Piece notes:

Time- Around 50 hours. Give or take. I redid almost EVERYTHING at least 3 or 4 times.

Basis: The tails (lol pun) of Mermaid and Sirens of the mediterranian.

Story: They were sometimes beautiful, but often not. The sirens and mermaids of the deepest oceans, of the waters far from the tropical shores were definitely not. Silica was their queen, spiteful and harsh with a hatred for the surface and all that inhabited it. It began when she stole a sailor from his dying rig, taking him to a bay of rocks and fawning on him with her sisters. She brought him jewels and fresh fish, the tastiest morsels the sea could offer and rich gold the likes of which men could not imagine. She loved him, hungered for his every touch. He was a weak man however, and refused to touch the siren in fear he would be possessed. Clutching his rosary as he leaped from the cliff, Silica's heart was crushed as she realized the men she pined for could never love her or her kind. She was ruthless now, overtaking the clan as Queen and ordering vicious tasks to all who befell her family.

Her daughters, born of the sea foam, would line the rocks and drown men out of spite, sitting high enough on the jagged peaks as they scraped themselves to death on the coral below, only to be further devoured by the sharks that followed the maidens. They played in the frothy blood, their ugly grey skin dyed red in the sea of carnage. The gods cursed them, and their hair grew long and matted, their skin drowned and dead-looking on their hard bodies. Their eyes lost their allure, cold and shark-like in their heads. Sharp talons and teeth grew where touch and song once drew their prey, leaving the beautiful forms to nothing less than wretched cases, heralding the damned within with supreme horror.

The habitat in which these sirens lived was just a merciless and cold as they were, barren rocks and frigid waters littered with corpses and sunken ships mirroring the frozen desires of their victims. The light above, when blocked, signals the time of death for any ship to pass above, a noble look and raise of her trident the only call to arms for all of Silica's daughters to feast anew.

I started this back in February, sketched it out at work. Didn't touch it at all for a while, but I know it would be my entry for 's contest for mythological beings. She's one of my favourite artists, so I HAD to enter.

Now for the Credits. There was no way in HELL I could have done this without the following:

for her digital painting tutorial. (great for skin!)
and for hand references
for fish scale texture
for the fox coral
for the trumpet coral
for the ship reference.
And National geographic for the shark reference.