This is my version of The World Turtle. It is 17″ x 14″ using neon colored pencils on paper.

I love stories about how the world was created. Several cultures from Native America, Asia and India have a turtle carrying the world on its back. In my version, I imagine an enormous turtle. It emerges from some primordial sea carrying a lump of clay on its back. This clay evolves into all of earth’s plants, animals and minerals. Above this turtle I used the zodiac to represent the heavens.

The drawing started out as a circle within a square (squares and cubes represent earth). I added a circle around the square. Then, I divided it into 12 parts. This gave me the 12 signs of the zodiac. I used two different brands of colored neon pencils: Faber-Castell and Kalour.

In order to get the background to look dark blue under black light I painted it with neon invisible ink!

These last two images were taken in half blacklight and in total blacklight.

*Did you know that their shells are fused to their skeletons. It’s not just a cover, it’s a living part of them made up of 50 fused bones.

*They are ancient reptile survivors who have existed for 200 million years. Even before dinosaurs and they have survived major extinction events.

*Some individuals live well over 100 years.