Behind-The-Scenes

I know I can easily ask ChatGPT or other generative AIs to create a building sketch for me. But as an artist I'm only asking ChatGPT for a set of latitude and longitude. I still enjoy finding my own reference pictures and working on the sketches myself.

A blue lobster is wrapping seaweed prawn rolls with his big claws. He’s a prawn lover, and as a food booth owner in the Night Market Under The Sea, he just has to share his favorite dish with the rest of the ocean dwellers! This illustration features another character from the Night Market Under The Sea collection, Lob Lob.

A manta ray (Ms. Manta) is slowly grilling a hurricane sea cucumber with her one and only tail. She has no idea what it actually tastes like. After all, she only feeds on microorganisms. The reason she chose to make these hurricane sea cucumbers is simply because she thought it would be a good selling point. This illustration showcases Ms. Manta’s food booth, with details including live sea cucumbers in a glass tank, as well as pre-sliced, grilling, and the finished hurricane

What would a food booth run by a jellyfish-loving sea turtle even look like? This piece was actually pretty easy to envision, and in the end, it became one of my favorite illustrations in the Night Market Under The Sea collection. Jellyfish are such floaty, ethereal creatures. Just adding them into the scene instantly brings a sense of randomness and liveliness to the artwork.

The manta ray is a large marine creature, but it feeds on microorganisms and is harmless to humans. This illustration features a manta ray using its tail to grill a sea cucumber. When I was working on it, I struggled quite a bit, from figuring out the pose to deciding what food it should be grilling. So here are some behind-the-scenes.

K.O. Squid is a booth owned by an octopus, which I call Uncle Octy. After finishing Mr. Squid’s booth, painting Uncle Octy’s booth felt like a natural next step. Both make full use of their many tentacles, just doing different tasks.

This is the very first stall in the Night Market Under The Sea collection. The squid character, Mr. Squid, is making full use of his many tentacles, simultaneously cooking takoyaki, folding containers using seaweed for serving the takoyaki, and drizzling mayonnaise over the finished ones. Takoyaki is a popular snack even under the sea. Although Mr.Squid has so many tentacles, he can barely keep up with the demand!

What comes to mind when you think of sea turtles? Their slow and steady pace? Digging holes on a beach to lay eggs? What I picture is a sea turtle munching on jellyfish. Maybe because I’m a foodie, and I always imagine animals while they’re eating lol.

In my Night Market Under The Sea setup, squids and octopuses are family rivals, so I felt I had to draw another piece showing Mr. Squid and Uncle Octy fighting each other.

Behind-the-scene story about creating a octopus character for my night market under the sea collection.

Behind-the-scene story about creating a squid character for my night market under the sea collection.