Krya: Not Watered Down

 
Though not on the list, took some time to sketch main character, Kyra the black mermaid. Really helpful to discover new things about her so I can make her real. With cocoa-colored skin, she's on shore. In fauvist blue, is how she looks under the sea.


Last week was a Lost Week for me. A dream come true. A full 7 days doing odds and ends, none of which were on any list. Heaven. The only problem with it was that the cold kept me tethered to the computer the whole time rather than active in the workshop finishing fun things. I designed a pro bono logo, mastered folding paper image Kaleidocycles, and stayed bundled up.

I randomly started to create a Kyra close-up portrait. Here's what I knew. I knew I wanted Kyra to be black (There's no Africa nor America in Halfland so, I'll say, racially Negroid, and hope I'm understood.) Mermaids have most often been depicted as Caucasian with long following hair. I wanted Kyra to be a beautiful black-skinned mermaid with short curly natural hair studded with sea snail shells, like a Buddha. (bottom left shows a rare Buddha statue with bright blue snail hair!, things started connect up as I made the sketch) I knew the natural hair should be seen in between the shells, as it looks around the wooden beads bottom center. (I've have gorgeous right-off-the-sheep chocolate-brown wool bought in New York for Kyra's hair that looks for all the world like perfect puppet fro. It'll be so fun.)

I also loved the bright blue pigment on the skin of the African lads, upper left. Something otherworldly about them. African yet unearthly. (Have not/probably won't see Avatar, so this has nothing to do with that.) As I got immersed in the sketch process, and things accidentally took this sharp turn and then that one, it became crystal clear that there would be TWO ways Kyra would appear. One puppet will be painted as you see her on shore, a duplicate will be made with the blue skin and golden snail shells.

We see Kyra in the film series at several times in each mode, above and below waters. At the beach, in full life-size, she'll be black and beguiling. Undersea, she'll be the small-scale puppet, with deep blue skin and shimmering gold-leafed shells in her hair. Visiting Rana at the cottage she'll swim down the stream in blue and be collected in the barrel in brown. Her tail will glisten in her aquas and pale lavender mica scales on both figures.

Bottom left you can see the large scale clay sculpt of the character made in New York in 1993. The two sketches on top were based on the small (10 inch/25.5 cm) smaller pupp, and show how my mind has been developing this character. Can't wait to build and film her. Thank you for watching.