flyartist

Drawing Fish 52_7 Tarpon Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Tarpon! Tech Info- Sharpie and flair pen on bond paper - digital coloring in Photoshop. What a week it has been! Today 12 hours, yesterday, 16. I was afraid that I was not going to get home in time from the day job to get this one in. I had intended on breaking out the gouache this week, but I just did not have it in me to create the image that I wanted. Instead, I did a quick sketch, scanned it it and colored it a bit in Photoshop. I really want to do this image (and fish) justice, so I think I will paint one up with gouche and watercolor over the weekend. Check back to check it out. View the full article

Drawing Fish 52_6 Northern Pike Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Northern Pike! Tech Info- Sharpie and gray marker and white pencil on oatmeal paper 9" x 11". Really long day at work. Really did not have it in me.....again. Hopefully next week things will click. More later. View the full article

Drawing Fish 52_5 Sea Run Brown Trout Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition Sea Run Brown! Tech Info- Sharpie and gray marker and white pencil on oatmeal paper 9" x 11". Not much to say with this one. Really did not have it in me tonight. Long miserable day at the day job compounded by and extremely long return commute. But there is always next week! View the full article

These were the initial set of sketches for fly ideas that I generated for the Patagonia shirt project. These were all done with a Sharpie on Chipoltle napkins with gouache. I will have a later paost which shows the next step which are the refinement sketches. View the full article

Drawing Fish 52_4 Redfish Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition Redfish! Tech Info- Sharpie and Gouache on oatmeal paper 9" x 11". I spun the wheel of fish this week and it landed on salt again. This time the redfish. I was really drawn to the dark spot which looks like it represents another eye which may fool a predator. Since I am still having fun experimenting with gouache, brush strokes and my oatmeal paper, I decided to use it again this week. View the full article

My latest landscape painting painted for Ed as a parting NIFT Presidents gift. View the full article

Drawing Fish 52_3 Bonefish Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition Bonefish! Tech Info- Sharpie and Gouache on oatmeal paper 9" x 11". I was happy with the way the Pumpkinseed went, so I decided that a similar approach was in order for the bonefish. I have never fished for, caught or held a bonefish. I sure would like to do all three some day! With that being said, I struggled a bit with this one. I had to do a bit of research about this species before I could begin sketching. The information that I read that I found most intriguing is the bonefishes ability to reflect it's surroundings due to the highly reflective nature of it's scales. Armed with that information, I made sure to add a bit of exaggerated color in this piece. I also went thick and heavy with the gouache to give texture and depth to the piece. Unfortunately, the scan does not show all of the subtle brush strokes. I also had to do a few warm up sketches, since the proportions are a bit foreign to me. I really enjoyed reading all about the bonefish in my McClane's New Standard Fishing Encyclopedia. having the net and some great books to gain additional knowledge is one of the great pluses of this project. View the full article

My first shirt for Patagonia that is printed with my original art is available online! I really enjoyed working with the folks at Patagonia. This was an extremely fun and rewarding project. The Green Butt Skunk is shown here, and I will have additional posts on the other two shortly. (Hint, they are a Tarpon fly and a wooly bugger). I would like to send out a big thanks to Bob White for hooking me up with the fine folks at Patagoniaonline! View the full article

Drawing Fish 52_2 Pumpkinseed Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition Pumpkinseed! Tech Info- Sharpie and Gouache on oatmeal paper 9" x 11". Bluegills remind me of Summer fun and kids. We all may be needing this kick in our memories right now! I have caught (and released) many spawning Pumpkinseeds in the Spring. I have held them and admired the depth and brilliance of their amazing coloration. The vibrancy of their colors resemble that of many saltwater species. My aim was to capture that brilliance in this painting. Almost need to wear shades when looking at this! I started by sketching out the shapes and forms using a Sharpie pen in my oatmeal colored sketchbook. I then started to apply the base layers of gouache blending as required. I used my stiffer bristle brush to introduce texture. This texture is to give the illusion of scales without painting individual scales. You will not see me painting individual scales (unless it may be a tarpon or carp which have large scales). My drafting days are long past and I welcome the challenge or using as few a brush strokes as possible to accomplish the task. Not to mention the 30 minute time limit helps to enforce that! View the full article

Cameron over at the Fiberglass Manifesto has a new shirt offering for this year. And it just so happens that one of my flies from the DF 365 project graces the front. Head over to his site and pick one up as they are only offered for a limited time. These shirts are high quality and will look great out on the stream of at the tying bench! View the full article

Drawing Fish 52_1 Common Rainbow Trout Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition Rainbow Trout! Tech Info- Watercolor and gouache on 140 lbs Arches watercolor paper. Well here we go with the first in another interesting series. I have a feeling this project will be more of a challenge than the previous. Jason and I decided to kick this off with the common rainbow trout. My first path was to ink out the trout, then come back with watercolor. Instead, I grabbed my medium squirrel brush and just went at it. the intention was to create a general feel for the skin and overlay a general shape onto it. I was a bit concerned about the time element so in place of rendering all the spots, I went at it with random splatter. I was a bit aggressive with the color and should have left some more of the white paper. Not sure how I feel about this piece, but I have 51 more opportunities to work on it. View the full article

<h3 class="UIIntentionalStory_Message" ft="{"type":"msg"}" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Starting a new creative series on Thursday in collaboration with Jason Borger. DF 52 but instead of drawing flies, we will be drawing fish. Posts will be every Thursday. Stretching my creative legs in a new direction. The rules will be the same, 30 minutes maximum time to create. It will be artists choice on what to portray, whole fish or just portions. Skies the limit on medium. This will definitely be a challenge for me but one I hope to grow artistically from. This Thursday will be the first posting.</h3> I will have more news on other projects slated for 2011 coming shortly. The Rainbow above was the first fish I ever painted. I believe I did this one 8 years ago. View the full article

Drawing Flies 52_52 Christmas Spey Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Christmas Spey! Tech Info- Watercolor and gouache on 140 lbs Arches watercolor paper. Well, we have reached the end of Drawing Flies 52. It has been a fantastic year collaborating with Jason on this project! It is also another memorable milestone in my artistic pursuits. I would like to thank Jason for the great inspiration during the course of this project. Having the opportunity and privilege to work with someone of such a high caliber is a great honor. I would like to thank everyone who has followed us all the way through the project and a special thanks to all who have provided good homes to many of the originals and prints! Jason and I will be discussing the next project and the possibility of a book, so stay tuned to the blog and my Facebook page for the latest developments. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! View the full article

Drawing Flies 52_51 Gray Ghost Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Gray Ghost! Tech Info- Watercolor and gouache on 140 lbs Arches watercolor paper. A Carrie Stevens Famous streamer creation made to imitate the rainbow smelt. I am not really pleased with the way this has turned out. Oh sure, I can blame it on a number of things going on right now. I would have liked to work a bit more transparent and the background was quite busy. I started to mess with things in the end (A huge mistake). Fortunately the 30 minute clock prevented me from turning this into a total disaster. One more to go. I cannot believe it! View the full article

Drawing Flies 52_50 Winters Hope Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Winters Hope! Tech Info- Watercolor and gouache on 140 lbs Arches watercolor paper. Stared in my ususal way with this one. a quick sketch in pencil to block out the shapes. I then laid in the background wash, leaving white paper in the wing and tinsel body areas. Blocked in with water color, then finished off with the gouache. I have swung this patterns on a couple of occasions on bright days when the water was clear. The pattern has not been productive for me.....yet! View the full article

Drawing Flies 52_49 Bright Fox Original status: Original and Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Bright Fox! Tech Info- Sharpie pen, watercolor and gouache. Started this one by just loosely sketching with the sharpie. I then came back over the pen markes with watercolor and gouache. I ran across the Ray Bergman patterns from a post at Hatches Magazine. You can read more about the Bergman patterns at that post. As you can tell, we are coming close to the end of the Drawing Flies 52. Stay tuned for what we will be up to next! View the full article

Drawing Flies 52_48 Turkey Spey Original status: Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Turkey Spey! Tech Info- Sepia India Ink, Gouache. Happy Thanksgiving everyone! View the full article

This fly is dedicated in memory of Tom Helgeson. The Blue Butt Caddis Emerger was one of Tom's favorite go to patterns. So much so that Tom was nicknamed "Old Blue Butt". There has been so much said about Tom and his life recently. Sometimes the right words escape me. In this instance, I will let my brush (although it is digital) express the fly Tom so dearly had confidence in.I was torn as to what media I should use to produce this image. I decided to go digital, since my previous rendition of this fly was in watercolor. I hope Tom would have approved. Rest in peace my friend. Chris Niskanen at Twin Cities .com wrote this nice obituary. Swing by Jason's blog to check out tribute to Tom. View the full article

Bob White called me Saturday with the sad news that Tom Helgeson has passed away. For those of you who did not know Tom, He was the man behind Midwest Fly Fishing Magazine and the Great Waters Expo which occurred every Winter in Chicago and Minneapolis. Many Midwest anglers will feel this tragic loss. I had the great honor and privilege to work along side Tom on the last edition of Midwest Fly Fishing Magazine. Rest in peace my friend, and someday we will meet at that great trout pool around the bend. The painting above is the Blue Butt Caddis Emerger. This painting was commissioned by Tom and was one of his favorite go to trout flies. View the full article

Drawing Flies 52_46 Durham Ranger Original status: Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Durham Ranger! Tech Info- Digital - PhotoShop and Cintiq Monitor. I began by sketching in the shapes using a 10 pixel angled brush. If you look closely, you will see some of those original sketch lines. When I digitally sketch, I use a blue/ black color. This helps to give the sketch a bit more life then when using straight black. Next, I start layering mid value "home" colors over the top of the sketch. After those colors are laid in, I start adding the lights and darks to give the image volume and depth. You can mess around with this step forever! adding details, pressing CTRL Z, going back, rinse, repeat. I try to approach my digital work in the same manner as I would traditionally. Although there are a zillion digital brushes available, I have limited myself to 6 to get the job done. Same goes with the color palette. The last step was to create the background. I turned off all of the fly layers and created the background using a variety of brushes. I typically create the background in gray scale to start. I then turn back on all of the fly layers and adjust the background color to fit the subject. I went right to the 30 minute mark with this one. When working digitally, you can continue to tweak and modify until the cows come home. As with traditional painting, I am striving for a loose interpretive look. View the full article

Drawing Flies 52_45 General Practitioner Original status: Available email me for information. Prints are available email me for information. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the General Practitioner! Tech Info- Watercolor and Gouache on 140# Arches watercolor paper One of the great all time prawn patterns developed in 1953 in England when the use of shrimp and prawns was banned. View the full article

Drawing Flies 52_44 Jack O' Lantern Spey Original status: Available, email me for information. Prints are available. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Jack O' Lantern Spey! Tech Info- Watercolor and Gouache on 140# Arches watercolor paper My buddy Corey and I were making a stop at our favorite watering hole on the return leg home after fly tying the other evening. During the drive I was trying to decide which fly to paint for this week. That is when Corey said that a Jack O' Lantern spey is in order with Halloween being Sunday. What a great idea! I painted a JOL spey in April of 2008 for the drawing flies project. With the Midwest Fall steel head season upon us and and Halloween occurring over the weekend, I felt Corey's suggestion was the right fly for the occasion. View the full article

Drawing Flies 52_43 BWO Floating Nymph Original status: Available, email me for information. Prints are available. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the BWO Floating Nymph! Tech Info- Sepia ink, Derivans Liquid Pencil, white gouache on Lenox 100 paper Went with a few of my favorite ink products for this one. To start, I used my rigger brush and the sepia ink and just started drawing. As I was drawing, I would take my damp round brush, and soften and blend out areas to give the image some depth and value. For the tail, I put down a pretty healthy blob of ink, then I took a drinking straw and blew the ink outwards. To give the fly more volume, I worked over the top of the sepia ink with the liquid pencil, using my brush to soften and blend. I finished up with the white gouache to reclaim some highlights and add sparkle in a few spots. View the full article

rawing Flies 52_42 Gray Hackle Peacock Original status: Available, email me for information. Prints are available. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Gray Hackle Peacock! Tech Info- Flair Pen on 20# bond paper - Watercolor and gouache 140 lbs watercolor paper. I really enjoy producing flies that have a great history behind them. Another joy is producing fly art that moves individuals and has a great family or individual story behind them. It helps to put a personal face on a fly. If I can create artwork that helps to move people, then I know I did my job. I am hoping this fly does just that... I received an email from Danielle requesting a fly that has great meaning to her personally and her family. I do get many requests for flies, and I try to accommodate most requests. This one was special. Not only does the Gray Hackle Peacock have great meaning to her and her family, it also has a historic connection to her Grandfather. Danielle interested in my rendition of the fly, but she also would like to get a tattoo of my art. I have had 4 others flies inked on individuals. 1 of which was a gal who had her grandfathers favorite fly permanently inked on her ankle. I find it a great honor that someone would permanently ink my art on their body and that the images I create brings back memories of a fond fly fishing loved one. Here is a bit of what Danielle emailed: "I would LOVE for you to add a grey hackle peacock to your paintings! My Grandfathers favorite fly was a grey hackle peacock. I am interested in getting a tattoo of this specific fly. This fly is special to me and my family due to mt Grandfather's love of it. Having this done would mean a lot and would be truly appreciated by both myself and my family!! My Father reports that this was my Grandfather's most successful fly and of any other fly he tied, this specific fly caught the most fish. My Grandfather's favorite place to fish when he was alive was on the high mountain lakes of Colorado. My Father stated that "he would have rather been there and fished there than any other place on Earth. And, when he was there he was catching fish on the grey hackle peacock when nobody else was catching fish." I, unfortunately, never fished with my Grandfather and picked up the sport/lifestyle/religion when I moved to Montana. The first fly that I learned to tie was the grey hackle peacock. This was also the first fly that my brother learned to tie years ago. My Grandfather passed away in 1993. And although I will never be able to fish with him, through the grey hackle peacock, I have this attachment with him. Such great memories of my Grandfather surface every time I see that fly!" So Danielle, in my 30 minutes alloted, I created some "INK" art for your tattoo (which, I expect to see a picture of after you have the tattoo completed) and my watercolor rendition of the gray hackle peacock. View the full article

Drawing Flies 52_41 Wool Head Sculpin Original status: Available, email me for information. Prints are available. Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Sculpin! Tech Info- Watercolor and gouache 140 lbs watercolor paper. I have a number of sculpin patterns in my box. This one is loosely based on Kelly Galloup's wooly sculpin pattern. I have had many a successful evening swing sculpin patterns late into the evening for large brown trout. I also have a few large sculpin in my "bug" collection sitting in a glass jar of ethyl alcohol on my tying bench. These specimens make for a great tying reference. View the full article