Drawing Flies 52 – 30_Leadwing Coachman
Drawing Flies 52 Leadwing Coachman. This pattern caught my father his first trout back in the day (when GB was 11). A lot happened after that! Actually the Leadwing Coachman features prominently in the first story in the upcoming Fishing the Film book, and is the second illustration in Chapter One.
I drew several Leadwings for the book, and all took me less than 30 minutes to complete. When Jeff said “Let’s do a Leadwing,” I flipped back through my collection of FtF illustrations and found this one. It was my first attempt and it was fast (just a few minutes). I liked it, but it ended up being too “heavy” in terms of line for the text. So, I decided to use it here.
I may be “cheating” a bit with this (not my intent), but the drawing does technically adhere to the 30 minute rule, and I thought that it was something special considering all that surrounds it. Hope you all don’t mind me using it for the DF52 project.
Notes: This fly was drawn with my #1 and brush tip Pigma pens. I went at it fast, loose and with the idea that it would end up in a book. Two out of three isn’t bad. The fly took only a few minutes of pen-time, and another 20 or so to scan and clean up into this form in Adobe Illustrator. Its companion drawing—the one that is now in a book layout—took a bit longer, but would have also met the 30-minute deadline (at least in terms of pen-time).
Tech info: Pen on paper. Scanned and finished as vector art in Adobe Illustrator.
Jeff’s Leadwing is here. Looks good! I really like the whole approach to the fly and the background. Especially liking that wing and the subtle blocks of background color. Nice work, my friend!
![FF&W [art] - DF52 Grayling](http://fishfliesandwater.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/df52_16-grayling-sidebar.jpg)
JB-No cheating as I see it. You stuck to the 30 minute timeline with no problem. I had to produce my image on Wednesday because of my all day trip down to Dallas. I think that it is cool that GB caught his first trout on this pattern! I really like swinging this pattern down and across when nothing seems to be rising.
Thanks for the kind words and let me know what is up next!
Thanks, Jeff. I didn’t want anyone to feel that I was taking the easy way out in running with this drawing. It just seemed to be a nice choice to me given all that surrounded it. GB caught his first trout swinging, too. The Leadwing is just one of those flies that has crossed so many angler’s paths over the years.
As for next week, how about a Beadhead Brassie, artist’s color choice?
Sounds good. It is funny, because last week I was trying to chose between the lead wing and the brassie!
You know, that’s not the first time that kind of thing has happened on this project. That $2.99 a minute I paid to the psychic hotline must be working…. ;-)