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Characters / Aava

Created: 2025.04.19
Last updated: 2026.04.26

Digital drawing of a mermaid wearing a skimpy halter top with an embroidered belt around the waist and chains of jewelry hanging off it. She also wears various other jewelry around the arms and the head and heavy smoky-eye makeup. Her body is colored with drab greens and grays, evoking some kind of Nordic freshwater fish.

Merfolk are uniquely well suited for the study of marine biology (on account of the ability to stay underwater indefinitely), so many of their institutes of higher learning are focused on the topic. Aava is one young researcher in the field and an amateur sculptor, with an ostentatious fashion sense typical of her people.

Body details and alternative outfits:

Naked version of the above image of Aava, along with two more views from the side and the back displaying the fins on her back.

Aava wearing a strapless dress with the same jewelry and makeup as before.

Aava wearing the same halter top as before but colored blue instead of pink, with bracers covering the forearms, a flower in her hair, and less jewelry and makeup.

Aava wearing the same dress as before but colored pink instead of blue, with less jewelry and makeup.

Relationships

  • Miriel: friend. Miriel's band of elves once visited Aava's home town during their summer travels, where Miriel encountered Aava's sculpture work. They found they had many mutual interests in art, wildlife, and fashion.
  • Olivia: friends / maybe more? Originally met due to Aava's father Vetten (design TBD), who is Olivia and Basil's supervising professor. Aava is even more flirty than usual with Olivia, who gets uncharacteristically flustered by this. Neither admits they're in love, but it seems likely that they kiss behind closed doors.
  • Basil: friend. See above.

Artworks featuring Aava (9 pages):

Painting of a fountain in the middle of a verdant park landscape. On top of it is a statue of an elf wearing a dress and staff, made of blue oxidized copper. The faun mathematicians Olivia and Basil are sitting at the fountain's rim with drinks, joined by Aava the mermaid lounging in the water. In the background, some other characters are seen walking and hanging out on a beach.
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2 images

Fountain drinks

Digital painting of Aava the mermaid sitting somewhere underwater. She's wearing her jewelled pink halter top and surrounded by rocks and foliage, a bright light reaching her body from between the rocks but leaving her face in shadow. She's stroking her hair with a hand, resting the other on her breast, and looking sidelong at us in a playfully inviting but also slightly sinister gesture. There's a lot of empty space in the image, implying that we're a bit of distance away, perhaps unsure whether to accept her invitation.
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3 images

Siren's gaze

Gouache painting of Aava, a pale-skinned mermaid with black bob-cut hair, sitting on a rock in a long pink dress and holding a rose in her hand. She's surrounded by large pink lilies which fade into outlines and then into nothing behind her, and there's an abstract art nouveau -style circle framing her head and shoulders.
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Going art nouveau mode

Gouache painting of a mermaid sitting on a rock surrounded by reeds and water. It's very misty, expressed by painting transparently and letting the white paper show through. A forest can be faintly seen in the background.
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Haze

Ink drawing of Miriel the forest elf climbing onto a pile of rubble. Behind the pile we see ruins of tall urban buildings overgrown with vegetation, and in the middle of it all a large building with a giant domed roof. There's a car under the rubble. Miriel is carrying her bow with the string on and a quiver full of arrows, suggesting she's worried about who might be lurking in these streets.
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15 images

Inktober 2025

Gouache painting of Aava, a pale-colored mermaid with black bob-cut hair, wearing a billowing pink dress. We're underwater, but not very deep - the darkness is broken by dim shafts of light from above. She's falling backwards away from the viewer and towards a gothic cathedral tower seen in the background.
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6 images

Stuff with gouache

A grid of four drawings in different styles featuring various characters.
16 images

Art Fight 2025

Ink drawing of a mermaid sitting on the sea floor, leaning on a rock. There's seaweed and a school of fish in the background. She's drawn in colored inks but using only lines, partially colored in with hatching.
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8 images

Mermay inks (2025)

Digital painting of a mermaid posing in front of a row of three stained glass windows on an underwater stone wall. The window directly behind her depicts a sunset over water, and to her sides are two mermaids wearing white drapery. The window is the dominant light source, making bright beams in the water and a stark contrast with everything else.
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2 images

Big fancy window