Mermaid Ballet Dressing for a Long Distance Swim

This was a mid-1986 conceptual sketch for my Kobe, Japanese computer art merchandising clients who were introduced to me by two Toshiba executives while I was on a week-long trip to Japan who wished to experiment with a complete computer render as opposed to texture-mapping basic backgrounds for some of my ocean and reptile concepts. I completed this and many other sketches and drawings during my thirty day leave in the summer of 1986.

This was a standard office conference room sketch render on acid-free paper completed with office supplies, Prisma pencils, Prisma Sticks, Prismacolor markers, Pentel coloring pens, F/W quill-point inks, Dr. Martin inks and microfiber wipes for rubbing.

LP covers for record companies along with silk scarves manufacturers expressed interest in variations of the concept. "T"-shirts and exercise/leisure clothing venues were considered with American retailers being approached and pitched. At that time in the history and that era of the commercial arts industry, SeaWorld Entertainment Inc. formerly Busch Entertainment Corporation, a subsidiary of Anheiser-Busch Corporation was aggressively protecting their "Shamu" killer whale logo in the courts and were aggressively trying to scare off any Orcinus orca killer whale imagery in association with any brands or businesses anywhere in the world became an issue in the boardrooms.

With me being an active duty US Marine at the time, the worry was that between me getting deployed or transferred from El Toro to Cherry Point, North Carolina; the lawyers for the investors were concerned that I would be unavailable to civilly defend my principal legal theory that in the US and Western European markets, killer whales--especially male killer whales--were in the public domain and that since "Shamu," was a girl and a momma, then SeaWorld couldn't touch any commercial usage or application of any images of male killer whales in any other venue.

A version of these mermaids with their orca guardian was eventually used in the Argonaut Pacific Rim clothing line later on in the 1990s.