Tom Bancroft, former Disney animator, character designer, instructor and Father of MerMay (a month-long celebration of creativity, community and mermaids), shares his tips on drawing different styles of mermaids. Using reference photos of fish and sharks, he dives right in and creates fantastical creatures that blend both human and fish anatomy.
Tutorial #1: Basic anatomy
Tutorial #2: Line of action
Tutorial #3: Expressions
Tutorial #4: Variety and inspiration
Learn more about Tom Bancroft
Tom Bancroft has over 30 years of experience in the animation industry, much of which was for Walt Disney Feature animation where he was an animator on 8 feature films including Beauty and the Beast, The Lion King, Aladdin, Pocahontas, Mulan, and Brother Bear.
His popular character design instruction books, Creating Characters with Personality and Character Mentor have become the most recognized books on designing characters for animation, video games, comic books, and cartooning and are required textbooks at many art schools around the world.
Additionally, Tom is creator and President of the art instruction website TaughtByAPro, co-host of The Bancroft Bothers Animation podcast on iTunes, and is Artist in Residence for the Animation undergraduate program he developed for Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN.
