The harpoon's barbed point still shone as it tore back through tough oceanic skin, drawing the blood with it. Scarlet evaporated into the warm water of the shallows like smoke. Within minutes, the tiger sharks that inhabited the area would be upon his mortally wounded body. He tried to speak, to form words for something his mind hadn't had time to grasp.

Elegantly sinuous, Perscha lashed her iridescent tail furiously, scattering all the nearby shoals of fish into the safety of the reeds. "Enjoy your death, traitor," she sang, her high pitched voice reverberating into the coral.

Lingering a moment more, she watched the rhythmic expulsion of blood from the hole in his chest. A beacon for a predators in the area. The perfect way of disposing of the evidence. Calling to her maid, she beat the water with one powerful arc of her tail and disappeared into the azure depths.

In the sway of the meek tidal pull, the first sleek, predatorial silhouette appeared.

A somewhat longwinded project that finally saw fruition in the most productive six hour stint I think I've ever done digitally. Proof if ever I needed it that sometimes you need to stop thinking about what you're painting and just paint.
This piece originally started life as an experiment in Artrage, just mucking around with brushes, when my mind saw an underwater scene, and thus these particular species of merfolk were born to inhabit it.

Done in Photoshop CS, using all sorts of texture brushes, particulalrly the fantastic set of brushes Linda Tso kindly provides on her website: http://www.stickydoodle.com/ which really seem to suit my way of painting. And a thanks to Steven Stahlberg, whose paintover helped me understand the lighting underwater better. I couldn't tell you how long it's taken me, it's been through so many repaints.