Just like Monday’s DF52 2010 collection, this is a screen grab straight from Photoshop. In this case, it’s a grab showing the entire DF 52 2011 collection of images. As before, I liked the collage and figured it would at least make for good blog filler. If you happen to like it, too, click on [...]

Drawing Fish 52 silver trout (extinct). Wanted to end the year with a fish that exists now only in literature and in the eye of angling artists. I went with a fish that has some of the shape and color that I might imagine in a fine specimen, but also went with enough additional “olde tyme” [...]

Drawing Fish 52 Aurora Trout. A very close relative of the brook trout, this little-known fish makes for some good painting opportunities. Went with a overly saturated aurora theme like week 49′s Greenland char. The colors and shapes of the fish flash and streak above a sparsely forested tundra foreground that surrounds a small lake. [...]

DF52 Payara. Wanted something that felt like a prehistoric or even alien nightmare. A fish that the fossil record might reveal, a fish that has a singular, unwavering purpose, a fish that might have been beamed in from another galaxy. The fact that you can go and catch these on flies makes the image feel [...]

DF52 Greenland char. Only a week late. No excuses, just feeling a little tired. Went for a look of night and aurora, and the shape of fins and spots. Tough piece to paint due to the charcoal drawing (charcoal is all too easily turned into “watercolor”). I like this approach, but would prefer, I think, [...]

After Jeff’s brutal week 47 (he mumbled something about 30-hours straight when we talked on the phone yesterday), we decided that today’s fish was to be whatever we wanted—anything goes! I decided to do a rather general “salmonid.” In other words, a fish that could be a lot of fish: trout, salmon, char, whatever falls [...]

Forgive the image quality, had to get this into my system using a point-and-shoot instead of my usual scanner. This one is for my friends in Europe, in particular those of you in the northern Adriatic area (and your gorgeous, jewel-like waters). I like the marble trout for a a number of reasons, not the [...]

So, I was just sitting here working on the latest book project and Kel pops her head in and asks, “Where’s your barracuda?” To which I replied, “Barra…?” Yeah, out of sight, out of brush, or some other BS like that. Anyway, 30 speed-brush minutes later, here you go. This ‘cuda is based on one [...]

Drawing Flies 52 dorado (mahi-mahi). Had to go digital on this one, since it was the only way I could get the effects I was after quickly enough (and without splattering my office with paint). Notes: For this fish, I was working in Adobe Illustrator start-to-finish. To save myself some time, I grabbed a number [...]

DF52 snook. Decided to go for pure form this time. A few minutes in Illustrator and done. Not all DF52 fish need to go the full 30!

Drawing Flies 52 False Albacore (“Albie”). Wanted to stay with the East Coast fishing this week, and keep it in the salt, too. The colors and marking on Albies are well-suited to an artistic palette, in this case the digital CMYK palette in Adobe Illustrator. Update: I had pretty much this image in my head when [...]

DF52 Bluefish. Done raw, fast, and uncertain in form—sorta like the real thing in a blitz. I’m too worn down right now to worry about anatomical perfection, so I went for roughness of shape and boldness of color. Hope you like it (I actually do). Jeff’s cool blue is here.

I’m on the road, I’m in a hotel, and I’m fried. This week’s DF52 bluefish is going to be delayed here at FF&W. In the meantime, go have a look at Jeff’s really nice blue here. I’ll get my drawing up as soon as I can….

I remember the first steelhead that I ever hooked. It was a Great Lakes fish, and it had taken a big, black stonefly nymph with a deep, leaden heaviness. I pulled back—several times—thinking that I had a branch or perhaps the bottom. The big trout popped out of the water in a purely vertical fashion, [...]