gentle giant - design concept // march MOTM // sfw

thanks again to kai for suggesting a monster inspired by whale sharks!

this is the first "monster of the month" i've designed since i went on hiatus, so i decided to ease back into it with a relatively straightforward approach. a whale shark merman was the first idea that popped into my head, and sometimes there's truly no need to reinvent the wheel. he would look gorgeous and everyone loves merpeople, so it's hard to go wrong with such a classic type of monster.

consequently, this time, there's not really any unconventional or unexpected design choices to explain. merging the upper body of a human with a whale shark's tail was pretty uncomplicated. the colour scheme also didn't require much thought; whale sharks naturally have a beautiful colouration and spotted markings that could easily cover the back of his human torso as well. they are peaceful but huge, so obviously i made him really beefy. he's strong and shouldn't be messed with, but has blunt nails and a warm smile; whale sharks are filter feeders and may eat small fish or squid in addition to plankton, but given their gentle nature it didn't make sense to give him either claws or sharp fangs.

speaking of his mouth, i tried sketching some ideas for more monstrous head and face designs. however, translating the square nose of a whale shark into semi-human features proved difficult, so i eventually decided that a fully human face looked best. his pale eyes mirror the spots on his back (which seem almost bioluminescent), as does the freckles on his cheeks and forehead, and his rounded eyebrows. his ears resemble fins, he's got large gills along the sides of his neck, and he has long hair because right now i find myself extra appreciative of long-haired men (... plus it's fun to draw underwater).

i tried finding myths and legends related to whale sharks, in search of tidbits that could inspire the design -- but there honestly wasn't as much lore as i had expected (at least not readily available online). one story speaks of a giant fish about to sink a ship, but upon hearing the people on board praying to buddha, it remembered that it had been a buddhist monk in a previous life. the fish spared the ship, and later dies to once again be reborn as a monk. a tale from kenya and mozambique tells of how the whale shark got its spotty pattern after god and the angels were so charmed with its creation that they threw coins onto its back. the coin-like jewellery that my merman wears is a reference to this story. on the other hand, the names of whale sharks in some languages liken their patterning to stars. marokintana and geger lintang means "many stars" and "stars in the back" in malagasy and javanese, respectively. i thought about making the spots on his back look like stars or constellations, but it looked a bit messy and ... unnecessary? i felt like the "regular" whale shark pattern was pretty enough, in and of itself.

finally, with the prompt being "gentle giant," i wanted him to be even bigger than most of the monster people i draw. to that end, i paired him with another monster person who is also inspired by a large ocean dweller -- an orca merman. i figured that you'd get a nice idea of scale if he could make even a beefy orca guy look kind of small in comparison. male orcas are about 6-8 meters, but one large individual measured almost 10 meters. male whale sharks are smaller than females and average about 8-9 meters, but may grow bigger -- some whale sharks have measured up to 18 meters long. of course, these characters are fantastical mermen, so i could adjust the measurements until they hit the sweet spot of just the right size difference. it seems like the orca merman is larger than usual, measuring about 10 meters, while his whale shark boyfriend would be about 13 meters long. an average, 1.75 meter tall human (or merperson of a similar build) would look tiny next to either of them -- as illustrated most clearly in the sketch.

as for the orca guy, i haven't got a concept sketch for him, since i kind of freestyled his appearance while sketching the painting. but he very much turned into a bonus MOTM design, so i guess this month turned into merman march? i'm especially happy with how his face markings turned out!

if you've got any questions about either the whale shark or orca designs, feel free to comment below!

// art + character © me.