@pvppoh

Paintover

Hi Grant! Your mermaid is coming together very nicely already!! Going off your comments on your previous decorations, You want her to feel more intimidating, correct?maybe make the lighting more dramatic, like light leaking into the sea from her depths, looking up for a human that falls down. I made her hair messier and more unkept, her intimidating features, like the spikes on her fins, more prominent and big to communicate their importance and gave her an overall more relentless appearance. Does she hunt down humans? would she use their bones or items like jewelry/ clothing scraps etc of her prey as trophies, which you could incorporate in her design? Or something else? Put yourself in her shoes and think how she would go about her day and present herself to the world. In my experience, it is much easier to come up with ideas when approaching it from that angle. Good going and keep it up, good luck!

@fosco

Paintover

Hello there! Now, regarding the colors, I think you could add more vibrancy to avoid the image feeling muddy. Right now, the shadows feel a bit dull because they lean too much into brown tones. To make them more interesting, you could introduce some desaturated purples instead. This makes even more sense, since the mermaid is underwater, so the ocean colours would naturally influence the shadow tones. You could apply the same idea to the tail shadows as well. Instead of using only dark aqua tones, mix in some bluish hues for more variation and contrast. To push the color contrast even further, you could also add subtle purple accents in certain areas, like the fins (or whatever those parts are called haha, let’s just call them fins ) and the shells. Even small touches like that help create a more appealing color balance and keep the palette from feeling too flat. Also, don’t forget to add some reddish-orange tones to the skin, especially around areas like the cheeks. That little bit of warmth helps bring more life to the character. Hope this helps!