At the time I drew the original sketch of this mermaid I was extremely fed up with mermaids being depicted as bascially women who looked like they had cloth wrapped around their legs.  I wanted a mermaid who looked like a human on top but had a totally fish-like lower half - no legs, no knees, no ankles!!!  Her headdress, as it were, was inspired by the Reverend Mother Mohiam's costume design from the 6 hour Dune Miniseries from "Scifi" Channel (as they like to call themselves now, but it's a lie!)

Her shading is a style I'm experimenting with now, same as the newest Justice picture, I think it's working pretty well overall, and it's really fun too.  It does sometimes take a long time to figure out just how exactly to shade an area, cell shading requires a lot of care and precision, but practice makes perfect