“Firmament” by Taylor Leong, 2016
A short comic I made originally for Kiwi Magazine, an online anthology at my school. The theme this quarter was “wet,” and as I love mermaid lore I thought it was a perfect opportunity to depict an idea I’ve had for a long time, about a human creation/fall-from-paradise story from the perspective of mermaids. This was a challenge because i’ve mostly been working digitally for most of my art pieces, but I decided to make this comic with traditional pen and ink! it certainly does have a different, more intimate feel to making comics like this, ahaha.
The last image is inspired by a piece I made in high school that I’m still rather fond of and has stayed in my mind for the past two years, and I’m glad I was finally able to kind of build a kind of context around it even if the exact story of the fallen plane is one that isn’t told here.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed! Comic-making is very hard but I am so in love with it. :’D I do have more ideas for other stories set in this world, as well as a lot of incoherent thoughts about the interrelation between fantasy and history, although it might be some time before I get around to them.
Also I’m planning on putting up some of my thumbnails/concept drawings from this project on my Patreon so swing by and check it out if you’re interested in seeing more mermaid lore-y stuff!
