hiya folks! been a while since i was able to pick up my cps, but here we go, i have a new commission for em.....this is the same fish that i had recently finished, not the catfish but the one before...

usually i begin with a sketch tightly rendered, so i know exactly what i am doing...the anatomy is correct and i dont have to worry about corrections as i am working color...

and in this sketch you dont see it but i normally will remove all the unecessary graphite, so it doesnt polute the purity of the color, espeically since a fish is very irredescent...

i try to lay in my lights and work towards the darker values, and usually will place, a few layers of white down to protect the paper just in case i have to work back down to that lightness....

i use sanford prismacolor color pencils

and in this case i am working on canson bristol board, just a thick paper not a board the name is deceiving, ultra bright white, plate finish, 11x14

but the image itself is about five or six inches long.....

the color image, is about two, two and a half hours work, the head will be the most intense part of the work because of the jeweled irredescence i need to get in there.....

right now only the tip of his nose is anywhere close to where i am heading, its going to take a lot of layers to work in that color....

happppy new years everyone!!! make sure ya have a very safe one!!!

It is amazing how you show the irredescence in these fish! Have you ever done one of those translucent fish???
It is always fun to shop for more colors!!! I thought that I could spend money and time in a hardware or sporting goods store. Uh-uh!  I could camp out in a good art supply store and be pennyless when I left.

It's a disease, I tell ya...it's a disease!!!

Great work!

Mike

hiya mike! thanks! oh yea, definetly a disease there is no cue from thank goodness! we all would have been ~treated~ by now for our lunacy eh?

the secret about cp work is, pay attention to values,and never chose a cp intending that to be the finished color of the area your working on, but its only one color that layers to create the final color/colors your looking for...

of if your lucky enough to have texture, always apply your color in the way the grain, hair growth or texture goes...

i still have a bit of work left, the fins arent quite done, and the tail needs a bit of work...i will continue to build more layers on the body of the fish, and touch that irredescent bottom lip and jaw for what seems to be the hundred time...lol...

sickness? oh yea, for sure.....what a magnificent addiction eh?????

morning!

well i am calling this one done, unless i spot something else...he isnt showing all the colors with this shot, its very hard to get a good clear shot without getting reflections off the waxy surface, but its at least clear! lol....

so now its off to paint some more fishy tshirts!

thanks for watching!!

Thanks for showing this...beautiful! I can't wait to show my artist daughter...she loves fish! She homeschools and answers peoples fish questions online. She also lays on color like you...sometimes using chalk pastel...layer, layer, layer. She's always calling me to the computer to see another fish she wants for the aquarium she's making!!
She works part time at PetSmart and I tease her that she won't let the customers take any of the fish home...you know like fish available "to good home only!"