The Last Naiad

"Whether science or magic was to blame, nobody knew, but something was turning all the water in the world into ice. It started slowly, unobtrusively - tiny flecks of ice floating in ponds, a few crystals on the edges of a waterfall. But like an infection, the ice kept spreading.

The Naiads, so intimately connected to the bodies of water under their protection that their very existence depended on it, were the first to feel the lasting effects. Their aqueous bodies became lethargic, hard to move. They tried to fight it, but the spread of the ice was unrelentless and absolute

Finally, one by one, they stopped struggling, giving themselves over to the ice and it's cold, hard oblivion."

Fantasy XIII: Sole Survivor

Brief: Depict an image of the last surviving entity of some type. What that survivor is, will be up to you, and we will be generous in the interpretation, but loss, tragedy, and even hope are historically the types of emotions that images of this type try to convey.

Work in Progress

Sources

Closeup

I struggled to find a concept for this one. At first I wanted to do something a lot more personal (and more obviously sad) , but while I was looking for sources, I discovered this beautiful photo by osga and this picture just sort of grew from there.

Of course, the whole viral ice thing was inspired by Kurt Vonnegut's Ice-nine from Cat's Cradle. I've never actually read it, but the concept has intrigued me for a while. I just wanted to put a bit of a fantasy angle on it.

Doesn't amphibian feet just make the most interesting ears/fins?

I know the tail doesn't really make sense anatomically, but I needed something to enhance the transparency of her liquid form. I actually wanted to turn it into hair or a headdress or something, but I just literally ran out of time.

At least all this work earned me my highest score yet.

Final Score: 8.927