Drawing Flies 52 – 11_Connemara
Drawing Flies 52 Connemara. Number 2 pencil (everyone’s fave from grade school!) with a dash of white-out pen, all served on a torn piece of craft paper, fresh from the roll.
Tech info: Went for more of a “sitting by the lough” feel with this one. Got the sense I wanted overall, maybe a bit “slick,” but not too refined. The paper acquisition was pretty easy: Rip a big hunk off the roll and start drawing. Got one iamge partly done and thought, “bleh,” so ripped it off the sheet and into the circular file. The second image (this one) settled in pretty nicely, so I kept going.
The tooth of the paper really grabbed that #2 nicely, and quick strokes with the pencil provided the best effects (had to leave the fussing for another day). Most of the fly came together nicely and easily, but the jungle cock eye stalled me when I overworked it. Got an eraser, cleaned it up and then re-worked. Better, but not ideal. Used the eraser to do a bit of light buffing in the wing and body, and then went back in and added some deeper “blacks.”
The fly looked pretty good at that point, but I am fan of contrast, so I grabbed my white-out pen, and went in on the hook and tinsel wrap. I wanted to keep the same sense of rough-hewn feel, with the whites, so scratched the dried white-out down with my finger nail. Done. Made it with a minute or two to spare, despite the false start.
Available for purchase? No.
Jeff’s Connemara is here. Really like the direction you took/are taking, Jeff! Definitely looking forward to seeing more like this (I like the background feel as much as the reflection). I can see how you took all 30 minutes, no problem…
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I like this one. It looks like you did it on a natural paper towel, crumpled it up to toss away, then thought otherwise. What accounts for the bluish-gray highlights, or is my eye-to-computer ratio seeing things?
Hi luv. Glad you like this one. The highlights are due to the scanner light reflecting off the shiny, heavily penciled areas. Looked at straight-on the drawing doesn’t show that, but tilt it in the light and those areas reflect strongly.
Best one yet Jason. Really nice. MK
Absolutely stunning, Jason! I agree with Matt – this is your best one yet. I’m sorry it’s not available for purchase :-).
Lars
JB-Another great one! Nothing like the simplicity of a number 2 some White- Out and kraft paper! This style in one of my favorite.
Lars—Thanks, my friend. Truly appreciated. I’ll do some more like this, since the style seems to be appealing to a number of people. Been a while since we last talked. I’ll shoot you an e-mail.
Jeff—Thanks! I was packing some books with this paper, and it seemed like it could make for a cool little piece (and the tooth of the paper snags that #2 nicely). We need to figure out the next fly now!
JB-Have a bad case of the Midwest shack nasties! Temps are warming up, but my home steelhead river is blown out due to the melt and rain. There are any number of steelhead favs I would love to do. But I how about doing a bomber! A bit different and fun.
Jeff—Just leaving LA as I write this (no, not Louisiana), and got four days of brilliant sun and temps that have hit the 80s. Wasn’t fishing, but at least I was casting! And it cleared out those Portland grays in about three seconds flat (the time it took me to get down the jetway at Burbank airport).
Bomber works for me. Deer hair like that is always an interesting challenge to do right.