My project was inspired by the selkies of Celtic mythology! They are a mythical creature that would be a seal while in the ocean where they are from, but could also turn into a human if they took off their sealskin. Their human forms were so beautiful that some actual humans would steal their sealskin so that they would have to stay on land and be with them. If a selkie was able to retrieve their skin, they would run back to the ocean. 

They are one of my favorite mythical creatures and I think they are beautiful, so I wanted to create some stickers of them! I wanted to have a very natural and cool-toned color palette, so I stuck to grays, browns, and black with a little bit of white and red/pink accents. 

Here were my original sketches:

I tried out a few different posts of the body and some different face types. I was deciding between human-looking eyes and all-black seal eyes, so I decided to compromise and have a human-esque shape but make them very large and all black to show that mixture of species. I decided on the placements I did because I thought it would be cool to show her partially submerged in water, sunbathing on a rock, and floating in the ocean. 

Here is my first draft:

I was having a hard time with her wet hair, and the proportions of her body, so I had to work to make those more consistent. 

This second draft is more detailed, but similar issues as the first. Some feedback I got was to make the whiskers thicker and work on the water. I changed her proportions as well so her body and head looked more realistic, and I worked on those tiny details like highlights and shadows. I also gave her a hairline, rather than covering her forehead with bangs, since she is supposed to be floating underwater. 

I had a lot of fun doing this project! I learned a lot about proportions and how to make a semi-realistic person, and how to make graphics better suited to be printed as a sticker!