Friday, December 21, 2012

Fish #1 Longear Sunfish

Longear Sunfish (Lepomis megalotis)
Mixed media (permanent marker & colored pencil), 21 December 2012, 11" x 13.5"


This is my artistic interpretation of the Longear photo that has graced the header of my blog, The Naturalist's Angle, for well over a year now. I've liked it so much that I haven't really gotten the urge to change it... like so many of my fellow fly fisher bloggers do with their headers. This fish was caught in July of 2007 on the South Fork of the Spring River in Arkansas. I used my artistic license to alter a few things from the original image, but I'll leave it to the viewer to figure out those details.

I have wanted to draw a Longear for a long time, and I think it turned out pretty much like I had envisioned. I believe Longear Sunfish are one of the most beautiful fish that swim in freshwater, and I imagine this won't be the last one I illustrate.

12 comments:

  1. Jay,
    That's awesome.
    Beautiful details.

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  2. Well, that's beautiful. Just don't tell me that Kelly is a better artist than you. Happy holidays my friend.

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    1. Howard, art may be the one area where I have the advantage. She's got some skills though. I'm trying to make sure she doesn't learn too many tricks.

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  3. Replies
    1. Thanks, Larry. That means a lot coming from an another artist.

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  4. Very Nice! With all of the color variations I can't imagine that the longear was an easy fish to draw either.

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    1. HPFF, it was a bit difficult, but I think that was mostly because of my choice of stippling for most of the drawing. It took right at about 5 hours. I've spent the course of a few months on a few really involved paintings before... so I guess 5 hrs in one day isn't really too bad. Thanks for checking it out.

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  5. That is a fine piece of art work... cool new blog- Brad

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    Replies
    1. Brad, glad you like it. Thanks for checking out the new blog.

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  6. Replies
    1. Thanks, Kevin. Maybe I'll get around to selling prints of some of the nicer pieces. Stay tuned.

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