Doki Doki Mermaid Club

No, summer's over! Don't worry, let me take you back to before the summer started with one of my Mermay pieces! And yes you read the title right, Doki Doki Mermaid Club!

Doki Doki Literature Club, which I doubt actually needs any introductions, is a psychological horror dating simulation game featuring three potential girls and just Monika. This piece contains spoilers for the game but I'm assuming by now that everyone knows how the game goes and if you don't and wouldn't like the ending to be spoilt, then please look into the game or play it before you go any further!

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These four little pieces are illustating the darker sides to each of the Doki Doki girls. It all started while I was sketching some Mermay stuff and I had Doki Doki on the brain while doing this. I thought to myself how Sayori, if she were a mermaid, would have great difficulty in hanging herself, given that she is underwater. I then was inspired to create a mermaid Sayori who just couldn't hang. After that I wondered how I could turn the other girls into mermaids and relate to the game. I was able to come up with ideas for all four of them and so set about making this beauty.

Yuri was the second one I brainstormed. The idea of testing my illustrative abilities by for the first time, illustrating a bloody corpse in water. Firstly I had to think what Yuri would be stabbed with, and sticking with mermaid culture, decided to make a trident much like Neptune's and have it not only stab but remain stuck once the damage was done. I could see this one working equally as well out of context.

Natsuki was the hardest one to brainstorm, given that her fate was a snapped neck. I would be treading dangerously close to a piece much like Yuri's if I stuck with the broken neck concept and so moved away from it. It took me probably too long to realise that Natsuki is believed to have an abusive dad, at least that's how Monika seems to interpret it. So I made a little cave for Natsuki to go hide in while a mermaid daddy would look around for his daughter menacingly.

Monika's idea works better than I believed it would. Monika is the one who communicates with those beyond their reality and so I made Monika a siren, looking for someone to spent an eternity with. Metaphorically this turns the sea into the digital reality that is their game. The sea level acting as the to screen while the sea below becomes more like a dark void. I was going to have Monika sat on a rock, singing to her prey but a rock would cover up so much space underwater that a mermaid tail would barely be seen. This was fixed by a piece of drift wood, taking the idea from Titanic, the film. This allowed me to replicate the pose from the stage in the game where Monika has completely taken over.

My colouring method was to use my Tombow markers as a base coat and then apply watercolour pencils on top, the same way I did with my Batgirl and Supergirl piece some months back. Now last time this happened, there was an accident with Batgirl's face that almost ruined whole piece! I knew I was treading dangerous waters here and that I would have to be super careful to complete with piece without ruining any of the four mermaids. Luckily this was not the case, but I feel I may not have applied enough water since there are still visible pencil streaks in various areas.

Have you played Doki Doki Literature Club yet? If you're not much of a game player or would rather just watch the game, there are videos on YouTube where you are able to watch parts of or even the entire game being played, don't miss out on the Doki Doki madness! But if you don't have any interest in Doki Doki at all, then why not try converting some characters of your own interest into mermaids, see what you can come up with!