Drawing Flies 52 Sand Shrimp (variation). This fly is for everyone dealing with the Gulf oil spill, and hoping that disaster can somehow be averted in the marshes and beaches of “sportsman’s paradise.” Tech info: Brush-tip Pigma pen with watercolor. Feeling like I got my “drawing mojo” back after two weeks of mediocrity! This one [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Caddis (Sparkle) Pupa. Pigma detail pen with watercolor. Tech info: I had gotten a request for one of my “old school” style pen-and-ink pieces, and while I didn’t have the time to do what I would normally do with intense detail work, this drawing has more little bits to it that last [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Hendrickson(s). Chisel-point pen with watercolor. Tech info: Pen and ink with watercolor on Pentalic paper. Long story as to why this fly was so late, but to get it done while it was still Thursday, I had to remind myself of the “Three Rules” of Drawing Flies 52: 1) Agree on a [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Undertaker. Made with pen, paper, scanner and software. Tech info: Pen and ink on Pentalic paper, scanned into Photoshop for adjustment, exported to Illustrator, tweaked and colored. I wanted the Undertaker to have a sense of darkness about it that went beyond the fly itself, so I scribbled a thick black background [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear. Mechanical pencil and watercolor on tracing paper with watercolor wash underlay. Tech info: More soon, but I can tell you it was a week for experiments, based on last week’s work. I can also tell you that the fly has basically no color to it at all—just pencil [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Bass Popper. Mechanical pencil and pastel pencil on tracing paper with construction paper underlay. Tech info: This was a pencil and pastel sketch, done in a fast hand on tracing paper. I really like working on tracing paper, and one reason is that it can overlay other paper or fabrics to get [...]

Drawing Flies 52 No-Hackle Dun. Pen-and-ink on paper, scanned, and then manipulated via the scan itself and in Adobe Photoshop. Jeff started the whole “digital” aspect of this DF 52 series, but since I am going to be doing a lot more digitally manipulated images for the upcoming book series, I figured I’d do another [...]

Starting this week, MidCurrent.com is collaborating with Jeff Kennedy and me to provide the Drawing Flies 52 fly art (sometimes with additional text) to MC e-newsletter subscribers. MidCurrent began the collaboration with the Flashback PT from January 28th, and will be going week-to-week from there. If you want some more info on the flies, and [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Bomber (Horned Bomber, to be precise). Pen-and-ink on craft paper, scanned, and then manipulated in Adobe Illustrator. Tech info: To come! But for now…I did use all 30 minutes, with nothing to spare (didn’t get to actually make a physical print in the 30 minutes, but the file exists as you see [...]

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 [...]

Drawing Flies 52 McGinty. Charcoal sketch with watercolor. Available for purchase? No. Tech info: 6″ x 9″ Strathmore paper, medium-soft charcoal with watercolor. I like charcoal in that it is so immediate and so spontaneous. With a toothy paper like I used here, the look and feel almost charts its own path as you go. Of [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Deceiver (pike/muskie/baby tarpon colors). Had to join the DF 52 digital revolution in my own way (see Jeff’s soft-hackle for more on his first DF 52 digital foray). Pen-and-ink sketch, scanned, set as paths in Adobe Photoshop, exported to Adobe Illustrator, paths adjusted, printed, partly colored, ate the whole 30 minutes like [...]