Indochinese Suijin-Kamisama Reef Healers

THIS RENDER: "Hakugei: The Legend of the Great White Whale:" The assignment with this image was to tell the readers the underwater portions of the story that Queequeg, Stubbs, Starbuck, Ahab and Ishmael never saw, much less imagined. Moby Dick had been hunted relentlessly, had been harpooned nearly a hundred times during over a hundred encounters between 1788 and 1838. His final encounter with Captain Ahab may have been as late as 1848.

My original which was drawn on an acid-free paper page for sketch illustration which fulfilled one of my assigned drawing commissions for the book "Hakugei: The Legend of the Great White Whale."

Bleeding, battered, agonized and at risk for sepsis, the "Hakugei" sought the healing of the Antediluvian water breathers. In Tokyo, Mermaids were brought up by me, other editors, the senior project coordinator and discussed and was subsequently accepted. Talk turned to classic Manga styles.

Big eyes, plastic hair, tiny mouths, sexually posed and representing ancient alien Uzumi-ama goddesses. I said "Hai" to whatever the editors requested (With no intension of obeying the Manga style edict), flew home and found an Asian junior college co-ed whom I'd known since high school and throughout my tour in the Marines to swim underwater while I snapped Nikonos stills in an Olympic-sized pool in Laguna Niguel, California.

What I created were subtle and mysterious Shinto Suijin (literally water kami or water deity) along with Mizu no Kamisama 水の神様, the Water Kami who protected and evoked guardianship of fishing folk, and were the Shinto medical patrons of fertility, motherhood, and easy childbirth. I then rendered in photorealism and adapted my mermaid civilization to Khymer and Angkor Wat/Khmer: អង្គរវត្ត; alternative Angkorian ស្ថាបត្យកម្មខ្មែរ Makara-style representing the Hindu Divas of Mount Meru--which I embedded in the Southeast Asian reef.

My fascination with this image was being able to successfully insert the battered and and suffering ocean behemoth into a holistic aquatic humanoid healing activity in a submerged and very ancient reef community.

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.

ART CATEGORY: I rendered this illustration study with assorted colored markers, Berol Prisma pencils, Pentel pens, ballpoint pens, quill points, colored Dr. Martin inks, F&W inks, and India ink.

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.