One of the strongest visual inspirations behind most of my illustrated work derives from looking at fluids, plant matter and animal skins under the microscope.
Below are some conceptual sketches which were produced for a collaborative project in which I had to focus particularly on pond life. Although these particular sketches do not focus on a specific subject matter or anything particularly obvious, I interpreted what I thought was essential for focusing on.
In the first image shown below, I focused on water ripples and reflections and the multitude of directions in which water flows when disturbed:
The second image imitates a particular drawing style from the previous image but has less of a fluid movement. I started looking more at the plant leaves as well as microscopic images of insects that can be found near or around the surface of the water. Dragonflies and pondskaters were two of many creatures that I wanted to focus on for further development:
The third image below focuses more on the movement and structures which can be found beneath the surface. I have been focusing closely on frogs and their reproductive cycle. The structure below was inspired by observing frogspawn:
