20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Jules Verne, along with H.G.Wells, is remembered as one of the fathers of science fiction. One of his best known accomplishments was his publication of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. While attempting to come up with an illustration for this classic novel I found inspiration from the magnificent movie posters and sketches of Drew Struzan, particularly his Indiana Jones works as they evoked a similar sense of wonder and adventure as Verne's writings. A combination of the two seemed ideal.

The 1954 Disney film of the same name has proven to be widely influential in how the characters are perceived, and remembered. Kirk Douglas, James Mason, and Peter Lorre did a fine job really selling their roles. Even the submarine design is uniquely creative and well thought out. However, I kept a safe distance from the movie's design and focused more on the descriptions provided by Mr. Verne. The Nautilus is design is based on a sketch done by the author himself and of blimp blueprints from the late 1800s.

While the film was probably as faithful as one could reasonably hope for coming from Disney, I always was a little disappointed that we never got to see the adventure in the South Pole or Professor Aronnax being shown the lost city of Atlantis that I read as a kid so I had to include those little details in the illustration.

Another pen-work piece.