or anything. Honestly I think her markings are unique enough without needing the added frills!

I'm starting to feel a lot happier with Starfrit's design, especially as I get a better handle on her character and personality!

[Aycrin]

First off, you're designs are really cool! I love how clean your lines are~

Second, I personally think the "regal night" design looks best without the frill mostly because it reminds me more of the orca like you were wanting with your first idea. As for the fluke, either one would work: traditional for the natural look, and angler for something with a bite to it (wolves of the sea eh?). I do so love the colour scheme of your "regal night" tail~