I was given a fairly loose brief on this one. The client was a fan of some of the artists featured in the wonderful Terran Trade Authority books from the ‘80s and wanted a submersible in a similar style; he also wanted prehistoric sea creatures and ‘weird’ sharks.
In this case, I chose the strange ‘anvil-headed’ shark, Stethacanthus (actually not a true shark but a Holocephalian closely related to modern Chimaera or rabbit fish). It’s one of my favourite prehistoric animals although in this case it’s massively scaled up. I also included a couple of marine reptiles, mosasaurs; and I was inspired to include a giant benthic ammonite which lives on the seabed and have become travelling reefs. This was inspired by something I’d seen in Life Through the Ages II by paleoart supremo, Mark Witton. In the background is the ‘pseudo-swordfish’, Protosphyraena.
Private commission, 2020
A2, Dark green paper, colour pencils, pastels, gouache