Tips for Designing a Mermaid OC!
We’re back just in time for MerMay!
It’s MerMay! And with MerMay…comes merfolk characters! Mermaids are a popular type of character in media and mythology who appear to be half human and half sea creature! You may recognize mermaid characters such as…
- Ariel, from The Little Mermaid
- Syrena, from the Pirates of the Caribbean
- Ponyo, from the Ghibli film Ponyo
With it being MerMay, it’s the perfect time to design some new merfolk OCs! You could also turn some of your other characters into mermaids just for the fun of it! So how do you design a merfolk character? Let’s talk about it!
What kind of merfolk is your OC?
First off, you want to know what kind of merperson you’re designing. You might design a villainous mermaid differently than you would a mermaid protagonist! You also might want to consider where the merfolk are at too! If you need some ideas of what to think about, here’s some questions to consider!
- What’s the personality of the merperson?
- Are they good, evil, or morally grey?
- Where in the ocean do they live, and would it affect their design?
- What’s their status? Are they royal? Commonfolk?
- Do they have any powers?
- What’s their story?
Once you have an idea of what type of mer-character you want to create, it can be easier to design them! There’s a lot of variety when it comes to sea creatures, and so there’s lots of factors to consider!
If you’re wanting to design a scary antagonist merperson, you might try taking inspiration from some of the spookier sea creatures rather than using a traditional mermaid look! Or, if you have a mermaid that lives at the bottom of the ocean, you might try researching sea creatures that live down in ocean trenches!
Give your merfolk fin-tastic outfits!
While they might not wear as much clothing as the average OC…It can still be fun to give your merperson a cool outfit! Since they live in the ocean, there’s a bunch of interesting ways they could create clothing or accessories!
Try adding a sea-themed motif to your mermaid’s design!
One thing you can think about is incorporating a motif into your merperson’s design! There’s plenty of different underwater aspects that you could use for a motif. If you need some ideas, you could try…
- A fish motif
- A sea creature motif
- A shell motif
- A coral motif
- A bubble motif
- A water motif
- A scale motif
- A wave motif
A motif can be especially fun for a merperson, since they already tend to have some kind of ocean-related theme to them! Since Merfolk don’t usually wear normal clothes and accessories, there’s a perfect opportunity to use a sea motif to decide what they might wear!
You could use a motif all throughout their design. You could use a motif to help design their clothes, accessories, tools, tail, or some other aspect of your OC’s look!
If you want more ideas for coming up with possible motifs, why not take inspiration from your day-to-day life? If you want tips on how to do that, check out this blog by my co-writer Solar!
Choose some unique clothing for your mermaid OC!
Next, you’ll want to think about clothing you can give your mermaid character! Merfolk might not always wear the same kind of clothing as a human, but that doesn’t mean you can’t give them unique clothes anyways! If you need some ideas for clothing you could give your merperson, you could try…
- A shell top
- A fishnet poncho
- Fin-themed sleeves
- A crop-top with ruffles that mimic waves
- A flowy blouse
- A scale halter-top
- A colorful tube-top
- An asymmetrical skirt
What kind of clothing you give your mermaid might depend on your mermaid or their story too!
You could consider what materials the merfolk have available to them to make clothing out of. You could also think about what they might wear based upon their personality too!
A fun example of clothing for a merperson OC would be Ging3rdoodles’ OC King Neptune! Look at that cool armor!
Another fun example would be Jadedoesstuff’s OC Beau! Check out his fancy clothes!
Give your mermaid some fun accessories!
Next up, accessories! There’s plenty of fun options to use for a mermaid design! A mermaid might use things found in the ocean for their accessories. If you need some inspiration for accessories to add, you could try…
- A coral hair clip
- A shell crown
- A pearl headpiece
- A pearl belt
- A kelp boa
- A trident
- A conch instrument
- Starfish ornaments
- Golden armbands
- Clam shell earrings
There’s lots you can do with ocean-themed accessories! Try taking your favorite ocean items and see how you can turn them into cool accessories for your merperson. Accessories could be inspired by different fish, sea creatures, sea plants, coral, or other things! Try using the different shapes and designs to create unique designs!
A mermaid might use human-made objects that fell to the bottom of the ocean as accessories too! Maybe they found a sunken pirate ship filled with items unknown to them…and turned them into accessories!
A fun example of accessories for a merperson design would be Omelu’s OC Nora! She’s got cool starfish accessories!
Another fun example would be Smores’ OC Aisha! Check out those beautiful shell and pearl accessories!
What will you choose to give your merperson? A starfish clip? Ooh, what about a shell top! A trident? Maybe some pearl bracelets?
Give your merfolk a cool appearance!
Now…the extra fun part! Merfolk can have all kinds of cool appearances, and they can look more human, or more sea-creature! It all depends on what kind of merperson you want to create.
Design a swim-sational tail for your mermaid OC!
Time to design your merperson’s tail! It’s probably the most important part of designing your mermaid character! You could give them a normal fish tail, or you could base their tail off of a different sea creature! Need some ideas? Here’s some to consider:
- A koi fish tail
- A clownfish tail
- A sea angel tail
- An eel tail
- Octopus tails
- Squid tails
- Jellyfish tails
- A shark tail
- A stingray tail
- A lion fish tail
- An orca tail
There’s all kinds of unique ocean critters that you could use for your mermaid’s tail! Some creatures have average fish tails, some have tentacles, some have translucent tails, and much more!
Your mermaid doesn’t have to have a normal-looking tail either. You could play around with unique shapes, colors, or patterns to create a beautifully unique look for your merperson!
A fun example of a cool tail design for a merperson would be Lumendraws’ OC Talia! She has a cool glowing tail!
Another fun example would be Lunarlyric’s OC Eily! Look at the cool pattern on her tail!
Give your mermaid an interesting hairstyle!
Another thing to consider is the hairstyle you want to give your mermaid! There’s lots of fun hairstyles you could choose; the merperson doesn’t have to wear their hair down! (But that’s perfectly fine too!) If you need some hair ideas, you could try…
- A long flowy ponytail
- A fin mohawk
- A fishtail braid
- A wavy half-up style
- Curtain bangs
- Tentacle hair
- A pixie cut
- Bubble braids
- Side braids
Depending on how sea creature-y you want your merperson to look, you could give them hair that doesn’t look like normal hair!
You could use aspects like tentacles, fins, or other things to use as hair instead! Try playing around with different ideas to see what you like best for your merperson!
If you need some more ideas for how to choose character hairstyles, and not just merfolk ones, check out this article on the topic here!
Add some unique features to your mermaid’s appearance!
Since mermaids aren’t exactly human, you could give them more interesting details other than their tail! Depending on what kind of mermaid character you want, you could add details that make them look more or less human. If you need some inspiration, here’s some ideas to get your creativity flowing:
- Scales
- Fins instead of ears
- Pointed ears
- Glowing eyes
- Glowing limbs
- A fantasy skin color
- Gills
- Colorful markings
- Webbed fingers
- An anglerfish lure
- Translucent skin
The above ideas are just a few of many different details you could add to your merperson! Sea creatures have many different cool and strange aspects to their look!
If you need some more inspiration, try doing some research on different sea creatures! Some of my favorite marine animals are deep sea creatures…There’s all kinds of odd creatures down in the deep! Some are transparent, others glow, some have no eyes, and lots of other things! Utilizing nature as your inspiration can be a great way to create a unique mermaid OC!
A fun example of cool features on a merperson would be Emmanems’ OC Kelpie! Check out the cool anglerfish-like lure!
Another fun example would be Hylo’s OC Kumi! She has cool fins on her arms!
How will you design your merperson’s tail? Will you give them webbed fingers? Gills? There’s all kinds of options!
There’s plenty of fun ways to create a unique mermaid OC! It can be fun to pick accessories, design their tail, and more! If you post your merperson here on Unvale, be sure to use the tags merperson, mermaid, or merman so your other merfolk enthusiasts can find your OC!
If you need other OC ideas, there’s blogs on picking an aesthetic for your OC's designs, ways to revive your old OCs, how to use music to design an OC, and more!
