Undersea Beauty [Last Minute MerMay] by MysticSparkleWings on DeviantArt (original) (raw)

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Because I would like to get this posted while it's still daylight and it's been an exceptionally long month [a little more on why can be found in April's Museletter], I'm going to do my best to keep this brief, for once.

I really wanted to do something for MerMay this year, as I usually do, but a lot of IRL chaos and trying to chip away at other projects I'd already started meant even thinking about MerMay took a huge backseat.

I did finally come up with an idea, which was actually revisiting an idea I'd had a little too late for MerMay last year, but I just couldn't pull together the bare minimum I needed in time, so I had to ultimately scrap that too...For this year. Next year might end up being a different story considering what I did manage before it became obvious I just didn't have the time. But we'll see, I guess.

Anyway, after much inner turmoil, I finally decided to try blitzing through a new design of my second-oldest Winx OC (after Ivy, of course): Trinity, Fairy of the Water Stars.

Much like Ivy, a lot has changed about Trinity over the years, but her connection to the Water Stars and ability to turn into a mermaid haven't...even though I never got around to drawing her as a mermaid before. ^^;

And even now, while not quite as rough as the "grungey sketch style" I've used before, hopefully it's obvious this is not up to my usual Winx Style Standards. The initial sketch to get her design down ended up taking longer than I'd expected, and even if that hadn't been true I think it still would've come down to the fact I didn't quite have the time I really needed to suit my own perfectionism.

So, just to be clear: I will eventually circle back around to that initial sketch and do Trinity up more "properly" in the Winx Style, this is just all I had time for if I wanted it to look semi-finished and get it out today. Consider this more or less a "proof of concept" for Trinity's general design, though some small details and colors may get changed around a bit whenever I do get around to the nicer version.

I do think I've finally nailed down her bangs, at least. Kinda can't believe I didn't think of the upturned waves like this before for her! :stupidme:

And while I won't drag you through the nitty gritty (I'll save that for the finalized version), I will say I did my best to balance her Mermaid design between the Andros Mermaids from Season 3, a little of the obscure "Mermaidix" designs, and also tamper the level of detail just a little.

Why? Well, on the one hand, Trinity is supposed to be a Princess [how exactly is a long story I don't have time to get into at the moment] and I do want her to somewhat "blend in" alongside the other mermaid designs, but at the same time, this would technically be a "Season 1" outfit/design for Trin, and while Season 1 did have it's more complex design moments, generally things are dialed back compared to Season 3, and even to Season 2 in some ways.

And to some extent I wanted to keep things "simple enough" I could re-use details for her Magic Winx [again, how she can have both a fairy form and mermaid form is a long story I don't have time to tell you today] if I decide that's the route I want to go in. There's a little conflicting canon evidence on where a fairy's mermaid form should look like her Magic Winx or not, so I'm not sure how similar I'll end up making them in the end. This way I've tried to leave the door open regardless of what I decide.

The last thing I feel like I need to mention: The background is a cropped/zoomed low-res screenshot from the Undines' Kingdom from Season 1. The low-res part was accidentally [but kinda works for the softer watercolor look I ended up going with], but I did specifically go with this one because it is a watery area from Season 1—As much easier as it would've been, I just didn't want the higher level of detail that came with all the watery backgrounds from Seasons 5 and onward. And this one had something—a lilypad—that would work reasonably well with the sitting pose I picked out. Although it's a little hard to tell in the final image. ^^;

Is this my best work? Certainly not, but I got it done in kind of record time for me and I'm happy enough with it considering the circumstances. Like, I do think it's nice concept art, just not great finished art, if that makes sense. All the ideas are there, it just needs a lot more polish.

But now if you'll excuse me, I've go a handful of other platforms this piece is [unfortunately] not going to post itself to. Hopefully, next time I speak to you Sparklers, I'll have more time to spend and polish to offer. Until then... :wave: