I had a scrap offcut from another project and thought it would be cool to create a miniature portrait, but in a close-up, so it's cropped. Once I started gessoing the board, I decided I’d go cut another piece the same size and make two. I thought it would be cool to do the real-life Jacques Cousteau, on whom the character Steve Zissou was based. I found one reference to Jacques that I absolutely loved over the others, and I wanted to find a comparable image of Bill Murray. I found this Oscar shot to be better than any of the movie stills I could find. So, “Sea Men” was born with an older Bill, without the beard he’s seen in the movie.