I created Glubriella for a character design project. I wanted to play around with the idea of a reverse mermaid who literally felt like a fish-out-of-water as a woman in the workplace. I enjoyed playing around with her awkwardness. Below are some sketches that really helped me figure out who Glubirella was.
I started out by exploring the different activities Glubriella could experience that were specific to having human legs.
I began to play more with the phrase “fish-out-of-water” and it made me think of a woman feeling uncomfortable in a male-dominated work environment. Perhaps she’d be regularly sent out on menial errands, or experience microagressions from her insensitive co-workers. It felt metaphorical to have her discriminated on her species as well as her gender.