Leafy Sea Dragon - 2002

There's a special story behind this one. I volunteer at an aquarium, and I decided to do a picture for every aquarist I volunteered for. This is the first. I chose a leafy sea dragon because this is going to the aquarist who is responsible for the first successful egg transfer, hatching, and growth of sea dragons. Male weedy sea dragons had been brought into captivity with eggs (that's right, the males carry the eggs), and the hatching offspring only lived to 8 weeks old. The sea dragons at the aquarium I volunteer at were actually bred in captivity for the first time ever, hatched, and raised to adulthood successfully.

While weedy sea dragons were the ones that hatched, I chose to do a leafy sea dragon. They're a bit more ornate and I always thought it'd be fun to draw one. This is done in Prismacolor pencil (oooh, I love you Prismacolors) on a thick black matting.