This should be a very fun topic for today’s new topic, only because it’s basically a Disney-related topic, and another cool thing about is I’ll be sharing of my very first fan art drawing from one of my favorite Disney animated films. You might recognized this character, and she is a mermaid. This is Andrina, one of the characters from Disney’s 1989 animated classic, The Little Mermaid.
I think that everyone, especially to the Disney fans, would agree that The Little Mermaid is one of the top greatest animated films ever to be told by Disney, and this is one of the Disney films that established the Disney Renaissance, along with Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), The Lion King (1994), Pocahontas (1995), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Mulan (1998), and Tarzan (1999). Based on the fairy tale by Hans Christian Anderson, The Little Mermaid has gotten a fresh and great story, with the amazing cast of characters like Ariel, Eric, Sebastian, Flounder, King Triton, Ursula, Scuttle, and many more; all of the unforgettable songs and music score by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman; and beautiful animation and art, done by many talented animators from the 80s’ and 90s’, with Glen Keane, Andreas Deja, Mark Henn, James Baxter, Rueben Aquino, Will Finn, and many more.
The Little Mermaid is definitely part of my Disney childhood, I grew up watching it at a very young age from seen it on the VHS. Of course, not only that this film is one of my favorite animated movies, but perhaps best known as one of my favorite animated underwater movies, along with Finding Nemo and its sequel, Finding Dory, done by Pixar. And of course, I cannot ever forget SpongeBob SquarePants, even thought it’s not a film, but a hit TV show I watched on Nickelodeon, and it will always have a special place in my heart. My favorite characters are Sebastian, Grimsby, and Andrina; and my favorite songs from the film are “Fathoms Below”, “Under the Sea”, and “Kiss the Girl”.
Now that I shared you my thoughts of The Little Mermaid, let’s go through the insights of the character, Andrina: Andrina is one of Ariel’s older sisters, and one of the seven daughters of King Triton, Ariel’s father and the ruler of the sea. She is the purple mermaid with blonde hair tied up with a small pink coral on top, and a purple tail. Among the other sisters, besides Andrina, are Aquata (blue), Arista (red), Attina (orange), Adella (green), and Alana (pink). Not only is Andrina one of my favorite characters, but she’s probably my favorite of all of Ariel’s sisters. She kind of reminds me a bit of Tinker Bell, which is funny and interesting for me to say, I think, because I grew up watching Peter Pan, and I can see somehow Tinker Bell and Andrina are similar, but they’re different in the end. They’re both one of my favorite Disney characters.
These drawings that you are about to see are my very first drawings of Andrina, all drawn on one and whole page from the drawing pad, and painted in watercolor. Each drawing of her poses and facial expressions were based on how she acted in the original film. Most of the drawings of Andrina’s poses from the film were done by memory, but even when I first started working on sketching, I’ll go on the internet on my iPhone to make sure if I captured her details correctly. So let’s check out the fan art drawings of Andrina the mermaid down below!
Andrina watercolor thumbnails
The first thumbnail drawing of Andrina, where we first meet her and the rest of her sisters at the beginning of the film, singing the “Daughters of Triton” in the concert sequence. There, right after we met Aquata, we see Andrina holding her sea-green fan, while singing along with her sisters. Right at the end of the song, all of the sisters were in shock, as they realized that their youngest sister, Ariel, wasn’t there to perform the concert, in which we find out she has forgotten about the concert.
The second thumbnail, where it’s just a drawing of Andrina’s head. But it’s part of her facial expression, in a scene where Ariel comes in, looking all happy and dreamy, while humming, because she’s in love with Eric, and her sisters looked surprised and confused, because they think their sister is acting all strange and funny.
For Andrina, she’s still looking quite surprised to see Ariel feeling serene and happy, but this is where she is still looking surprised, but before speaking to King Triton on realizing that Ariel is in love, and that’s where you’ll see it from the next drawing down below here.
There’s the moment Andrina realizes that Ariel is in love, she tells her dad, Triton, in this line picked up from the movie, “Isn’t it obvious, Daddy? Ariel’s in love!” Her emotion changes to make it very romantic and proud, after seeing her sister is being romantic, but she doesn’t know yet that Ariel is, in fact, in love with Eric, a human prince.
Here’s the last out of the four Andrina thumbnails, picked up from the wedding scene towards the end of the movie. It’s just right after Ariel and Eric had just become husband and wife at their wedding ship, and we see King Triton, his daughters, and the merpeople watching them from above the sea, and Andrina is waving for her sister to congratulate them and saying good-bye. I’m pretty sure that she was waving to Ariel and Eric in the movie, unless if it’s a different sister, I’m not sure. I remember seeing Andrina waving from my own Little Mermaid puzzle set, the Thomas Kinkade edition, and it has her waving above the sea with Triton and her sisters. I still think she did it in the original movie, and I thought I add it to my watercolor thumbnails.
And that’s my fan art thumbnails of Andrina. It was very fun to able to learn how to draw her and do a little fan art, and I’m glad I am able to share it here on this blog, as you should know this happens to be the 155th blog post here on The Autistic Animator’s Desk.
If you have a favorite of Ariel’s older sisters, besides Ariel, which one is your favorite? Aquata? Andrina? Arista? Attina? Adella? or Alana?
Disney Renaissance documentaries (that I would recommended!)
Since The Little Mermaid is one of the films to be part of the Disney Renaissance, and if you would like to learn more about the period, then you should check out a couple of documentaries that I would recommended: Waking Sleeping Beauty and Howard.
Waking Sleeping Beauty is about how the Disney studio changed decades after Walt Disney’s death, and how they came up the next greater films they’ve done in the 1980s’ to the 1990s’, leading to the birth of Disney Renaissance. And Howard shares a biography of songwriting lyricist and Disney Legend, the late Howard Ashman, going from his childhood in Baltimore, to his songwriting career in Disney, teaming up with Alan Menken, and to his death of AIDs in 1991, during the making of Beauty and the Beast.
These documentaries were all directed by Don Hahn, the producer of The Lion King, and I think he directed the documentary Waking Sleeping Beauty. I’ve watched them on the Disney+, and they’re all really good and really inspiring! Any people who wanted to work in animation industry should check out and learn more about the art of Disney animation to explore the story, character, music and song, and writing development. You can watch these documentaries on Disney+.
Happy drawing! 🙂
Disney doc.’s trailers links:
- Waking Sleeping Beauty:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyeoyRjEiUU
- Howard:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8QxEh4iadnw
The Autistic Animator's Desk 
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