This is for a theme-based contest I started at my group,

The challenge is to do some piece of art, using any medium, using three or more of these themes:


Water
Fire
Female
Death (the act of dying, or the avoiding thereof are both acceptable, as well as any other thing you can think of that really deals with the concept of death... even just a picture of death!)
Canary
Clouds


This will NOT be one of the things up for vote, but it's a good example where i used all of them...

It comes partially from the start of an RP I was doing (Which didn't have more than the barest base concept of this), and partially from an image i thought up when i first started thinking of the contest... it's stuck in my head.

A ship falling apart in the water, the clouds flashing with lightning above. The ship's on fire, a canary's cage hanging from the prow. It's eyes are filled with fear as it looks out
There's a mermaid below, her red hair around her. An empty vile is hanging from her neck by a thong, floating a little as she moves. Her hand is half way to stroking a man's cheek, her head bowed over his feminine face. You can see the beginnings of breasts beneath his shirt, barely larger than a child's.

His feet are uncovered, and red, the ends turning to the ridges of tail fins as she smiles down at him. He doesn't know that his brown eyes are showing the barest hints of green...

I really wish I could draw this. I have a lot of artistic friends, but i doubt any of them have the skill/time to make this... or I'd have played the birthday card hours ago. Complete with puppy dog eyes. (Only ten days left now! Wooooo!)

I hope you like the story, at least.