Finding Inspiration for Sea life Art
If, like me, you're amazed by the insane amount of life held by the oceans and seas around the world, you might feel inspired to create art celebrating all those sea (and ocean) creatures.
You also might struggle to find beautiful, original inspiration and reference pictures. While it would be wonderful to be able to go out into the water to take our own photos or experience seeing a whale underwater in-person, and some artists like Rachel Brooks (@rachelbrooksart) do, many of us aren't able to.
Over time, I have found some amazing sources of inspiration and I want to share these with you. I mainly find my inspiration on Instagram because that is the platform I use the most. Pinterest can also be a wonderful source of inspiration, especially if you know specifically what you're looking for and can search "yellow sea squirt" to find a reference photo. But I love being passively inspired as I scroll through my Instagram feed.
I find the most inspiration from accounts that share both video and photos and show both the environment and mannerisms of the animal as well as details.
Here are the 10 accounts I use the most to find inspiration on Instagram:
Elizabeth Morri Sides
Elizabeth posts some truly breathtaking underwater videos and photos of larger aquatic animals like sting rays, sharks, and whales.
She also has some photos of herself diving if you are interested in creating art of freedivers.
Marine biology
This account was created by a marine biology student and brings together amazing photos and videos of all sorts of aquatic animals from sharks and whales to turtles and octopus to seaweed and close-ups of coral.
Because the photos and videos are from different authors, the account has a variety of colours and styles that creates a great source of diverse inspiration.
Melanie Smith
Melanie's photos are really great references for water surface images, especially if you're looking for water texture, humpback whales, or turtles.
She has some beautiful breaching and tail photos of humpback whales.
Kaush | Wildlife
Kaush has a wonderful variety of underwater, aerial, water surface, and even some safari photography and videography.
I find his account to be incredibly inspiring, both visually and when it comes to wildlife conservation.
Rachel Moore
Rachel's photography and videography focuses on whales and freediving and features a lot of beautiful blues and greys.
She has some truly spectacular and detailed images of humpback whales interacting with one another that make me want to paint humpbacks all day long.
Seashells & Beachcombing tips - Kirsten
Kirsten is a beachcomber who shares beautiful photos and videos of shells and other beach finds.
I really enjoy painting shells because of all the little imperfections and a lot of Kirsten's photos show really great detail.
Aniek Stevense
Aniek posts spectacular photos of little tiny creatures that live in the ocean like nudibranches and small fish or eels.
His account is definitely worth a peek if you're into vibrant colours and unique-looking sealife.
You might even see a familiar painting featured on his Instagram page!
Theo Vickers | Marine Wildlife Photography
Theo posts an amazing range of small sea creatures with not only fantastic visual detail but also great information on each one. He shares images of things like nudibranches, jellyfish, sea anemones, starfish, and cuttlefish along with beautiful images of seaweed fields.
He shares a lot of crisp closeups that are great for referencing as well.
Theo is an Ocean Storyteller for Ocean Culture Life.
Ocean Culture Life
Ocean Culture Life is a collaborative community of ocean storytellers (like Theo Vickers above) who share photography, videography, art, and information.
I find a lot of theme or topic inspiration from this account as well as visual inspiration. Like many of the accounts I have listed, this is a great account if you are also interested in ocean conservation.
Markus Thomson
Markus shares his photographs of all sorts of animals, including both land and aquatic animals. His photography is playful and beautiful and definitely worth a look.
Bonus: Laura McConnell
Laura is a marine biologist who posts vibrant underwater photos of small sea creatures like sea anemones, crabs, and even some nudibranches.
She also has some great seaweed photos and light-through-water photos.
This is by no means and exhaustive list of the people and accounts I follow for inspiration, but I hope that this has been helpful! If you have any people, accounts, or places that you go for inspiration, I would love to hear about them!
Just a reminder that you should always ask permission to use photographer/videographer's artworks as references for your own artwork. This isn't always possible, but it's good to try to find the original author if you can. In my experience, people usually find it flattering and say "yes"! But if they don't want you to use it and you do anyway, you could run into some issues. So it's always better to ask before you use someone else's work as a reference.
As always, if you have any questions or want to get in touch for any reason, please get in touch. I would love to hear from you.
