Hi! I decided to submit this piece I did a few months ago. I’m altogether pretty proud of it, but I...

Hi! I decided to submit this piece I did a few months ago. I’m altogether pretty proud of it, but I did kind of give up on the shading. Shading hasn’t ever been my strength, and I’m wondering if you could correct my shading here and tell me how to make it altogether more interesting? The fins, which are supposed to be translucent, are where I had the most trouble! Clearly 😅 Any suggested anatomy tweaks are also welcome!

You should be proud! This is a very nice piece. 

Let’s take a look at the light and shadows first. 

On the original piece, it looked like you weren’t entirely sure where the light-source was coming from ( the tail pointing to the lower left corner as a lightsource, but the ears to the upper left corner ), which would easily have thrown you off when going in and drawing in shadows. 

While it is possible that a scene just has a broad, homogeneous ambient light that won’t leave a determining “direction” in the source, I’ll always recommend adding a fixed, directional light. 

Here, i picked the upper right corner. This naturally means that most of the shadows will sit on the left side of the character.

I personally like to include shadow in any folds which planes/depths face the furthest away from the camera/ sits deepest in the fabric/membrane/whatever, this gives a sense of depth and volume to the material you’re trying to shade. That is why you see that there are these triangular shadows on the fins, even if they are technically closer to the lightsource than the likes of her hair, which recieves less shadows. 

Your problem with the transparent fins has a very simple answer. If something is transparent: it means that you will be able to see what’s on the other side of the transparent material to some degree. But in your composition, there is no background, thusly there is nothing for the transparents material to be..well..transparent with. 

The cool thing about merfolk and other serpentine creatures is the flexibility that comes with their anatomy. Especially in a context as weightless as merfolk’s home: the sea. 

I would take advantage of the fact that you can twist and bend the tail at your leisure. Making it curve in and out to give a more dynamic feel. Bonus points for making the torso turn, bend and twist a little bit as well. 

- Mod Wackart ( Ko-fi ) 

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