Unnatural Science


Yes, you are looking at pictures of mermaid tails. Some might wonder what mermaids have to do with scientific illustration, but the best creature design is always grounded in real-world animal anatomy and physiology. For my fantasy sculpts and creature designs, I include as many realistic animal-inspired details as possible. My piscine mermaid tails are designed with accurate scalation and fin rays. My sea serpent tail, which was inspired by the fantasy artwork of James C. Christensen, is still based mostly on real animals (for example, the scales and patterning on the body are borrowed from panther chameleons).

This gallery contains my largest and most intricate sculptural and special-effects work, and demonstrates the amount of research and detail that goes into everything I make.

See the first video ever shot of this iconic tail in action: