Rational

The overall design for the creature was based on the water realm of the gloaming, after looking at the pre established world I noted all of the myths that had been used to drive the characters and how the designs were not the traditional little girls fictional characters, they all seemed real, and looked like they could be a exotic part of our animal kingdom.

The myth I picked was that of the Merrow  from Irish mythology, a guardian of the water. The vast majority of the Merrow stories talked about the allure of the Merrow and how they their appearance would lure men and woman to the water's edge.

In most of the traditional art works and Celtic designs the Merrow appears as a beautiful naked woman, for my concept I looked at the gloaming as a whole and settled on the idea of a merperson that was believable and had a stunning skin that would be revered amongst the other gloaming folk.

The environment for the creature is the rivers and lakes of the gloaming.

The design for the Merrow was based on a number of real world creatures with the tail of a eel, an amazingly fast river swimmer, the upper body of a man and the fins of a Fighting fish and a flying fish. This gives the Merrow speed, manual dexterity and the ability to skim across the water's surface for short periods of time, allowing the Merrow to traverse the rocky water ways of the Gloaming.

For the first colour styles I started out looking at tropical fish, however after it was pointed out to me that the river and lakes was the home I had chosen for the creature and how that didn't suit the tropical theme, I began looking at river fish, salmon and trout, with the trout standing out the most to me with its rainbow scales and subtle pinks and orange hues. The final is a reflection on that development and research.

Overall I am Happy with the final outcome of the design, Sculpt and final paintings and have enjoyed putting my zbrush skills the test and developing new skills and pushing my concepting as a designer.