McGraw Hill Publishing, Turtle Environment Illustration

To illustrate the harm to oceans caused by plastic bags, I chose to make a graphic based on one of my favorite animals: sea turtles.

For me snorkling in Hawaii with sea turtles is like yoga times 10—the most relaxing thing ever. Submerged under water, you leave the world behind and encounter these lovely, peaceful creatures. What a shame that trash left by careless humans can kill them. My inspiration for the design was the famous Vietnam War-era poster “War is not healthy for children and other living creatures.” Created in Photoshop, the ocean is a gradient blue, the seaweed are spirals I made in colors sampled from the turtle, and the turtle is a graphic I created based on a photo. I hand wrote the text in crayon and scanned it, then placed it. This design is sold on posters, t-shirts, and other merchandise sold in my Zazzle store. It was also used in a textbook published by McGraw-Hill.