the very worst thing

mermaid and manananggal mixes are rare but not unheard of in certain areas and body types vary depending on which parent's genes fight the hardest. she absolutely has a sibling who can hold their breath real good and detach their torso at will but is otherwise a normal human.

curious ray mermaid havin' a Gander.

they do not move or make audible sounds, but many are seen with "masks" tethered to their "heads" by thin flexible tendrils. this is the closest they get to emoting. the "masks" are often pieces of their own bodies that have molted or broken off, but they'll sometimes be spotted with an acceptably sized piece of driftwood or other chosen debris. reports of coral merms using human skeletons or entire sunken ships as "faces" make for good stories, but they probably are also just stories. there are cooler, more accessible skeletons just laying around and She was probably always a myth.

if they feel like it they can comfortably leave the water for a few hours. so if you see trails of hand prints in the sand, don't worry about it :)

while some hold onto their human skins while swimming, the sturdier types hide them in burrows or caves when they hang out in the water doing their water business (a very cool and not nightmare level spooky thing for divers to stumble onto).

as this lovely lady demonstrates, some of the more delicate divingbelles that take after jellyfish or molluscs hold onto their skins kind of like snail shells. they dislocate the pieces to unfurl from the spaces between when under water, and pull the bits back together when they want to hide or walk around.

a few fish I drew back in may. these versatile little friends are perfect starter fish for those interested in fleshwater or faultwater tanks.

have some Ground Spirits.

the last of the very little non work art i did in january. my boy Milonne in his human cosplay waiting for clients to show up. he's not great at holding that form for long periods of time but as long as he's hanging out in/near goth clubs and doesn't blink a bunch he can pass pretty easily.

an angel appears.

a batch of Little Guy sketches from the burnout times earlier this year. a winter bloom floral spirit, a bat fairy, a little flame spirit, and an owl (?????)

finish your milk first.

they are leaving little goopy footprints all over the walkway in your garden.

branch type, hive type, net type (siren type?), bone type, seed type, beyond type, and endless type.

i decided to revisit these super old centaur designs, which mostly meant giving their little antler arms the tentacle treatment. their developing lore is that they probably evolved from mammalian mermaids or vice versa? no one is quite sure. maybe they're just one of many species in a constant cycle of jumping in and out of the water and getting weirder each time.