Back in the rich (for me) old days when I did quite a bit of work in advertising, I often had to draw things I knew very little about. Even then, the vast majority of subjects I dealt with were things biological, but I still had to admit ignorance about far too much of it. One of those subjects was fish. I’ve seldom fished, was never particularly interested in fish, and still look at them far too often as simply packets of protein-rich food for the mammals, birds and reptiles I draw. They are of course, in spite of how much I love sashimi, not simply food, but beautiful, vibriant creatures, some with absolutely amazing life histories. My educational inadequacies notwithstanding, I paint them, if I do say so myself, rather well. And I’ve painted a lot of them. Here are just a few.

Click here to see this image (almost) the size I painted it. 

The rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) is an acrylic painting I did 10 or more years ago for … (?) I honestly can’t remember! (If you’re out there please email me) I’ve probably drawn and painted a couple hundred trout and salmon over the years, and I can’t tell you what happened to most of the images. This one was done while I was living in Mammoth Lakes, in the Sierra Nevada of California. All I remember is that I was given the flies and streamers that surround the fish by an avid fisherman, and put color into the animal that the stocked rainbows of the “Lakes Basin” above town just didn’t have. It would have made more sense had I made the background a sage-covered hillside behind the willow and alder along Hot Creek, a great nearby fly-fishing stream.

These little mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki) were done through Split Rock Studios for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. It was my second attempt at doing fish digitally in PhotoShop and I’m still very pleased with the result. The fish here are much larger than life size. I remember counting the scales on a number of fuzzy photographs. Not fun; nor was trying to wrap them accurately around the larger female.

The yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares) and the Indo-Pacific blue marlin (Makaira mazara) are both acrylic paintings that were done for a project that never came to fruition. Again, I can’t remember exactly why I painted them, but it must have seemed like a good idea at the time. Some of you have seen the yellowfin before as one of the many recycling background elements on PZ Myers’ Pharyngula.

That’s enough for now. I’m still getting used to the new WordPress setup, and with Brent Rasmussen laughing in the background as I stumble through the netherworld of computer software changes, I’m going for consistency. Once I’m up to speed with the new procedures I plan on posting each Tuesday and Friday. I need to push myself while establishing reasonable deadlines. I wish I could paint faster.