Don’t Draw MERMAIDS Like This!
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 31 พ.ค. 2024
- How do you draw a great mermaid? Better yet, how do you design a mermaid character that's original and anatomically correct? Every May, we have a MerMay challenge with our students in our online art classes, so we get a lot of questions about mermaid and fish anatomy.
Winged Canvas art instructor Jessie Chang teaches us the DOs and DON'Ts of drawing mermaids, mermen, and other underwater humanoid characters with fish anatomy, including how to draw tails, gills and fins in this short drawing tutorial!
🕓 Timestamps:
0:00 - Introduction
0:15 - Don't draw a flat body / tail
0:35 - How to combine fish and human anatomy
1:08 - Don't forget the pelvis!
1:27 - Mermaid drawing demo
1:42 - Don't draw the tail too short
2:24 - Adding fins and gills
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nice informative video, but i must clarify...
*_WHALES ARE NOT FISH_*
They are mammals right?
@@sayoriisking9171 yes, and so are dolphins
Mermaids are also more likely to be human whale or even human seal, then human fish. Basically, they're whale centaurs!
Thank you, I was looking for this comment
@@annasolovyeva1013 THE WHALETAUR FROM CENTAUR WORLD-
Also usefull tip for realism if you want to go for that. When drawing the caudal fin, make sure to make it oriented like a whale fin instead of a fish caudal fin because whales, just like us, when swimming they flap their lower bodies up and down to swim. Fish flap their bodies in a left to right motion that doesn't feel natural to human swim. That's why whales have their caudal fins positioned horizontaly and not like sideways just like fish.
I hope I explained it right since I'm not a native english speaker.
you pretty much got it exactly right, my one nitpick is that whales don’t have caudal fins, they have flukes :)
@@hhgnggnjngnmnnh5291 Yes thanks for correcting me, I wasn't sure if I was saying it right.
Or just make it double jointed XD
I personally like to have the ear fins be axolotl gills, they can be positioned anywhere and they look adorable!
I gave them the ariel hip fin, but it's axolotl gills instead. They now look fluffy.
And you can make them look spooky to!
Are you going to do body types and mermaid tutorials in the future? Because if the eyes video you did and few more so are there more stuff? Or you remaster those videos
Hey there! We just made a video on drawing Mermaids! th-cam.com/video/_9gpFTyTjpI/w-d-xo.html
There is also one on body types if your browse our recent vids ;)
Something I do when drawing mermaids is I also put gills just under the rib cage, ‘cause I feel like having just one small set of gills on the neck doesn’t feel like enough to supply the amount of oxygen a human requires. I also don’t usually include breasts/nips, since I usually go all out on aquatic and fishlike instead of mammalian. Human to fish ratio is up the artist tho, I just like fishier designs. If you want to include nips, then they have nips. Have a good day y’all
I tend to keep breasts but omit nipples. I like the idea that they might *appear* to be attractive and humanlike but aren't. Looking like you're a buxom young lass is an easy way to get the attention of sailors (if you wanted to drown 'em) or avoid getting chased off as a sea monster.
Also because of jokes about blubber/shark oil storage. Mostly because I'm a sucker for speculative evolution.
The way I draw mermaids could be easier described as "fish centaurs". I literally replace the head of the fish with a human torso, because I love drawing all the little fins and body details fish have that usually wouldn't be seen if I just drew the fish from ribcage-down.
It also explains how they can breathe!
When I draw mermaids, I imagine there anatomy like this: their "leg-bones" are connected to the pelvis and continue until the knee, however they are slightly more curved than human thigh bones in order to allow for more muscle attachments. The shins are fused into a single bone. At the bottom there is another point of articulation this time having several small "spine"-like bones about the length of a hand, to which attach a series of small bones forming a round shape, the largest of which resemble a small heart shape, and they are connected to a series of long, slender bones and cartilages which form the fins.
I’m starting to draw and I know what I like to draw. Mermaids is one of it. This is super helpful. Thanks!
Greetings from Guatemala 🇬🇹 🇬🇹🇬🇹🇬🇹
You're welcome 😊 We love drawing Mermaids too -- every May is MERMAY!
A tip for added realism, if your mermaid tends to stay near the surface of the water, give them sunburns or make them slightly tan. The water acts as a magnifying glass for the sun. A real world example of this is the sunfish. From what I remember is that it tends to get sunburnt of the side of its body it angles to the surface. I think it also tends to have dark spots caused by the sun, however I’m not exactly sure on that.
i’ve found that the zora designs from botw (breath of the wild) are actually pretty good for not quite mermaids, but more of fish people! although the current designs are more of whales, sharks, and dolphins (which are nonetheless amazing designs) i personally really like the concept art for one of the zora, mipha! y’all should check that out if you want, i found it pretty helpful for giving the top half of the mermaid a more fish like design
“Fish skeleton”
Shows whale
Other than that great video!
Omg. Getting flash back from that time my classmates told me sharks are whale. Ugh 🤦
@@saladcaesar7716 BRO HAHAHAHAHHAHAHAH
@@TerraVulture I cringed so hard.
Dolphins are fish too btw🙃
@ivant208 And monkeys are reptiles.
I find most of these art “tutorials” helpful, because they just show you what to draw, not how to draw it. Your tutorials are the best in every way! 🙌🏿
Funny that this came around during what people I know call 'mermay', a full month where people draw mermaid themed characters they like/ make characters mermaids for a full month!
mermay is super popular all around so i'm pretty sure it was on purpose
I love these hybrid videos so much! They help me a lot!
....I know as a fact you were using pictures of whales in place of "Fish" to see who's feathers would get ruffled 🤣🤣🤣🤚.
But....But....my brain would still mini-rage at whale being called fish 😭.
Haha good catch! 🤓 Yeah whales are closer to humans than fish because they are mammals so they were a good example!
@@Wingedcanvas Yeah, and the horizontal tail motion and their skeletal structure fits with our legs, as you demonstrated with your lesson.
I've seen "mermaids" drawn with Shark tails. Looks cool, but I don't think they could swim comfortably unless you either remove the pelvis or changed the shape.
Cladistically speaking - it's correct to call them mammals, but not incorrect to call them fish (there isn't a taxonomic definition for fish)
A late comment, I know, but I wanted to point out that the first iteration of mermaid you drew in this video (where there's no hips) is probably MORE anatomically accurate than the examples given in the same segment. Just... accurate in the sense of being more fish than person.
Fish don't have hip bones, and 'leg length' isn't a factor when it comes to tails. (for example; bluegills, boxfish, pufferfish, etc.) The skeleton is basically one long spine with ribs going down the entire length, so having the tail continue directly after the ribcage is technically correct. Especially if an artist is going for a style leaning on anatomical realism rather than stylization, as fictional creatures don't really have those hard rules that those in real life have. A better way to go about it is to imagine a ratio slider, where instead of it being 50/50 on the human to fish scale, it's 25/75 leaning more on fish.
If what you were commenting on was the design being flat I would definitely see your point, but the example you made doesn't really take anatomy into consideration. 'Unrealistic' just doesn't feel like the right term in this circumstance and likely muddled the point you were trying to convey ;w;
Well that’s not entirely true. Your ratio kinda leans too much into fish. You forgot to factor in how the internal organs would affect the design as well. When it comes to the tail, the length of it has more to do with the organs than muscle. So what would the purpose of the human abdominal cavity be? It can’t just be all muscle.
I think that the pelvis is necessary for birth. I looked at a diagram of dolphin anatomy and pictures of a dolphin giving birth. As it turns out, female dolphins do have a pelvis, though it is lower down. However, if a mermaid was born with more fish like fins instead of a fluke, (assuming mermaids can breath underwater) then mermaids can be birthed head first like humans rather than tail first like dolphins and whales.
So the pelvis would actually be a more beneficial part of the anatomy to allow them to give birth and swim effectively while pregnant, albeit the pelvis would be a bit further down so that there’s no bulging stomach. Since you were comparing them to whales, your explanation also didn’t account for blubber to keep them warm. So even the first design where you said it would be more correct is off. The picture that someone drew with the more rounded tail would be a more accurate design when you factor in the muscle of the tail and blubber.
My self representation oc (I'm not saying self insert because that implies that it's for an already existing fandom) is pretty much a species of fish humanoid so this did help inspire me. Not really mermaid because it still has legs, but it has a tail with fins in it to move
I really like this tutorial but I'm sad there was mention of fins. For example, a merman body shape with only tail fin at the end won't allow for more accurate swimming/turning/balance etc and hands don't exactly have that function! I love seeing merman with fins give them all fins!!!
Can you do more spider body types? Personally I'm drawing a character where it's from around the waist/belly button area down is spider, but everything else is basically human.(Basically because they are half one species and half another, not human at all, but one species just so happens to look almost basically human)
There are two things I read that made me draw them differently by myself. In a National Geographic Kids magazine, it said that people would need to have gills all over ourselves to breathe underwater. So since I didn't know there was a difference between fish scales and gills back then, I started drawing them with scales all over. (Also when I was younger and made them appear more human, I would give them a lot more clothes than other people, like Disney did. Kind of makes sense if they're going to go deeper.)
In a book called Dragonwatch: Master of the Phantom Isle, it described mermaids and mermen with strong arms like swimmers. Last time I drew a mermaid, it was Ariel and I tried making her look competent. Buff Ariel is one of my favorite serious drawings.
I love drawing mermaid-type creatures, but they're so hard to animate, lol.
I was actually thinking of drawing a mermaid!! Maybe I'll use this idea for a future project in College. Thanks so much for this tutorial! :3
The fin/gill part was actually useful for me because I'm actually working on creating a fantasy race (or is it species?) called axylids (they're based on axolotls). My sister helped me draw the basic concept art for them and your videos are helping a lot!
i like to draw the tail about 2-3 times the size of the legs, i like the long look
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I wonder what Sunfish Merguy would have to say about this video.
This is why I love your videos because you go with an realism aesthetic and I love that.
as a fellow artist. I do see that in Disney. You show people what it actually looks wrong but at the same time you show them oh you’re kind of doing motioning and saying “this wrong but let me show you how to do it.” That’s why I love your videos so much
Anatomically speaking you can differentiate between mammals with fins (aka whales, manatees, seals etc) and fish by looking at their fin movement. Mammals move the caudal fin up and down while fish move it sideways. Also not the orientation of the caudal fin: for mammals it's horizontal while for fish it's usually vertical
Thank you for making all of these anatomy videos! Lately, I've been getting wayyyyy more confident in just... all of my art skills, and that includes anatomy. That being said, I'm still learning! These have helped immensely, it's so nice learning anatomy after putting it off haha
This is very helpful for a couple character designs I've been working on thank you💜💜
Other alternative is the centaur-mermaid option, where you don't join at the tail of the fish/cetacian, but where its neck would be.
Could a snake person have a longer tail or is it the same length as the legs? How would you draw a centaur, the lower part of a dragon like centaur thing, or anything that has paws or hoofs?
snake people would have very long tails, reason: snakes are long lmao, also supporting a big body is hard, you have a lot of weight added so you need a large enough ratio of mass to make it negligable
Probably have a true Pelvic where the animals would be and a false Pelvic where the humane and animalistic parts join.
Theres probably a way to make the false pelvic connect to the animal parts shoulder blades too? You'd have to experiment though
Snake people would have a very long torso. Snakes tails are short in most species
To me the most anatomically correct thing to do was to make mermaids not have pelvises. Like, if you think about it, movement wise, having rhe pelvis would restrain too much movement in the water and the bones wouldn't fit correctly with one big bone structure coming out of a bone made to accomodate two. I usually draw it thinking more of like a "2nd ribcage" so the curvyness of the hips is maintained.
This
Yeah, fish don't have a pelvis so much as like a bit of cartilage that attaches the anal fins (the rear ones before the tail/caudal fin) to the spine.
I personally would put the fins on the ears and have them be able to function because I can actually wiggle my ears. Don't know why I can, I just find it kinda cool.
Most of these tips also apply to part snake characters (the tail part) but surface area is a criteria for those characters
I always learn wonderful things on your channel.
how have I never encountered your channel before this is amazing
You can also use the first tip for drawing centaurs!
Welllllll all these tips can be sidestepped with a good enough understanding of both fish and human anatomy and certain fish anatomy can be kinda turned into human anatomy with some smudging
As someone who knows their fish anatomy well the hip dilemma is really tricky
And also most fish don’t swim up and down like traditional mermaids so figuring that out is also important
That's pretty awesome! Lovely video
When you said "a fish skeleton" and put up the skeleton of a whale I cried a little.
I might learn about drawing from you by this.
Hah, I really like drawing mermaids, I always worry about the line between the torso and tail, because it looks cool to add ruffles there, for like- jewelry. I think it’s also fun to share that with drawing stereotypical mermaids, changing things like the fin type/texture/appearance, the jewelry accents, etc. really add to it! I made a drawing of this mermaid who’s tail had streaks of pearls in her tail running down to the end fin, and the fins were all transparent, glittery, and flowy-looking, which kinda showed she’s supposed to be elegant, and it’s really fun to experiment with factors like that.
i will see every video in this channel this to helpfull for everyone of my drawings, love this content
Omg, i just found your channel today like many others out there, and i gotta say i am impressed by some of the niche content. I am a firm believer in my good old pen and paper, i dont do digital art, but i appreciate any kind of art no matter the location. Anyway, i frequently Draw Gijinka's of mythical creatures or video game characters, such as monster hunter monsters. One thing i always believe in is correct hip placements for Lamia, mermaid types, and especially ARACHNE, my gosh i cant tell you how much i despise designs that use a spider head with ahuman torso attached, i much prefer designs like Monster Musume for Arachne, lamia, and mermaids. Whats your opinion on Arachne if you ever see this?
Does the human+fish anatomy idea (i have no idea on how to phrase this) work for Nagas? (i think this is the correct name)
Thank you for this, this will be helpful when I try drawing mermaids. Before I saw this video I drew mermaids with gills on their necks instead of noses, the body completely covered in scales except for the eyes and mouth, and fins for hair. How would you say mermaid hair should look like?
What is the name of the app you used in the video?
Very usefull! Thx!
Wouldn’t a fish tail skeleton have “ribs”? Like the bone bits that stick out straight from the spinal part of the tail
'I struggle with fish tails the most'
DRAWS FAR BETTER TAILS THAN I DO:
Me:
And whoop!! 😂
Miss, I need to thank you again for your tip about gesture drawing. Now I am doing draw more easily a let my imagination go will. Your tip comes to me in the right moment. ✌👍🤙👌
Than you so Much.
I like that the tail of the mermaid are more similar to that of a marine mammal than that of a fish.
As for the ears, I've never really liked flapped ears, but a pair of external gills sounds nicer in my opinion, at least for a more zoomorphic fishmen like Luca or Gillman. As for the human-like merpeople, I like to place the gills in their lungs, having slits on the sides of the torso, exactly under the major serrata.
I like to draw pretty long mer/fish tails. And lots of frills/long frills(like a beta fish)
Do y'all have currently or will be doing at one point, drawing advice vid like this on dragons? I'm wanting to improve on art on my fave fantasy reptiles
This is amazing, helped me a lot with my giant snakehead mermaid
Just drew a mermaid before watching this, I think I did pretty good! I didn't add ear fins, or fins on the neck because I didn't think of that, and now I've done shading so it's too late to go add them.
One time I drew a mermaid but the fins was a bit to small and my mom noticed it so she gave me advice to make if bigger and y'know, flowy if that makes sense like what you expect mermaid tails to look like.
Also when it comes to mermaids you have to consider one detail what kind of fish. If its a shark as an example i can understand thefin onthe head to like the back of the head do to the way they swim.
Imagine if they taught us mermaid anatomy in school
I watch your videos while drawing so my drawings can improve 🐱
this helps me a lot! I have made mermaids all the time but never knew how to do the tail, it is so frustrating! I need it to be accurate or I won't want it to exist
if need help look up pro mermaiding real people in real tails with mono you'll find that relay swim. it is grate inspiration and perspective.
Very good video, I’m glad I found your channel. It’s always nice to see how people like to approach drawing. And you do fine work if I may say.
I’m not going to lie though, when you said “fish” and would show a whale drive me a little nuts. Haha!
Seeing your video though made me wonder something: have you ever given centaur anatomy a crack? How would you do it? My biggest problem is how to have the organs of the two halves seem to naturally work with one another without sacrificing the spinal processes above the horse-half’s shoulders. People always draw centaurs flat at the front as if the forelegs were the legs of a human, but it’s always at the cost of nearly a third of the lower half’s spine. How would you approach this issue?
This question can also be directed to anyone else who has a similar curiosity and found a means to resolve the issue.
I’m about to draw a new piece and I was wondering if I should do a mermaid….this definitely confirmed imma do a mermaid O^O
I like the One Piece fishman gills when their right under or behind the jawline like a beard
i have the same mermaid tail from 3 years ago as the little boy you showed swimming lol
but what about noodles, how should we draw sneks?
but having the transition at bout the same place
I wanna draw a dunkleosteus merman wearing a helmet resembling the armor fossils found.
I personally enjoy making my mermaid tails decently longer than the legs wouldve been
I draw mermaids with four arms to make up for the tail
like an axolotl-ish being
but the arms don't look quite right :Þ
I've been drawing my merfolk like Seals, so while an interesting video probably won't take much from it as we're working from different base assumptions. Cool process though, I'll keep it in mind if i plan on drawing more traditionally fishy merfolk
I’ve always wondered how would mermaids reproduce would they reproduce like a fish or live a human?
My pet peeve in mermaid art is giving mermaids knees. I'm talking about art where they make the fishtail look like they just pulled a tube over the legs. The worst ones not only have knees but calves. Seriously, that end is a fish TAIL, they won't have the bones to make a knee, nor would they have calf muscles.
It's a pity because I see a lot of artists who have a wonderful style...only to fail on giving a fish tail human knees.
Random question:
How do mermaids poop/pee? Or at least get rid of waste? Since people’s leg’s are replaced by a fish tail is the hole in the place where the fish would have? But then the bladder and rest of the waste-helping organs will have to be different? I know it’s fiction, but, how do they go to the bathroom!?
ive seen some artists actually give them buttholes, so that's one possibility lol. personally i imagine my mers getting rid of waste similar to a fish, with the opening at the bottom of their tails at the end. i wouldnt know how the organs are arranged tho lol
Figured I'd note, purely aesthetic fins can absolutely serve a purpose: mating. If a characteristic is seen as beautiful by a population (consistently over generations, not just as a fad), it can easily be selected for.
what about those who draw mermaids with their gils an lung high at the chest like to be seen in the anime monster girl doctor?
Their whole vibe
“Don’t do this! But I’m not your mom and you can still have your art be more stylized if you want”
I can draw mermaids however I want :) it might not look good but it’s my mermaid
"Fish skeletons in general"
Now first of all: that's a wale
0:38 - This isn't a fish skeleton. This is whale. But I understand that whale's skeleton is more comparable with human's than fish's.
I always assumed pelvis on mermaid & mermen was for reproductive purposes. Kinda like the bull shark. Assuming organs are retractable on male & closable on female?
When you think about a mermaid tail is just one leg with fins at the bottom
One thing that ends up happening with mermaid characters I draw is they end up having ridiculously phat tails I think that's just a product of my style lol
You said that no fish/sea creatures has gills on the top of the head but axolotl/Mexican walking fish has gills on the top of there head
i wish i was as good as you
Look at a manatee dolphin or a whale skeleton and body shap and add human stuff that’s how I work it or a seal body with human added it’s more possible then fish 😅
Jessie: The body of a fish * picture of a whale *
Well now im wondering what a human capable of moving side-to-side (like actual fish not whales) comfortably would look like
Oh man you didn’t even talk about when people give merfolk knees like??? That’s not how that works!! 😂
I drawed it
Have u ever realized that mermaids, centaurs… they all replace the animals head with the top part of the human body?
Is it just me or does Jessie look like one of the lemmings (from the game)
great tips, but i think the sound effects are way too loud
2:38 that rock is really sus....
0:35
Talks about fish
Uses a whale skeleton
???
Now I am not considered self taught lol
i love seeing mermaid art but whenever i see the artist bend the tail as if they have knees, like its just weird lol
so like in the barbie movies?
Nothing matters how we draw!
I really wanna make a sea snake mermaid because I like snakes and fantasy creatures 😦
Personally I never saw much sense in adding pelvises in certain mythological creatures as the pelvis is crucial for animals with legs, and especially for bipedal creatures who can’t depend on extra fire limbs to support them. But for animals like centaurs or mermaids it seems impractical as anatomically speaking, they wouldn’t need any burden like extra (or in a mermaids case not necessary- fish don’t have pelvises as we all know 😂 ) bone mass and unnecessary body parts (as in a centaurs case they already have a lower body and a pelvis. Just think of the torso like a giraffe! A longer continuation of the spine :3). In a mermaids case it would likely be a continuation of the spine with much more muscle mass to support the mermaids body. But hey, that’s just my opinion I’m not trying to be argumentative ✨💖🧚♀️