Encounter with Dolphins at Sea

I made this drawing using charcoal pencil. At first, it was only a sketch of dolphins that were jumping out of the waves. It is only a black and white drawing. Later, I considered of enhancing the artwork in digital format. So, I shot the drawing by my camera and opened it in Adobe Photoshop. I added dark and light blue colors on the waves and gave more contour lines to imitate the waves.

Dolphins Jumping Out of the Waves - the basic sketch is charcoal on paper

I often see dolphins in the open sea when I travel by ship or boat. Dolphins usually travel in a group of at least two to perhaps twenty fish or more. They like to come closer to the boat and even swim near the hull or bow of the boat. It is a great attraction to watch dolphins in the middle of the ocean and not in an aquarium.
Now, the above drawing is available in the form of luggage tags, stickers, mugs and etc.

Dolphins Jumping out of the Water Bag Tag by tropicalart

Encountering Dolphins in the Middle of the Sea
One day, I was returning to Sorong town from a snorkeling and island tour in Raja Ampat. I and 4 Czech tourists, as well as 3 boat crews were in a speed boat moving fast in the middle of the sea. Suddenly we saw a big group of dolphins. Some of them approached the boat and swim in parallel or in the same direction with the boat. Because the tourists were so happy to sea the boat, the driver reduce the speed. Unfortunately, this caused the dolphins to move away from the boat. Based on that experience, next time when we encounter dolphins, I will tell the driver to keep steady speed and direction and not reducing the speed of the boat. By doing this, I hope that we will have longer encounter with dolphins at sea.
I used to make a painting of Two Dolphins using Derwent Watercolour Pencils and Canson paper. The artwork is now in the Netherlands.