A piece I did as a demo at Silverleaf Renn Faire. I thought Betta's are such cool fish and would make a great mermaid. (Yes, I know that it's the male who's so colorful, but I don't care. It's still a neat concept.) I'm mostly happy with this one...though I wanted her body to be a lighter blue, but when your talking with people and selling your wares while trying to draw, these things happen.

I might do another Bettamaid sometime just so I can do one in the greens. They're all so intense and I love their fins. I found a great book on bettas at the local book store, but money dictates that I can't afford any more reference books for my library at this time. (It's one of my true loves, big picture books. My reference library goes from New Orleans grave yards, Egyption tombs all the way through every sort of animal book I can get my hands on. Thank Borders/Barnes & Noble for their Bargain Book section!)

Anyway comments are welcome, but nothing petty like "Mermaids don't have knees"

Done in Prismacolor pencil on acid-free parchment cardstock. Original 11 x 17

Edit: Hmmmmm...how did this end up in Fanart and not Fantasy. Sorry, my bad.