The Artist and the Mermaid: Concept art and story

 The origin of this story idea began in September 2016, during a journey to Cornwall to attend my Auntie Joan's funeral after her recent passing. Whilst saddening I created some sketches to study figures with manga, and one of which was a sketch of a mermaid watching a young boy sketch a rock face on a beach. Looking at the sketch the creative cogs in my mind began turning, and I wanted to pursue this idea further in sketches of scene ideas and cover development. The cover was inspired by Studio Ghibli's latest creation When Marnie was here, and it was the two main characters together. The name had some ideas such as Oceans Secret or my special friend Oceanna, mentioning the name of the mermaid, but I decided the name needed to be simple, and from this The Artist and The Mermaid was born.

The story would follow a young artist named Charlie who lives on the beach coast of Cornwall sketching whilst his father is away at sea. One day he meets a mermaid named Oceanna who is curious about the world above and wishes to know what it is like. During this story the two soon build a bond of trust and friendship, with Charlie teaching Oceanna to draw and express her feelings whilst she shows him the incredible wonders of the sea.

 Charlie and Oceanna concept design art:

Charlies beach shack home

Cover concept design

Cover final piece 

done using Clip Studio Paint (Manga Studio)

Scene idea :an experience like no other

Scene Idea: The portraiture of a Mermaid

The story is still in development in either illustration or animation methods whilst I was still trying to perfect my own style of art for my illustration portfolio. 

The Artist and the Mermaid (c) A.Montgomery