Tanaka Oceanographic Institute At Night, All Lit Up

ARTIST: William Louis ("Bill") McDonald Senior.

COMPANY: Argonaut-GreyWolf

CLIENT: New York Times Bestselling Author Steve Alten.

PROJECT BOOK: "MEG IV: Hell's Aquarium."

YEAR: May 19, 2009.

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SYNOPSIS:
"Meg: Hell’s Aquarium"
The Philippine Sea Plate: The most unexplored realm on the planet. Surrounded by subduction zones and no less than six abyssal trenches –– including the seven-mile-deep, 1550 mile long Mariana Trench –– the sea is also home to an incredible anomaly. Hidden beneath its ancient crust lies the remains of the Panthalassa, an ocean that dates back 220 million years.

Vast and isolated, the Panthalassa is a purgatory of existence, inhabited by nightmarish species of sea creatures long believed extinct! Tanaka Institute, Monterey, CA.: Four years have passed since Angel, the 76 foot, 100,000 pound Megalodon returned from the Mariana Trench to birth its liter of pups — five females — far too numerous and aggressive to keep in one pen.

As accidents mount one solution presents itself: A Dubai royal prince is building the largest aquarium in the world and seeks to purchase two of the “runts.” The deal hinges on hiring Jonas Taylor’s twenty-one year old son, David, to be their trainer. Jonas reluctantly agrees, and David is off to Dubai for the summer of his life– –not realizing he is being set-up to lead an expedition that will hunt down and capture the most dangerous creatures ever to inhabit the planet!.

MEDIA: Bic blue ballpoint pens, Bic black ballpoint pens, Black Higgins India ink, Higgins colored inks, Dr. Martin colored inks, Berol Prisma Pencils and Pentel colored felt tip pens.

NOTES: This research corporate aquarium/stadium complex was the dream of many shark researchers and marine biologists. I used Steve's descriptions and then produced a Pacific Coast daytime foggy marine layer affect. Steve manipulated it in photoshop to be a night scene with all spotlights and underwater floodlights on. He almost always messes with my book illustrations . . . But he, his wife Kim, and his publishers are my clients.

This was my favorite book project where I was paid to design and render prehistoric sea monsters, hydrodynamic biomorphic minisubs, A US Navy Habitat, and vistas of Panthalassa--otherwise remembered by human ancestors as the lost sea of Volusia.

LOCATION: This image was rendered at Mesa, Arizona, USA.