Two people swimming in a hole in the ice are shocked to find a shark in the water. An onlooking lifeguard raises the alarm, shouting at them to get out of the water.

Where might people go swimming in polar regions where sunny, sandy beaches are thousands of kilometres away and distant memories?

It’s possible they could cut out a large circle in the ice as per an enlarged fishing hole and jump in. Of course safety would be of great concern with deep waters and freezing temperatures, so having a lifeguard to supervise would be recommended. Lifeguards often enforce swimming in a designated area between flags and they are also on a constant lookout for sharks, so there is added safety should a shark venture into the swimming hole in search of human popsicles to chow down on.

Claustrophobia might be a concern, depending on the diameter of the swimming hole. Still, no swimming hole is big enough if there is a shark present, so claustrophobia may be a result of galeophobia.

This drawing was done many years ago and was converted to digital format earlier this year. It had been flatted, but had just been sitting there as a backup idea since. A couple of days ago, I thought I would dust it off, tweak a few bits I wasn’t happy with and set it loose.

A couple of last minute changes include the ‘his’ and ‘her’ beach towel colours and also the lifesaving flag colours. For some reason, they ended up red and orange rather than red and yellow as they should be.

While the background sign was a relatively recent addition, there was an original reference to penguins that I decided to change to huskies. It seemed a bit odd to imagine people wanting to have penguins on leashes (but having people swimming in shark infested waters between flags, monitored by lifeguards is acceptable). Most dogs in this climate will probably be huskies, so the sign is very specific with the dog breed. I guess this means that any other dog breed is allowed.

I’ve done a few ice-scapes now and for some reason they are always enjoyable to do. I like that there are lot of pale colours for ice/snow scenes and so all the colours in the characters and their accessories really stand out.