“The elegant clock dates to 1777 when it was commissioned from noted
automaton builder Englishman James Cox. It arrived in Russia in 1797 and
was for a time owned by Prince Grigory Potemkin, the secret husband of
Catherine the Great. Since the 18th century it was been delighting
visitors with its spectacle of three singing birds — an owl, a peacock,
and a rooster — and is now the only large example of 18th century
robotics to have survived unaltered into the 21st century.
The clock begins its show with some eerie chime music to which the owl
turns its head. Then the peacock gracefully turns its neck and lifts its
tail slowly before quickly turning around to display its fan of golden
feathers. The spectacle concludes with the crowing of a rooster below.
The cycle is meant to represent the end of night and the rise of the
sun, suggesting the continuity of life. The actual dial of the clock is
hidden in a mushroom, and a squirrel, fox, and other creatures can be
spied among the metal foliage.”
mermaids would have to be dark-skinned and chubby to survive in the ocean
water isnt a great means of protecting oneself from the sun theyd have to be very dark if they were shallow mermaids and they didnt want to be constantly sunburnt and they may be paler if they lived deeper in the water but theyd have to be buff and/or chubby as hell to resist the water pressure and cold of the deep sea
what im saying is pale-ass white skinny mermaids are just unrealistic
I love this tea
Fat isn’t a defense against water pressure, it’s an insulator. So the colder the water, the fatter the mermaid.
Scandinavian merfolk would be tubby, evolving more for persistence hunting in the freezing coastal waters, possibly relying more on siren-song to lull prey into effective range. The less moving the better! Gotta keep the chub on to survive the winter.
Whereas Mediterranean/Polynesian merfolk would spend their time among the fertile reefs in warmer waters, competing with other predators. They would be built for speed and agility, buff like sprinters. Darker skin would be harder to spot under the surf, and more resistant to the glaring sun.
Also: it’s not hair, it’s scillia that they use to filter plankton out of the water, and it stings like a jellyfish if you touch it.
I would imagine that merfolk come in many different colors, maybe they even have the ability to shift their skin tone to assist in hunting? I guess that depends on how intelligent your mermaids are.
Tldr; cold water mermaids would probably be chubby, warm water mermaids would look like Serna Williams.
Another thing to take into account is Deep-Sea-Gigantism. It’s not fully understood why many animal species such as the colossal squid and whales typically grow to unimaginable sizes in high-water-pressure areas, but it’s assumed that it develops as some sort of defense mechanism. This would imply that deep-sea merfolk would be a sort of Leviathan-class eldritch horror.
Before the computing era, ILM was the master of oil matte painting, making audiences believe that some of the sets in the original Star Wars and Indiana Jones trilogy were real when they weren’t. They were the work of geniuses like Chris Evans,Michael Pangrazio,Frank Ordaz, Harrison Ellenshaw and Ralph McQuarrie! Forever thank you, to their handmade art and the work of their colleagues, that made us dream of impossible worlds and fantastic places across Earth and the Universe.
There are more background paintings on this article, featuring comments by the masters/artists themselves !
Some of the following pieces were made by other artists 2:
exCUSE ME?!?!!??!??! TheYRE PAINTINGS?!??!!?!
SHUT UP I thought they were miniatures!!!!
It’s too beautiful. I could cry.
I love this because I’ll be watching a movie and think “how did they do that? Is that a building they built for this movie? Was it there beforehand? Is it cardboard or CGI? Is that actually some place on Earth that they’re filming?” And the answer to all of these now is “nope, that’s a painting”. I can’t believe some of the most iconic, familiar shots were paintings!
watching an actress in full makeup pretend to wash her face and then pat dry her still fully contoured cheeks for an acne wash commercial
when i was 13 i had no idea what make up looked like on. media literacy is important
I especially like the makeup remover ads where she takes off her lipstick, to reveal lighter lipstick underneath.
or the commercials for razors with women shaving their already baby smooth, waxed legs
This is such a surreal, dystopian thing about our culture. We literally treat the natural female body like its obscene. No wonder girls grow up with so much self loathing when they feel as if their own skin is incorrect.
