I’ve been faffing around for ages now trying to think of ideas for my Introduction to Children’s Illustration online module I’m doing with Domestika.

My latest idea is to illustrate some of the Irish Dindshenchas stories, which is the lore of how places got their names, written down in Medieval times but probably drawing on older traditions.

The first story on my list is the Dindshenchas of Inber Ailbine, which tells of Prince Ruad, whose ship stops on the sea while on a voyage and is held fast. He encounters nine women of the sea, one of whom bears him a child.

The women let the ship go if he promises to return to them. He makes his promise and sails away, but has no intention of coming back. Later, he embarks on a sea voyage and the women take their chance to exact vengeance, pursuing him across the ocean. The woman with the child uses her baby as a missile, throwing it at Prince Ruad, killing them both. It’s pretty grim.

The woman is not described as a mermaid, but that’s what I went for. The image doesn’t capture the horrible violence of the story, but I thought that if you were reading the story you wouldn’t want the illustration to give the game away.

I am very disappointed in this picture, it is to my eye truly terrible. But I am committed to sharing even my most horrible mistakes, so I can capture my progress in all its ups and downs.