Whoever first thought of mermaids probably spent weeks coming up with it only to have generations of other artists rip off their IP.
During May-dup, artists would stop mooching and start coming up with their own made-up creatures. Like Frogre!
Mermay Alternative #21: May-dup
Anyone working on Amphibia want to hire me? Not that I've applied for a position or anything...
Cross-hatching is difficult, but I think my result was passable for an amateur.
Here's the rough sketch, along with some flat shading I did to guide me as I crossed and hatched, as well as the digital pose-doll pose I made for reference.
Here's a "pugre" I was drafting. I got partway through drawing him in the pose that I ultimately gave to the frogre, when I realized that I was basically just drawing a moblin from Zelda...