Drawing Flies 52 – 44_Jack O’ Lantern Spey
Drawing Flies 52 Jack O’ Lantern Spey. I think that Spey (and related) patterns are some of the most aesthetically pleasing in all of fly fishing. I am a real fan of how the flow of these flies works from a visual standpoint, and the fact that they are often a balance of brilliance and subtlety. The fact that this one also is timely to the season made it even more interesting to draw.
Notes: This was another fly done on water-soaked, “distressed” paper. I like what a good soak and scrub does to paper and how paint, pen and so forth respond to it. I took a look at a few different variations of the JOL, and settled on drawing a pattern without cheeks, but with some mottling in the feathers. As I did the mottling, I got the sensation of a cluster of real jack o’ lanterns, glimmering and glowing from dozens of carved eyes, noses and mouths. With that, I took the highlights and dropped them in all over the fly. I ended up really liking the unnatural, but light-splashed effect. Total time was something on the order of 25 minutes.
Tech info: Pencil, pen and watercolor on distressed Academie sketch pad paper.
Jeff’s JOL Spey is here. I’ll have comments later!
Oh you beauty! Just beautiful, keep it up!
Thanks, Henrik! We have another 7 to go for 2010…
JB – Nice one! Like the slightly rear view perspective! Funny that you mention that we have 7 to go. I was thinking how fast it has gone last night as I was making my post.
JK
Thanks, Jeff, I appreciate that. And yeah, only 7 more to go. Feels like we barely even got started. We need to talk over the holidays and nail down where we go for 2011….