"Heroes of Atlantis & Lemuria"

This was a nerve wracking project, since I hadn't painted much water before, but I'm pleased with the outcome. It was commissioned for a collection of reprinted stories by Manly Wade Wellman about the Atlantean hero Kardios, and featured a few other authors, all centered about the aftermath of sunken cities and continents. In this image, Kardios attempts to save Atlantis' Queen, Theona, from certain death before ending up washed ashore elsewhere and forced to confront a brand new world, haunted by his past. Lots of Conan style action, and a touch of HP Lovecraft creatures.

The brief was wide open, but the client wanted to incorporate some of the flavour of Frank Frazetta's painting of Atlantis with a bronze statue; most of the original concepts centered on providing something similar, but the approved compositions led further and further away and toward the flooded city, so the statues became what you see here. The general idea is that the waters of Atlantis were rising, and the big waves are coming to deliver the final blow.