This commsission was special because it was for a very special boy named Michael. Michael's parents Kathy and Mike had tried to have a child for 15 years and had finally succeeded! Now they were building their dream castle and I wanted this mural to be one of the main features. This was going to be his own bathroom, and because his parents were so involved and enthusiastic about this project, I exercised patience for the sake of quality, and they agreed.

I started with a concept sketch and after approval, Kathy selected the types of fishes and colors she wanted in the mural. I suggested that I paint Michael in the mural, peeking from behind some coral. She loved the idea and I had them over to the studio to check to the mural progress and take some reference photos of Michael.

Their patience payed off, as this mural took a year to do and I looked at it as an opportunity to do something magnificent, as opposed to making money. The 3 dimensional aspect of this shower challenged me to create the illusion of 3 dimensions on 2 dimensional surfaces that were 3 dimensional!