The strange mermaid

Because challenges are so much fun, I tried a new one in 2018 by testing Mermay for myself; it turned out that the theme wasn't really for me, but I still dutifully followed the official prompt list and did get fun out of it. There were some small drawings in my A5 sketchbook in a grotesque style I had been admiring (and would love to do more often), and one large drawing I was very proud of (and even sold shortly after, when it was still a small miracle for me every time someone bought an original from me). It's charcoal and chalk on 43×61cm, and with that also one of the larger drawings I had done then. The dusty medium wasn't ideal to get all the fine detail in, the pieces by other artists are typically done in graphite, which again I do not like very much. I blame those rotten office pencils I had to start doing art with because my grown-ups couldn't care less about proper pencils and there was nothing else in the house. I managed to create another large drawing like this for Month of Fear the following year.