The Ocean

“Beyond the ken of mortal men, beneath the wind and waves

There lies a land of shells and sand, of chasms, crags and caves.

Where coral castles climb and soar, where swaying seaweeds grow,

And all around without a sound the ocean currents flow…”

-Graeme Base, The Sign of the Seahorse (1992)

About my project

Our theme this month is “Ocean”.

I loved the book The Sign of the Seahorse growing up. This was at the age where I was reading on my own, but still sometimes was read to. The story was fun and the art was gorgeous. I had mostly forgotten about the book until somewhat recently when I found a copy in a thrift store. When the ocean theme was announced, I decided to use this book as my inspiration.

How I made it

The quote is from the one of the first pages of the book and instantly hooked me while re-reading as an adult (my wife and I took turns and did voices!). One of my favorite visuals in the book is a fish character listening to music with some headphones on. I scanned the character and went into my photo editing software. I found a few assets to work into the background, including an abstract splash and the crowd from a concert. Then I played around with color and constrast until things felt nice and “deep sea”.

The can’t remember the name of the highlight font, but it helped me connect the quote to some groovy jams being listened to by the fish.