Sea Turtle - Steve's Sketchbook

Swimming Along

A sea turtle swims by in this latest entry from Steve’s Sketchbook.

Of course, as this is artwork instead of a photograph, you will not see a real turtle like this out in the wild. But that is the point of art, after all - to create something interesting, whether or not it is real.

As you may know, sea turtles are found in the ocean around the Hawaiian islands, among other places. Green sea turtles there are known as honu, and can often be seen swimming about, almost as though they are gliding through the water. We were fortunate enough to see a couple of honu during our 2018 Kauaʻi Trip. However, the ones that we saw were in the water, so I never did get a good photo of them.

And to be honest, this artwork was also inspired by Crazy Shirts. We came across them when we were in Kauaʻi, and we have several of their shirts now. They have several with honu designs on them, and that got me to thinking about some designs of my own, which led to this artwork. And maybe some more in the future. But just to be clear, they didn’t pay me to say that. We have paid for all of our shirts the old fashioned way.

Just Keep Swimming

In some ways, this turtle reminds me of Crush the turtle from Finding Nemo. And that reminds me of Dory’s saying, “Just keep swimming.” For me, that is a good philosophy to have right now.

Even as some businesses start to open up during this COVID-19 crisis, we don’t really know what the future will be or when the end of it all will come. Every day that you read the news, there are new predictions, new guesses, new theories, and new hard facts as well. Sometimes it is difficult to know which theories and predictions are right. But then the people that made those don’t know which ones are right, either.

So what do we do during all of this? Just keep swimming, just keep swimming. Follow the guidelines that are out there. Keep your distance. Wear a mask. Stay at home. Keep doing what has been working. Just keep swimming.

When things are difficult and you don’t know for certain what to do, keep on doing what you can do. Stay the course. Don’t give up. Take care of yourself.

Just keep swimming.

Bible Verse

Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. - Romans 12:11-12

About the Artwork

While the sea turtle and his designs are pretty cool, I am almost more proud of the sea background in this as I am of the turtle itself. I have mentioned before that I am using the Procreate Pocket app on my iPhone for these sketches. I originally just had the lighter blue textured background. But then I remembered that Procreate has a brush called “ocean.” I used that to add the darker blue ocean currents, which added quite a bit to the overall look of the piece.

I also added some shadowing under the turtle to separate him from the background. Just a minor point, but it adds some depth, which I think is cool.

Also, the green sea turtles in Hawaiʻi are actually a little more green than brown, hence the green in the name. So maybe if I do another one, he will have a little more green on him. But I liked the brown design here, so that is what I went with.