Just got an email from Pete Tyjas at the new e-zine, “Eat Sleep Fish,” and it seems that all the needed pixels are ready for consumption. I did an interview with Pete some time ago, and that interview, along with 15 other articles is now on-line. I go on (and on) about casting, movies, and the one fishing day that I’d really like to re-live. Check it out if you get the chance.

The Drawing Flies 52 image from last year at this time: Winter’s Hope. This was one of my favorite fly drawings of the 2010 project. The full post is here.

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 even more unreal to me. Consider this a field sketch from an alien planet billions of miles away and millions of years in the past.

Notes: Sketched and painted as if this…”thing” was in front of me, set against the acidic water or fiery sky of an alien world.

Available for purchase? If you want something unnerving for your tying room, yes. Contact me directly.

Jeff’s version is here. Fierce, but beautifully painted, of course!

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, to use oil, perhaps coupled with some watercolor, to get the right combo of charcoal and paint. Daft Punk’s TRON soundtrack got me through it with the mood I was after, but I still had to do a bit of Photoshop trickery to get the atmospherically charged color I really wanted.

Painting DF52 – 50_Payara in the next 30 minutes or so. Be back in a bit….

Jeff’s beautiful version is here.

This is an Oregon fish, a big-shouldered ‘bow sight fished on a little piece of water that I enjoy visiting now and again. The ‘bow was cruising slowly just off the bottom and sipped a little weighted Flashback PT that I had pitched into its cruising lane. The fish didn’t go slowly once we connected, however, and the first run saw backing out of the tip-top, which surprised me (in a nice way). Kel managed to get a few photos of the fish itself before it recovered and swam off, and I may use those as a basis for a future painting.

A little bit of Photoshoppery on another of Bill Sherer’s massive musky flies—this time a Figure 8 that also happens to be fly 10.19 in the upcoming Long Flies book. The original is 9.5 inches long (and is not purple, of course). I just felt that the fly looked cool (literally) in inverse colors, a la my “Icethroat Trout.”

http://jazzandflyfishing.com/?p=5011

Fly 10.67 from Long Flies shown as two halves (hey, it’s a *long* long fly). This is one of Bill Sherer’s beastly 4/0 BP muskie patterns. Don’t try to be a “hero” with a seven-weight when it comes time to cast these….

Yes, “This is Fly” and “The Flyfish Journal” have recently arrived via email and snail-mail, respectively. As many of you know, TiF is the not-safe-for-tweed e-zine that pushes the boundaries of what a fly-centric mag can be, and TFJ is, well, it’s one of the few mags out there that I’ll ante up $40 a year to get.

In addition to its usual blend of stylings, this issue of TiF also includes a nice piece on the guys over at Jazz & Fly Fishing (turn to page 66). They even talk about the J&FF Shadow Cast Competition and name-drop a bit while they’re at it (thanks, guys!).

As for TFJ, it is often referred to as a “coffee table mag,” and that’s right where mine is currently sitting (on top of a few past issues).

Yes, Long Flies is taking its time in getting done, but at least GB is well into book #4 of the “Fly Fishing” series, so once I get caught up with LF, I’ll just jump into that. But, in the meantime, I am plowing through fly photos for LF. Here is fly 10.75, an Ulf Hagström pattern that is especially fishy. This fly is also especially fun to shoot in that it requires white-against-white exposure, coupled with translucency and white-to-black tonal values. Thought a few readers might be interested.

Update: After GB and I talked last night re: LF pix, I decided to re-shoot some images to allow for better conceptualization of the designs. This fly has a paired-tail arrangement and it was key to really show that, we felt. So I re-shot the fly with the end result being what you see above. I think that GB still has the previous fly photo on his blog, and it should be obvious as to how much better (I think) this one is in terms of revealing structure. Off to re-shoot a few more….

There be trout in that water…

As noted in a previous post, Kel and I did a little small-stream scouting over the Thanksgiving holiday. In addition to the streamside images of rocks and weeds that you’ve already seen, I promised something a bit more fishy. Decided to get “old-timey” and sepia-tone with the trees and (well-scouted) water, and then went and grabbed some water and used it to get painterly with a fish. Fish photos are nice, of course, but I figure that I should be painting a few rather than relying only on focus and exposure. So, here’s a little dry-fly ‘bow for your viewing pleasure:

Click to make bigger.

Actually this is more than just a little dry-fly ‘bow. It’s really an experimental piece that I used as a warm-up for a commission that I am starting on today (that would be your redside, Byron). There are a number of things that I did in the piece that reflect some “play time” with paint, but in the end I felt that the piece still worked as a fairly cohesive unit. As a result, I am going to offer it as available art if anyone has an interest. It’s on 9X12 Canson watercolor paper, so it’s a manageable size and well suited to filling a smaller space in a tying room, etc. Price is $100 shipped in the U.S. Add another $5 if its going elsewhere. If you think that it might work for you, shoot me an email (you can use that Contact JB link above), and we can arrange for it to head your way.

Update: So Kel looks at this post and says, “What? You’re selling it? But I like it.” To which I deftly responded, “Of course I’m not going to sell it, I don’t know what I was thinking.” And then I immediately ran up to my office, logged on, and used the strike-through feature. If you do happen to really like this piece, and want something similar, let me know and we’ll work it out.

From years back, on a trip to Russia’s Kola Peninsula. One of many browns that nudged the measuring tape well past the 20-inch mark. Went for a bit of funky photo filtering on this one, just because I felt like it. This was one of the last trips on which I used slide film as a primary photographic tool. I still love film, but prefer to use it for special shots, rather than the basic grip-n-grins like this one.

Update: Couldn’t leave it well enough alone, so went back and added some wear and tear via a little Photoshoppery. Now it looks appropriately bleached out and beat-up!

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 into the general look-and-feel of a salmonid. Hope that FF&W readers like the concept.

Notes: Went back to shades of Week 41 of 2010 (see below). If you’re going to paint with watercolor, then you shouldn’t be afraid of water! This piece was scrubbed, soaked and washed before it was all through, and it has the cooler, more wintery look that I wanted. It’s a generic “TroutSalmonChar,” so it should look a bit generic in terms of color and form. I dig it.

Tech: Charcoal, pastel pencil, pen, and watercolor all mixed and mashed together on Canson paper.

Available for purchase? Yes. This one is on 6×9 paper. If you’re interested, shoot me an email and we can talk specifics.

JK’s Fish:  Find it here.

Within the Jazz & Fly Fishing Shadow Cast Competition (that I recently finished judging with an iron fist), there was one entry that stood out in a way that I had not expected. It came from the guys at Fly Society Belgium, and is, to my eye, simply beautiful. When you see it, you realize that it’s not really focused on shadow casting (parodied or otherwise), instead it is light and motion and fly casting as art in film. You can see it full-size at the J&FF site (scroll down to #15), but I have a smaller embed from Vimeo below:

Would love to have these guys shoot my own casting this way.