So I've been flitting about thinking what to take on as my next 'project', and there's things that I WANT to do and things that I feel like I SHOULD do. This is a mix of both!

I'm totally aware that I don't do enough environments. I think overall I'm more interested in being a character artist but the thought of being absolutely terrible at anything else keeps me up at night.

I think one of my biggest problems with environment art (at the moment at least) is 'what to draw'. I have such a large visual bank for character art but less so for environment. So I decided to come up with this project! The 'underwater city'! Or 'mermaid city', not quite sure yet. But either way, I'm challenging myself to design (primarily) a palace and some cool mermaids to inhabit the palace. This includes final illustrations in the right setting of my final concepts.

So I've kinda taken it easy for this project, especially where the environment part is concerned, but I feel it's gonna be better to build it up slowly rather than jumping in at the deep end.


So to begin with I built up a moodboard with images I gathered from pinterest. It's pretty small at the moment but I tend to build it up with more once I've got a good direction on what I'm working on.

(From the top left- clockwise) Fishies! Some good starting points for mermaids. Next up is mermaid 'looks', different clothing and cultures. I like to mix in various nationalities and time periods to try and stop my work looking too dull or white washed. I also threw in a couple of pictures of the aliens from John Carter(?) I've never seen the film but I've always liked the face shape of the aliens and I'm hoping to steer away from fully human looking mermaids.

Next is some ideas for the palace. I thought sea shell shapes could be a good starting point as well as Indian architecture which I totally adore/admire. Plus a couple of shipwrecks for good measure.

I then have some pictures of coral reefs and some other underwater 'stuff' just for different colours and shape references. I also have some art nouveau pieces because I love the shapes and styles and think its got potential to work in an underwater city!


I HAD to start with the palace because otherwise I'd just put it off forever and paint pretty mermaids all day. I knew this would kinda be hit and miss because if I didn't like the first few things I did I'd want to abandon the project altogether. I figured using seashell silhouettes to work from would give me a good start.

I drew the silhouettes and then added some architecture into it using some reference from my mood board. I was working mostly from imagination as I didn't want the palace to look too much like it would be seen above ground! I'd also considered the fact that the mermaids can swim the height of the palace so just a door on the ground floor probably wouldn't cut it.


I considered some more organic shapes along the way too, especially in place of the pillar structures. Some worked and some really didn't!


I took my three favourite and drew into them a little bit to hopefully help give a sense of scale as well as detail. While drawing I decided that the massive cavern/opening could serve as a bit of a trade center while the upper levels would be where the royals reside. This gave it some interesting function and meant I could have more freedom with the design too!

I'm now stuck between one and two. Thoughts?!