Subs & Anglers is a packed little tessellated ecosystem of machines and creatures that don’t totally belong together but are trying to. I wanted the page to feel overpopulated—submarines with goofy periscopes squeezed right up against anglerfish forms, rivets next to stars, striped fish finding whatever space is left. Working in pure black-and-white helps that read: bold fills for focus, thin line for detail, no color to distract from the shapes. It’s playful, but it’s also about how I think—lots of ideas, all in one place, all demanding space at the same time.
This drawing is built like a hand-drawn tessellation. I started with a single, long sub/fish silhouette—rounded body, little periscope—and then repeated it across the page, letting each one lock into the next. Inside that shared outline I changed the identity: some are clearly submarines with portholes and rivets, some are anglerfish with teeth and stripes. Because the outer shape stays consistent, the page can stay crowded without falling apart. The solid black fills and symbols (stars, numbers, dots) give the eye places to land.
