Drawing Flies 52 – 01_Mickey Finn
Drawing Flies 52 Mickey Finn done pure old school: pencil, paper, ink. Man does that 30 minutes go fast!
Tech info: 9″ x 12″ pencil (under-drawing) and ink on Pentalic paper. Decided to go old school with the first drawing. Set the timer for 30 minutes. Dropped in a rendition in pencil, which I could have fleshed out to make the whole fly had I not been thinking “pen.” Ate up too much time fussing with the under-drawing!
Once pen was in-hand, I did my usual order of head, eye and hook first, then went to general outlines of wing and tube-tinsel body (that’s my one nod to “new school”). Did the general structure of the tinsel, then onto the flow of the wing.
Was not happy with my pen of choice, so I switched over to brush-tip stylus. Much better and faster for this type of work. Did some quick highlights in opaque white, added a few bits around the fly, and used a gum eraser to adjust tone here and there a bit before *beep*. The lesson for this first fly: time management!
Update: Jeff’s rendition (in color as I expected) is here. Love the metallic effects Jeff got out of the hook and the tinsel in such short order. Bravo!
![FF&W [art] - DF52 Grayling](http://fishfliesandwater.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/df52_16-grayling-sidebar.jpg)
Sweet Jason! Extremely dynamic drawing, looks like it is swimming through the water column. The 30 minutes does go by fast. I probably spent two minutes just looking at the clock!
Timekeeper checking in here! It was hard to leave you alone during the process. I kept wanting to look over your shoulder, but I resisted. Lovely work!
Jeff—Really like what you did with your time! What was interesting on this end was that the first 15 went by with little fuss (that’s because I sucked it up doing the under-drawing and messing around too much). The second 15 minutes, however, were a blur, and I didn’t get the chance to focus as much. I’ll take a little different approach next week!
Kel—Thanks, love! Appreciate the kind words…
Love the old school! But where is the photo of the real fly hook! I want to see the real one two. Saw Jeff’s color. Both wonderful!
Hi Sherrie—This fly (and I’d guess Jeff’s fly, too) was done “out of head,” with no physical reference fly on the table. Jeff’s version of the Finn is closer to the “traditional” pattern than mine (mine is drawn with a decidedly modern interpretation of the tinsel body). Probably the best way to get a handle on the myriad Finn variations out there (I am also partial the Thunder Creek and some of the Low Water and Tube styles) is to Google or Bing or Yahoo the fly and sift through the search results.
Thanks for following the DF52 project, Sherrie.
Great work you guys….
so where can I buy the step by step DVD that teaches me how to do all the wonderful techniques you talk about? My water color class at the senior citizens center hasn’t gotten to the “flys” yet.
You may have a new carear out there just waiting for you….
Art Teacher.
Stan—Thanks for the very kind words about the DF52 art. I think the DVD you’re looking for is “Guerilla Tactics Frowned Upon by Art Teachers.” It’s available anywhere you find illustrators scrambling under a ticking deadline… ;-)
Stan-Thanks for the kind comment! You can get proficient by drawing flies everyday! Maybe along this journey we can post a video or two. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
JB-I have that DVD! I will have to dust it off and watch it before next Thursdays fly!