Putting Together the Whole

For this year's steelhead trout exhibit, I couldn't find many stock photos that showed the San Gabriel river, let alone ones that were large enough to cover the 40' x 4' space that I needed to cover for our steelhead mural. The initial concept from Bowman Design Group has the mural covering the journey of steelhead trout from the ocean all the way to the their freshwater homes in the upper watersheds. Since our exhibit speaks about our local southern California steelhead trout, the mural was designed to reflect that.

So, since I couldn't find any appropriate photos, I decided to take a few of my own. I visited several locations along the upper San Gabriel River and also around Malibu to take several panoramics that became part of the final image. The interesting takeaway for me is that you can never have too many photos. A lot of what wasn't used for the main part of the image was used in smaller sections of the final image, or pieces to transition from one scene to another.

The final section, from the estuaries to the ocean, was made of stock photos since I couldn't find any locations nearby that reflected what we were looking for. Making a composite image of stock photos of various sizes presented its own challenge, especially since that section was 10' tall.

Here is a short .gif showing the different layers of the final image for the section between the upper river and the estuary. It doesn't show how much work was put in to blend those layers together, but it does give you a bit of a glimpse of how many images are there to make a cohesive whole.

Here is the final image, though we did add more ocean to the left of it later. What surprised me about the final was that a lot of things I worried about, namely where transitions seemed to be glaringly obvious, were not as apparent on the actual printed mural. The 4' section goes behind the live trout exhibit, while the 10' section acts more like a backdrop for the rest of the exhibit. The total number of photos that make up this image is over 100. The final length is almost 100' wide.

One the ways you know it's a job well done is that no one really notices it and just accepts it as part of the exhibit. Mission accomplished.

New Challenges

This year, the Aquarium of the Pacific opened a new exhibit about steelhead trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss). Because I don't know a lot about steelhead, I had a lot of research to do, which mostly involved a lot of google searching. However, in this case, I had the privilege of working with the actual fisheries scientists from USFW and regional fisheries scientists, which meant I also was able to supplement my photo reference with images and input from the scientists.

One of the things I was tasked with was creating an image for the steelhead life cycle, which is exceedingly complex because all steelhead start as eggs in a freshwater stream and as they grow older they can choose to stay in the freshwater and become what we call rainbow trout or they can can transition—in a process called smoltification—into the ocean-going form known as steelhead trout. To make things even more complicated, steelhead trout transition in freshwater to rainbow trout colors, but don't become rainbow trout. And they can return to the stream year after year to spawn unlike salmon. So yes, the big takeaway is that rainbow trout and steelhead trout are the same species.

This process started out with a sketch from Rosi Dagit from RCDSMM (Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains).

The initial Illustrator/Photoshop image based off Rosi Dagit's design:

The initial design looked too complicated on reflection, so we simplified it.
Another part of the process was to send out an image of all the trout life stages to the scientists for their review. Here you can see the various notes that were given on an initial version of the illustrations and a later version of the illustrations after I'd made the changes.

Here's an image that shows a rough progress.
The first image is a rough sketch, in this case of the steelhead (ocean-going form of the rainbow trout). For the ease of changing the outlines and scale of the various stages of the trout, I did all the "inking" digitally. These are vector images drawn in Adobe Illustrator and colored in Photoshop. It's hard to see the difference between the first outline and the second, but there were minor changes in the mouth shape and a general slimming down of the overall shape, since steelhead tend to be more streamlined than rainbow trout.

Here, you can see the final image, where includes a change in the title and a more pared down look. The background of the image reflects the exhibit so I made minor modifications there as well.

Next post is a little glimpse of what it takes to create a composite photo, without it looking too Photoshopped. Visit the Aquarium of the Pacific to see the new Steelhead Trout exhibit and the new signage in person!

Giant Siphonophore

A giant siphonophore (Praya dubia) is a colonial Cnidarian like the Porteguese man-o-war. It can get up to 130 feet long and can be found at up to 1000 feet deep. Each of the small animals are connected together and have different functions like feeding, swimming, and reproducing. The "head" or swimming bell is the nectosome and the long "tail" is the siphosome. These guys can bioluminesce a blue color to attract their prey. The giant siphonophore is part of the Aquarium of the Pacific's new exhibit on Ocean Exploration called Wonders of the Deep. Since the images of these animals of their full length are mostly low-resolution ROV video captures and since the original designs called for a 40 ft image, I decided to illustrate the animal instead of going through the frustration of Photoshopping, cloning, and blowing up itty bitty pixels. Illustration gave me the flexibility to play around with the size of the image to fit the context and also to blur or clarify the parts of the image that overlapped or went behind other Photoshopped photos. This first image is the final image as it went to pre-press, with the images from the different sections and two walls put together. The illustration was built at 1/8" size.

Here's a close-up of the front of the siphophore, with the nectosome and some of the siphosome showing.

And here is the image in the context of the Wonders of the Deep Gallery. The projections above it show animals that live in the abyssal plains, 13,000 ft down. The siphophore isn't one of those animals, it's more an element to tie together the different panels. Sorry for the poor quality of the photo. It's an appropriately dark exhibit.

If you find yourself in Long Beach, come check out the new Ocean Exploration exhibit at the Aquarium of the Pacific!

Concept Art

In this post I talk about concept art, another example of why you would use an illustration as opposed to a photograph. Concept art is the physical form of an idea, used in my job to make a case for funding, for fellow employee's to visualize what they're planning, and for fabricators to visualize what the aquarium would like in the final product. The concept art that I do is usually quick and dirty and isn't as beautiful and thorough as that found in the breathtaking vistas of the concept art for games; it's mostly to have something physical to look at to get a better idea of what everyone is looking for. Most of the time, the final product doesn't resemble the original art and sometimes the image is as far as the idea goes.

To make the process faster, I've used Google Sketchup as a base for most of my concept art. Sketchup is very useful for plugging in real-life measurements and being able to get perspective lines and a sense of the space. The final art is mostly digital for the ease of revisions, but sometimes, I also get to use watercolor for that traditional architectural rendering look. Here's just a few of the projects I've worked on over the past few years.



This is the Sketchup version of our now open Ocean Science Center. Done 2 years before the actual space was opened.



Here is the Photoshop rendering, based on the Sketchup model. You can see that the overall layout and positions of most of the people are based on the model. I had a lot of fun trolling through the internet for fashion ideas to clothe the simple Sketchup models. Also, as requested, the people in the final rendering reflect the diversity of our guests. I had more time than usual to render this one, about 2 weeks. This image was used as part of the funding request and as a glimpse of the up-and-coming exhibit.




Another simple Sketchup model used as the base for the final rendering. This is of a potential otter play structure.



I've learned a lot about rendering rocks in this job. This one was a little experimental, trying out some Photoshop brush techniques that I first worked with on the Harbor Reef computer mural. This one was fairly rough, maybe a week or less to render with a few revisions thrown in. So far, I haven't actually seen this structure made.





Here is a Sketchup model of our new rock shrimp habitat. The Sketchup rocks gave me a rough idea of how much space a particular-sized rock would take up.



The final Photoshop rendering. I'm pleased with the way this one turned out because the real-life structure actually resembles my rendering.




We are changing out an existing exhibit to make way for penguins! Here is the Sketchup rendering that I used as the basis for my final rendering.


One of the few times I got to break out the watercolors. This rendering is done in watercolor and graphite and was shown at our fundraising event "Aquarium After Dark" to give everyone a glimpse of what the penguin exhibit might look like when it is finished next year.

I have a lot of fun with these concept renderings because they are a challenge to make sure I get everything the client wants in the image and because it's a little like making your own world in miniature.

Garden Signage: Non-Plant Illustrations

Here are a few close-ups of the non-plant ID images used in the Garden signage.

Food waste that can be used for composting. This image was a simple pencil sketch composed from various photos and colored in Photoshop.


Compost and worms. Again, a simple sketch composed from various worm and compost photos, colored in Photoshop.


Organic pesticides. Usually when I do a vector image of an existing object, I start out with a trace of a photo of the object, usually low res, and adjust accordingly.


A close up of the home with the programmable drip irrigation box. Composed from various Illustrator and Photoshop elements.

Water Wise Plants for the Home Garden

The Aquarium of the Pacific had it's official opening of its Earth-Friendly Garden on Earth Day 2010, featuring drought-resistant plants. The goal of this project was to show a variety of plants that had low water usage and that also looked beautiful, encouraging guests to plant a few in their home garden. I did the illustrations for the signs and based the layout on existing signage. Ahead are just a few of the many beautiful choices for a drought-resistant garden.

Foxtail Agave
Agave attenuata


Blue Fingers
Senecio mandraliscae


California Lilac "Blue Cushion"
Ceanothus "Blue Cushion"


Douglas Iris
Iris douglasiana


Jester Flax
Phormium tenax "Jester"


Spanish Lavender
Lavandula stoechas "Otto Quast"


Carmel Sur Manzanita
Arcostaphylos edmundsii "Carmel Sur"


Rock Rose
Cistus "Sunset"


Cleveland Sage
Salvia clevelandii "Winnifred Gilman"


Next time, a post of the actual signs and some plant illustrations from last year for the Watershed Exhibit website.

As I Sail On

Here's the latest large art project I was involved in for work. It's a sail-like banner for the Aquarium's Shark Lagoon, currently hanging on the elevator tower. Actual size is ~8' x 13'. Original was a sketch that was colored in Photoshop. I've only got a digital file of it now; the photos I took on the day it went up turned out too dark and grainy. Better photos of the actual sail to come.

Mural Madness!

Finally getting around to posting pictures of the murals I worked on this year.
The murals are © to Aquarium of the Pacific, but the photos are © to me.
Here's an overview of the Watershed Exhibit mural:

You can see that the mugwort's starting to overgrow the right side of the mural.
These days it's 6 ft tall and completely covers the bottom half of the mural.

Here's a shot of the left side of the mural:


The middle of the mural:


Several close-ups of some of the animals:
Great Blue Heron


Harvest Mouse


Black-Neck Stilt




Here are some photos from the Shark Zone murals on Harbor Terrace. While the watershed mural was painstakingly scientifically accurate, Shark Zone was done to brighten up the area. While the colors are truly that bright on some of the different species, I punched up some colors and shifted others. The mural is also a mix of tropical and temperate species.
The main part of the wall mural on the left wall:

The other side, on the right wall:

The two computer murals printed out as stickers. The one on the food cart is a combination of a watercolor whale shark with some Photoshop filters and a lot of copy-paste fish. That one had a short deadline and was done in a day. The one on the window is a Photoshop creation based on a rough pencil sketch. All the corals are put in there more for aesthetics than for the actual zone and place they grow in:

Here's the actual computer image of the window image, "Harbor Reef."


Some close-ups of the wall mural:
bat ray


bluespotted ray


Anemone! Based off a whitespotted rose anemone.



Hope you enjoyed your tour of the recent murals I worked on. I finally have them up!

Instead of Wallpaper

A while ago I posted a couple of images I did for a mural of the Sea of Cortez, the Vaquita and the totoaba. I finally got around to taking a photo of the mural. Here's the main section. It's about about 12' wide and 9' tall. There's another portion on the opposite wall where the Baja peninsula is blown up, but the lighting is pretty bad in that gallery.

Currently working on another mural, larger than the last, at 42' x 8' though the wall dips down to 5' for about 20' of it, so that's why the mockup has a strange shape. I will post more about the process as this mural goes along.

Work-art

A rendering of a 4 year grant project from work, started by my old coworker
and rerendered with his initial thoughts by me.
So, actual size is 4' x 2', made in Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator.
Includes elements of scanned sketches, actual photos, and token Sketchup models.
Right, so my workplace owns this one.
I might post a detail at a later point.