Miuzes

Day 2: Featuring Marko, the Shortfin Mako Shark and his faithful pet, Benny, the Blue Shark!

Marko here is a Sea Cow herder, as herding is the other most important form of sustenance for Merfolk besides farming. Herders lead their flocks, pods and herds from area to area, looking for the best grazing and feeding grounds for their livestock.

The most famous herd animals are Sea Cows, specifically the Goliath Meershten here, who aren’t even fully grown.

The Meershten is based off of the extinct Steller’s Sea Cow, who were taken from us far too soon during the 1760s.

It’s Shark Week! And what better way to celebrate that than by continuing my biology influenced Merfolk series? Starting off with an underrated shark: the Blacktip Reef Shark!

When I first heard of the term sea silk, and the mussel they use from it, I just hd to say “Holy crud, I can make a domesticated version out of this!” for my Beast Fables setting.

Today’s warm up. Couldn’t decided if I wanted to draw Primal Fan Art, since it premieres this week, or Ms Marvel fan art, since I loved it, and it ended last week.

Continuing my Merfolk pieces, featuring the various clades of Merfolk! AKA, the just some of the various folks that make up members of Kara and Petra’s community. 

In the world of Beast Fables, there’s 5 major clades of Merfolk:

- Gilldens: Your regular batch of merfolk based off o’ fishes and the like

- Respirans: Your Whales, Dolphins and Sirenians

- Armorderms: Crustaceans, from your crabs to your lobsters to your pistol and mantis shrimps

- Limberans: Cephalopods, the Octopi, the Nautiloids and your Squids!

So, for the past week, I’ve been designing and building lore for the same world as my Merfolk! Thank you so much for your support. It was supposed to be for Mermay, but I just HAD to expand on the world more.

Merfolk series: Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

In the world of Beast Fables, Werefolk (also known as Werebeasts, Beastfolk and Werepeople), they’re the land counterparts to the merfolk, and instead of creatures of the say, and having a permanent oceanic/riverine look, they have both a ‘regular’ human form and a beastial half.

To “awaken” their beastial halves, there needs to be a ‘catalyst’ to do so. From the light of the moon for a werewolf, or just basking in the sun for a werecrocodile, or exposure to darkness for weremoles and wereshrews.

Werefolk occupy almost all the niches on the surface, from the sky to the caves, from deserts to tundra. Wherever there’s a solid surface, there’s bound to be werefolk.

Hi there everyone! Just wanted to say thank you, THANK you so much for the response to my Mermay pieces. Never in my wildest dreams would my posts about biology influenced merfolk be so popular.

Life has been pretty rough actually for me this month, so it was a joy to see everyone’s reactions, especially when people get to see their favorite critter included.

Gonna be taking a brief break from this world-building project, but I’m definitely gonna revisit it again one day.

For those that wants to see them group by group, here you go!:

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3

The final batch of drawings for Mermay! Thank you all so, so much for the response. Never in my wildest dreams would I have thought this series to be so well liked and successful on so many of my social media platforms.

I felt like for the final batch, I wanted to explore how paleontology influenced merfolk would look like, and how they influence ‘modern’ merfolk. (Prehistoric Planet probably influenced my decision haha)

These are the lads and lasses that help found the formation for merfolk culture, from first-of-the-firsts like the Anomalocaris and the Tiktaalik to true giants of the sea, like Shastasaurus, Livyatan and Megalodon. The Megalodon is Kara’s personal idol. (Kara’s the great white shark featured in all previous batches, here she’s teaching kids how cool history is!)

The most important figure here in Merfolk history is actually the Mosasaurus, AKA The Ocean Lord. He was a Barbarian King who hated landlubbers and was the sworn nemesis of “The Tyrant King”. He’s revered by modern Merfolk for his combination of strength, cunning, battle prowess and magnetic personality.

Again, thanks y’all for the support in my previous Mermay batches! Part 1 Part 2 This week, I wanted to explore the various forms of sexual dimorphism in Merfolk, ALSO inspired by real life Biology! From the massive size of differences between male and female Blanket octopus and Angler fish to the almost non existent size difference in Oarfish and Beaked Whales! It was also neat to explore various cultures from outside of Kara’s (The Great White from Part 1) town, for example the Narwhal and Salmon folk are northern adjacent nomadic tribes.

I was blown away with the response I got from my first batch as well as on my Instagram so here are even more exploration of Biology-infuenced Merfolk, AKA even more of Kara’s neighbors.

Likewise, you can find out more about them on my instagram, as this is not just an exploration of jaw apparatuses, but also merfolk fashion.

Most merfolk clothing are based off of the creatures of the sea and some amphibious critters, from fishes to crocodiles and mammals (like the Elephant seal jacket of the lionfish!)

Hey there folks! If you've been following my twitter and instagram, for this Mermay, my theme is to basically take inspiration from real life biology, and apply them to their design as merfolk... especially their wicked set of chompers. It got so popular on Insta, I even made backstories for their designs there xD.