TangDynasty_ Pointillism

This all started with the idea to try a tropical fish. After just finishing the '3 Salmon On Resurrection Bay' masterofpointillism.deviantart… and never having done fish before that, I thought I might give it another try.
Usually before I try an animal that I don't know much about I gather as much research as possible, to avoid silly mistakes, like sticking a polar bear in a desert or rain forest. First I had to pick a fish, and since I was going to experiment with color in this piece I wanted to limit it to a fish with only one color. So it was that while Tyler was watching 'Finding Nemo' I decided upon Mr. Bubbles. Turn out Mr. Bubbles is a Yellow Tang, and while I was researching about that kind of fish I came across mention of the USS Tang. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USS_Tang…
After reading about that particular WW2 submarine; it's history, war record, and about those that survived her sinking www.subvetpaul.com/SAGA_2_81.h… amh.freehosting.net/tang.html , I thought it would make a great background image for the fish. That and the fact that the sub now rests on the bottom of the Yellow Sea, or very near it, and still within the Yellow Tang's habitat made it a perfect match. The most probable resting place for the USS Tang is somewhere between China, which was home to a whole dynasty named Tang, and the island nation of Taiwan. This has hampered the search for her final resting place a bit, but I'm pretty confident that she will be found someday. When she is, based on my research, I'm guessing that the door to the escape hatch will be open, just as the last sailor that escaped left it. Whether I'm right or wrong I do hope to see her found and have the families of those crew members who are on eternal patrol know where their loved ones lay. Most of the crew that did not survive the sinking signed up to be in the Silent Service after Pearl Harbor, and all were volunteers. Please remember their sacrifice on this most historic day and tell all the veterans that you meet 'Thank you for your service' no matter what branch or war.
I'd also like to thank two of the people that helped make it possible for me to get this far with my idea.
First is Rebekah Hughes, Archivist of the Great Lakes Naval Memorial and Museum. Rebekah helped me get clearance to take pictures of the USS Silversides from areas usually off limits to your average tourist. With a little luck, and her help, I managed to find the point of view I wanted to take with the project. It would not surprise me to learn that she might just know that boat as well, if not better, then most of the men that served on the Silversides. She is a treasure trove of information on just about any aspect of our WW2 subs.
The second person I'd like to thank is Robert Straub a sonar operator on the USS Guavina SS-362 during WW2. I found Robert while doing research on the Silent Service looking for some first-hand accounts from sailors from that time. Mr. Straub was on the Guavina for her last four war patrols, August 1944 until August 1946. This includes being on board during one of the heaviest and longest depth chargings one of our subs received during the war. He helped answer any question I had, no matter how obscure, and I feel confident that my depiction of the USS Tang is as close as I can get, without having an actual photo of her resting on the bottom due to him.

Tang Dynasty received a Juror Recognition Award at the 24th West Michigan Regional Art Competition. The Juror, Armin Mersmann, comments read: "Seduced by a wonderful drawing technique I'm drawn to this world of cool and warm color which though separated builds a strong unity within its composition. This work has a great sense of movement ... quite an interesting work."