Moby Dick Hunting Giant Squid at Depth

THIS RENDER: "Hakugei: The Legend of the Great White Whale:" The assignment with this image was to insert the battered and and suffering ocean behemoth into an all-natural squid hunt. Normally, the Architeuthis dux and other giant squid species do not achieve the size of this extraordinary individual--a damned "Kraken."

Moby Dick had been hunted relentlessly by man's surface-sailing whaling fleets from six nations plying the seven seas. My original render, which was drawn on a paper page for sketch illustration, fulfilled my assigned (Commissioned) hunting in the depths drawing for the book "Hakugei: The Legend of the Great White Whale."

It took some effort to plan out the illustration's angle of approach but I successfully inserted the battered, spiteful and vindictive ocean behemoth into an all-natural predation activity within an ocean canyon alluded to but never described by Herman Melville.

ART CATEGORY: I rendered this illustration study with Pentel colored markers, assorted heavy colored markers, Berol Prisma pencils, acrylic paints, ballpoint pens, alcohol-based F&W inks, colored Dr. Martin quill-point inks, and heavy applications of India ink.

BOOK SYNOPSIS: "Moby Dick; or, The Whale" is an 1851 novel by American writer Herman Melville. The book is the sailor Ishmael's narrative of the obsessive quest of Ahab, captain of the whaling ship Pequod, for revenge on Moby Dick, the giant white sperm whale that on the ship's previous voyage bit off Ahab's leg at the knee.

FROM THE WIKIPEDIA FILM SYNOPSIS: Capt. Ahab (Gregory Peck) has a vendetta against Moby Dick, the great white whale responsible for taking his leg. He sets out on a treacherous sea voyage aboard The Pequod, along with a crew including Starbuck (Leo Genn), Father Mapple (Orson Welles) and Ishmael (Richard Basehart), to hunt down the elusive beast. With reckless abandon, Ahab leads the crew on his obsessive and suicidal quest, anxious for a final showdown with the legendary white whale.