Only a suggestion: Possibly taking the white lines for the waves and making them more sporadic. It looks like the water just stops. This is a great beginning though.

Ultimately it's suppose to look like the inside of a cave, I just want to make sure that comes across clear enough.

I think it would be really hard to draw whilst underwater. I can't hold m breath that long, though

The underside of an anchored ship would be lush in this image.

instead of trying to verbally explain alone, here's a quick mockup i did..



i think to make the most convincing underwater color, you'll need more saturated/rich blues, and to utilize gradients, or at least some sort of halftone fade. i think it gives a better illusion of depth than just two blocks of blue color.

the fish should be lighter than the inside of a cave, as some light is hitting them.

some light seeping into the cave might help too? and rays of light coming from the water's surface? to help with that sparkly underwater feeling.

hopefully i actually got the view you were going for correct - it was the view from inside a cave, right? and not from outside looking into a cave?

i used this picture as a reference for some of the illustration choices. if you google "water cave" or "underwater cave" you might get some more helpful references...

Wow sonmi, that's exactly what I'm going for! Of course I won't steal the design, but you've definitely sparked my creativity. Thanks!

Maybe it would help to have some wavy looking seaweed plants at the bottom too, to further emphasize the water movements. You should probably just do what Julia says though :-P

glad it helped :D

seaweed and other plantlife would help like prizilla said too!

Are there any kind of restrictions when it comes to gradients? I know that Threadless has allowed them for a while now, but I wasn't sure if they had to be a halftone or what...

Nah, they have simulated process now.

if you want to use a straight-up gradient, sans simulated process, you just need to remember that the two colors you use to create the gradient count as 2 of the 8 colors you can use, if you choose to go that route.

I say you just go ahead a submit sonmi's version. 5$!

Yeah I got underwater cave right away looking at yours, but sonmi snazzed it up amazingly as well.

I started working on a sub just like this a few days ago(well, more like yours with Sonmi's addition), but yours is already 10x better. =( Please finish and sub this because it already looks like it's going to be awesome.

Update: Here's my version almost identical to sonmi's masterpiece... with some seaweed added for good measure. I'll start working on the rays of light as soon as I have time.

I might need some suggestions later on concerning elements I'll be adding later, so keep an eye out for more updates in the near future.

Thanks again for everyone's feedback. You guys rock!

Thats looking tons better. Whats your overall concept going to be?