Dark Sirens set 1

This is from a shoot that was named Dark Sirens. It was done at a river, and was supposed to be sort of an evil mermaid theme but expanded out beyond those original perimeters. I leaned into the "dark" of the name in my editing. I tend to have an aesthetic preference for darker, moodier, less well defined than many people. But the great thing about art is that you can make what you like, and people can enjoy it or not. I don't feel there is any one "right" way to either make or enjoy art. There is just art and audience, and the art may connect with some or all of the audience, or it may miss it's mark completely. Sometimes this will happen for reasons that have nothing to do with the art itself. It may be the mood of the audience at the time, it may be the context in which the art is presented, it may even be due to some feeling for or against the artist responsible quite aside from the art itself. Hopefully my audience will get the mood I was going for here and enjoy these pictures. 

The first is one that deviates from the evil mermaid theme, and goes in a more traditional vampire mode. I thought it had a nice Hammer horror movie feel to it once I added the shadow, something that was tricky since it was shot on a bright clear day. I couldn't quite get it to feel like night, but at least it didn't feel like they should have bluebirds on their shoulders.

These are again not really mermaidish, but a bloody woman in the water. Is she a ghoul, splattered with her most recent meal? Is she a victim, bleeding out? The air of menace she puts forth would suggest the latter. But the great thing about art is how the audience can make it whatever they need or want.

Here are a batch that hew more closely to the theme. A mermaid feasting on the heart of a sailor unlucky enough to have fallen into the water and within her grasp. A scaled sea creature showing off her trophy skull from some poor victim. A scaled and horned mermaid luring the viewer to their doom.

This shot was meant to be a battle between dark and darker, the various sea witches and mermaids fighting against the fire breathing demon for dominance of their swampy abode. Note the flaming sword as well as the fire breathing that was all done by a model who was trained in doing these sorts of things. None of this was added after the fact.I think it makes for a very cool little scenario, and I'll be sharing more of these shots in later posts.

I was playing with color and accent here, so I made the picture black and white but her lips are returned to their original shade of red and her eyes their original shade of green.

And here we see her join the mermaid for a snack of the sailor's heart from earlier.

A more romantic take in this one, with a mermaid wooing her love. So instead of dark I went the other direction and made a nimbus of light to give an ethereal feel to the shot. I wanted to make it feel like a fairy tale made flesh.

And one more of our horned mermaid lounging on a rock. Her makeup was fantastic and she is great at giving those come hither stares. I warrant most men would find it hard to avoid her snares.