Gills, if you will

 Back! More art and more updates for my marshy old blog. (Ah, yes, marshy is an expression in Rumontia.) It's been a while, but I've managed to fish up some time and a couple of drawings, and I'll give you my next post!

Here’s a drawing of a Thelbian mermaid. They live in the underwater islands of Thelbia Bay, on the southern coast of Vytra. Their skin is pale and rough, and there are scales up their backbone, under their upper arms, and often around the edges of their face. They have fins on their forearms that help them swim, as well as webbed fingers.

            Merfolk would consider a human’s skin to be ugly, and cherry red lips and flushed cheeks to be very unhealthy-looking. They would find black hair to be rather odd, and though the occasional merfolk are born with darker hair, their hair color is usually sandy-blonde. (I must observe that hair tends to be darker in male merfolk, and it is not wholly unusual to see a male with black hair)

            One reason merfolk live near the surface because it is closer to the sun, providing more light and warmth. Also, the water pressure is lower there, and there is more air. For merfolk do breathe air. They have large gills in the back of their neck that extract oxygen from the water, and they breathe out through their nostrils, which can open and close. They can go out of water, for short whiles, but if their fin dries up, they obviously do not grow legs; instead, they would die. Which is why they must stay at least half-submerged as much as possible. When out of water, they breathe through their mouths, and can eat dry food. (It is interesting to note that in general, merfolk do not like dry foods, or most dry things, for that matter. Mainly they enjoy their foods cold and wet, though they usually boil their fish underwater before eating it.) 

Ti etro, Vytra!