A package… for me? 8 of these guys inside all of them. Lots of dremeling and sanding later… After some bondo and expoxy work, the seams are covered and they have finished mouths and teeth. Lots of airbrushing and sealing. Time to hang them. Shark frenzy. Notice the 2d printed sharks in the background as well.

The Shark Adventure exhibit at the Oklahoma Aquarium is one of the defining galleries of the facility. One of my projects was to renovate and theme the “dry” areas around the tank. The approach to the exhibit and the ramps leading to the walk-through shark tunnel were completely reworked as if they were part of the same pelagic (open-water) environment that the sharks themselves inhabit. The designs and artwork are all combinations of photos, digital paintings,…

This side shark ramp has been a blitzkrieg of work. I’ve airbrushed the ramp and had the murals installed in two days. I still have a little bit more blending and stencil work to accomplish today, but really this ramp has flown by. All hands have been on deck and we’ve been working like crazy. I’m stoked. That’s me airbrushing on the lift. That’s one big shark! The graphic is 16 feet long I blocked off the graphic…

I also haven’t posted the artwork of the other murals so I might as well do them right now. This was a fun guy to make. I took a photo of a great white, and then painted over him with my computer tablet in Photoshop to change the proportions and details. I moved a lot of stuff around and added muscles here and there. It was nice to have a photo to directly sample from. I…

We had a soft opening for the left ramp on the shark exhibit. We just switched over to the other side to start painting and getting that side ready. I can’t wait until we get the rest of the graphics and exhibit items installed in the ramps. This is exciting! Oh and also I’ve been working on finishing the fiberglass casts of sharks. I ordered unfinished cast blanks that I have to sand, fill in,…

Further progress on the shark ramps. I’m started to airbrush the walls in order to create a smooth gradient of color. I will add more details after this. As can be seen here the walls are painted in bands of blue in order to provide good coverage when I airbrush. So far this process is working really well. Meek Litho made it out again today and installed another backdrop, this time the entrance mural. Now I think…

The oil rig vinyl backdrops started going up today! I love how transformative backdrops are. I can’t wait until they are all up, the tunnel is painted, and it gets lit. I also finished the last graphic bubble today. Progress!…

Xenacanthus, a freshwater shark that had an eel-like body. Stethacanthus. The dorsal fin and top of the head were full of teeth, essentially modified dermal dentacles, theorized for use in either mating or hitching ride on larger animals. Freaky either way. Helicoprion or whorl-toothed shark. This freaky animal had a spiral of teeth jutting from its jaw that was probably used for slashing through schools of fishing, or specially suited to getting through the yummy protections of…

Let me first off say that we have an amazing walk-through tunnel and shark tank at the Aquarium as you can see from the photo above. However, when I first got the job here I thought to myself that the exhibit and space around it could really use some help. The sharks and tank itself are absolutely fabulous. The problems are the extremely dark tunnels and the complete lack of any type of signage. I…