Scuba diving art: underwater illustrations drawn by a diver
Scuba diving love
Above the reef, a diver hangs motionless with arms outstretched. The coral is illuminated and glows with colour; further down into the depths, everything turns blue. This is what the sea looks like once you’re down there, and it is the scene to which I keep returning in this collection of scuba diving art.
Every piece in the ‘Underwater World’ collection has been hand-drawn in GIMP, line by line and layer by layer. Before I drew the ocean, I dived in it myself: in Belgian lakes and quarries, in the dark waters of Zeeland and along the rocky coast of the Costa Brava. On this page you’ll find the entire collection in one place, along with the story of how it all began.
· Scuba diving art ·
Discover the whole Underwater World collection
Every piece in the Underwater World collection is available as acrylic glass, metal plate or art block.
Why I started drawing the underwater world
People buy art for all sorts of reasons, but the pieces that stay on the wall the longest often reflect a passion. Someone who loves Norway wants a little piece of Norway in their living room. I wondered what other passions deserved that sort of art, and scuba diving immediately sprang to mind. It’s a small, dedicated world, and I myself dived for a few years with a diving club.
There was a second reason too: the challenge. Large marine creatures are hard to draw accurately. Their skin, their size, the light around them: if you get even one of those aspects wrong, the whole piece falls flat.
My first piece was ‘A scuba diver and a curious whale shark’. The colours were spot on right from the start. The mottled skin, the deep blue and the colour palette fell effortlessly into place. The small silhouette of the diver completed the scene perfectly, because who wouldn’t love to encounter an animal of that size underwater? I’ve never actually come across a whale shark myself. It was the first shark I ever drew, and it’s still the piece I’m most proud of.
The first piece of the collection, and the one that set its colour palette.
My buddy
My diving club
I learnt to dive with my brother and sister at Aqua Hasselt Diving, a club in Belgium. I obtained my two-star diving certificate from NELOS, the Flemish diving federation, and from that moment on, my logbook gradually filled up.
When I graduated and started working, diving disappeared from my life. There simply wasn’t any time left to organise it. My brother, who was usually my buddy, never stopped. He still dives, he still trains new divers, and he’s the reason why a little cartoon diver of mine now appears in other people’s logbooks. That story lives on my page about scuba diver art.
The big encounters
The Underwater World collection
The collection is structured around encounters. In most of the works, a solitary diver encounters a single animal in the open blue water, with a soft circle of reflected light behind them. That glow is neither the sun nor a torch; it serves to give the blue its depth, just as light gathers at the surface when you look up from below.
The big encounters
These are the encounters most divers hope for and few ever get. After all, who wouldn’t want a dolphin to turn round and look at you?
'A scuba diver and a curious whale shark', 'A scuba diver and a humpback whale', 'Diving with a white shark', 'Diving with sharks', 'Shark in a deep blue sea', 'Striped marlin', 'Eagle Ray Love' and 'Dolphin dance'.
Life on the reef
In this set, you’ll encounter smaller creatures and brighter colours, and behind some of them lies a real diving experience.
'Clown fish', 'Lionfish', 'A puffer fish with strong spines', 'Golden Fish in the Deep Blue Ocean', 'Glowing jellyfish', 'Cuttlefish' and 'Colorful fish'.
Into the blue
'Scuba Diving love', 'Cave diver', 'Wreck Exploration', 'Scuba Diver & Seahorse', 'Scuba Diver & Shoal of Silver Fish' and 'Scuba Diver & Silver Fish' put the diver at the centre: exploring, hovering, drifting through a school of fish.
Stories
Two stories that go deeper
real-life dives
The art of diving
The art of diving traces the real-life dives that inspired several of these illustrations, from a cold water layer off the Medes Islands to a shore dive amongst the rocks of Cadaqués.
The Diver
Scuba diver art
Scuba diver art is about the little figure that appears in almost every piece, and about the cartoon diver I drew for my brother.
From the Norwegian coast to the deep
Not every animal in the collection comes from a dive. The humpback whale and the orca also swim through my Nordic work, in the 'Arctic Adventures' collection and in my whale safari story. In 'A scuba diver and a humpback whale' I simply followed one of them below the waterline.
Arctic Adventures
Bring the ocean home
Discover the whole Underwater World collection
Every piece in the Underwater World collection is available as acrylic glass, metal plate or art block.
View the collection in the shop
Would you rather have something made just for you, your dive club or a diving friend? Have a look at my custom art.
Frequently Asked questions
Can I commission a custom diving illustration?
Yes. I draw custom underwater scenes in the same style as this collection: the reef you keep returning to, the animal you finally met, the dive site that made you fall in love with diving. Prices are on request, and most commissions take two to four weeks. You can read how it works on my custom art page.
Do you sell scuba diving artwork as prints?
Yes, as printed wall art. The illustrations are printed on acrylic glass, on metal plate or as an art block, so the deep blues stay deep and every line stays sharp. Paper posters are not in my shop yet. If you would like one, send me a message and I will look into the size and paper quality with my print partner.
Is your scuba diving art available as wall art?
Yes. Every illustration in the Underwater World collection is available as wall art on acrylic glass or a metal plate, and as an art block: a 10 × 10 cm square that stands on a desk or a shelf. Art blocks start at €95, metal plates (30 × 30 cm) at €165 and acrylic glass at €235 for 40 × 40 cm or €305 for 60 × 60 cm.
Not sure which material suits your room? My page on luxury interior art compares them.
View the collection in my shop
What is a good gift for a scuba diver?
Something that brings the dive back to the surface. An art block of the animal they love most, a whale shark, a clownfish or a curious grouper, stands on a desk where they see it every day. It is a small, lasting gift at an accessible price, and it fits any home, even one without a free wall.