The Mermaid Chicken

A few nights ago, our toddler started talking about a mermaid chicken. We had no idea what he was talking about or where he could have seen something like a mermaid chicken. He was VERY insistent about the mermaid chicken. These interactions became one of the times that I am grateful to be an artist and illustrator. We put him to bed, still talking about the mermaid chicken (he even woke up in the middle of the night to talk about his fishy bird). In the morning, I showed him a custom illustration that he immediately identified with excitement - a MERMAID CHICKEN! 

She is beauty, she is grace, she is a buff laced polish mermaid chicken and my kid loves her. My husband named her "Coral Cluck."

​ Coral's assembly presented a unique artistic challenge. I had no idea how to combine a chicken and a mermaid. My initial thought was to give her two tails modeled after chicken legs, but I quickly decided that was kind of scary and not at all the look I was going for. 

Her head feathers needed to be wild and gravity free - she's a chicken of the sea, after all. When I thought about her fins or wings, I knew I wanted a combination of scales and feathers. That felt right. I considered the shape of a big drum stick when designing her tail.  Her bottom fin is a nod to the three main toes and webbing of a chicken foot.  

Designing Coral Cluck and bringing her to life brought me so much joy. I hope that you love her the way that our family does, too!