Tracey Valliere-Evans: Neg2 MM Characters

MANMADe Mermaid Characters:

Please see Pinterest for inspiration & research images; I have pinned a lot of images of the male & female form, as reference & inspiration for the characters & their bodies.

The game has a selection of characters that can be individualised to the selection of the player, & the player can choose how they wish to look, selecting from body-size to length of hair. There are other characters that are 'advisors/counselors', 'enemies', 'bait', 'family', 'pets' etc.

My own pic: taken for dinner in Jabula Restaurant, Ellesmere Port
Added to my inspiration to use giraffes' for Mermaid's pets & form of transport - melded with seahorses?!

To help me create the mermaid tail, to be used for my characters (& the logo), I was taken around a friend's carp fishery: Denhall Fisheries, to shoot some pics of fish.

The weather was somewhat dull, & being new to my camera - albeit still learning photography too, was unsure of some settings & rushed a bit as the fish was out of water....a bit like me! I should have taken my mini-tripod but I managed to catch some photographs that I can use for what I want, & so objective met; I wanted the tail & scales.

Having a guided tour in a tiny landrover/golf-buggy-type vehicle was fun & was driven around all the lakes allowing me to take some photographs of the beautiful ponds overshadowed with voluptuous greenery, with glimpses & splashes of vibrant colour. A very interesting place, & learnt some more about fish.

The photo's will be edited in Photoshop, & used for my Mermaid Game; all my own shots.

Unedited pics:

Baby carps, they all have individual markings, & if the lighting was better, then the markings would have been greatly highlighted.

Zoomed in to see how well the zoom works, & couldn't believe the clarity & colour splashes

Same image as above, that I have edited in Photoshop; levels, colour balance, contrast, vibrancy etc. I now save all important image files in .tiff format after being advised to, quite strongly, in a tutorial in The Hub at Glyndwr. I know this is to save the quality!

My character design will incorporate the apparel; obviously one of my strengths with my background in fashion design. I am looking at designing 2 characters, or 1 mermaid & a selection of her various outfits, which will include corsets; crazy Moulin Rouge meets tailored eclectic quintessential Vivienne Westwood, with a Black Pearl from Johnny Depp! Although, from my own experience gained when I design, this can, & probably will develop.....I am already thinking of delicate & colourful jellyfish tentacles & starfish....

An image I have of 2 models in dark corsets/dresses, had no source to credit; photographer or designer. I took a guess that it was John Galliano, & for some reason the 1980's resonated around my brain. My online search came up with an image of 1 of the dresses, but not the actual image.

Sourced from Agnauta Couture; Corset by Mr Pearl

Which also led me to another image I could see as being very 'undersea-mermaid-esque',
& the follow up resulted in an article on Mr Pearl, corsetier fantastique on:

Mr.Pearl, born in 1962 in South Africa, is the most amazing corsetier of this time. His corsets are made without any form of modern technology and it can take up to several months each to construct. He started wearing corsets himself when he was 30 years, after seeing pictures of Fakir Musafar. Mr. Pearl has a 46 cm corseted waist at the smallest, ‘I have let it slip out these days to about 56 cm, very lazy’. He wears his corset 24 hours a day, except when bathing.

Mr. Pearl moved to London in 1994, setting up shop as a corsetier. In 2002 he moved to Paris where he now works in the romantic setting behind the Notre Dame. He has made corsets for designers such as Jean Paul Gaultier, Thierry Mugler, John Galliano, Chloe, Alexander McQueen, Christian Lacroix and Vivienne Westwood. Dita Von Teece wears his corsets during her performances.

Undoubtedly the fashion designer Thierry Mugler!

My Sketches Apparel Designs

Bust of Mermaid's Dress with Heart to Capture
Pleated (seaweed inspired) & Frilled (jellyfish inspired)

Short & Layered (inspired from surf/waves): shows off the Mermaid's legs when she has achieved a pair!

Mermaids

I replied to a poster that I saw up in the University cafe, asking for life models. It was for Dave Jones, doing his MA. I went along, he got some great shots, & has allowed me to use them. The shapes I created are very mermaid-esque, & have inspired ideas for shapes, & hair. I will use the shapes to create the mermaids, & combine my images I have of fish-tails to create the mermaid tails.

Mermaid shape; I will add a mermaid tail

Top of mermaid

Although not a mermaid, this video shows a shark using his tail & so very useful to watch the movement of it, & the fish, to help create tails on my characters: BBC News - Thresher sharks stun prey with tail slaps.

Lost Images

(Below are images I sourced & added for inspiration for my characters; unfortunately they have disappeared, possibly due to them being hosted/copied from my online social network account on Facebook, that I closed for a short period of time; until I discovered my images vanished! I have decided to leave the empty image-placeholders, so that you can see more research has been carried out previously, & if time allows, I will search to see if I can locate them again.)