Tag Archives: pen and ink

Another Fish For The Fish Story

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bass, largemouth bass, large mouth bass, fish, fishing, watercolor

The title page for the fish story.

I finished the title page for the fish story.  It is a fairly simple watercolor.  It still took about five watercolor sketches to get what I wanted.  I hope it makes you think BIG FISH!

Rainbow Trout, mountain stream

School of trout.

I took a few fish reference pictures the other day, although these were Rainbow Trout.  In a beautiful mountain stream.

Blitz, trout, rainbow trout, dead fish

Blitz finds a fish for me. “Hey Blitz that one is dead.”

Blitz, swim, stick, fetch, golden retriever, golden, retriever

Blitz goes back to what she does best.

A Golden Retriever isn’t very helpful when taking fish pictures.  Just don’t tell her that, I wouldn’t want to spoil her fun.

The Canine Color Palette

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Labrador Retriever, lab, labs, pen and inkA pen and ink drawing of a Labrador Retriever isn’t a typical post for someone who lives with a bunch of Golden Retrievers. I did this picture as part of a fundraiser for our local retriever club.  A raffle prize of a pen and ink of the winner’s dog.

It seems appropriate to post the picture of the lab in honor of our guests.  We are taking care of three rowdy Labrador retrievers for the next two weeks. They came in black, yellow and chocolate.  We mixed them with gold for a multi-color canine color palette.

Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, Labs, Goldens, dogs

Mixing the colors.

I have noticed that these colors blend well together.  However, they do run a lot, and drool too.  I think I’ll call this color palette “Retrievers.”

Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, Labs, Goldens, dogs

The race is on!

Labrador Retriever, Golden Retriever, Labs, Goldens, dogs

The golden streak!

I took these pictures in the low, early morning light.  They aren’t very sharp, but I think the action makes up for it.

One Of These Fish Is Not Like The Other

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In this post I will reveal the answer to the riddle of the Mystery Of The Sunfish. If you haven’t read that post yet, spoiler alert, I suggest you stop reading now and go read it first.

The mistake I made in the drawing of the fish, in Sunfish 2, would have clearly caused the fish to be eaten by a predator. Perhaps, the mutation did occur at some point in time, and the end result was an ancient predator did eat this fish. Thus, it never reproduced causing it to be lost over the millennia. Alas, I will never know if my picture of the sunfish was accurate long ago and that my mistake wasn’t really a mistake at all, but a brilliant scientific finding.

I know, you are asking me to just get to the point already. Look closely at Sunfish 2. Look at the scales. The scales are backwards. Yes I know, what dopey artist would screw that up right. I’m raising my hand right now. Having scales backwards on a fish is like a parachute behind a drag racer. Try to swim fast and they’ll flair out slowing the fish down so even the laziest predator can have a snack. This was not a genetic adaptation that would provide an enhancement of fish evolution. So until an ichthyologist out there sends me a note saying that I have postulated a brilliant theorem, I’m just your dopey Forester Artist.

On a happy note, I have to throw kudos out to Z at zebra designs, www.playamart.wordpress.com. You should go visit her website it’s pretty awesome. She has created a lot of beautiful artwork to see. She did figure out the answer to the riddle. Not wanting to give it away to the other readers, she sent me some cryptic replies. It took her a couple of attempts to get through to me, but she finally did. She solved it and made me laugh out loud. You should go back and read her replies.

When my oldest son saw the post he also figured it out. He instant messaged me within five minutes of it being published. I asked him if I had ever shown him the picture before. He claimed he had never seen it. He is pretty observant, but he also knows that if I showed the picture to him, I would have forgotten about it by now. Just saying.

I bet if I were to dig into my pile of old stuff there is bound to be more bad art or dumb mistakes I made along the way. Sometime, I may post more for your viewing pleasure or pain, as it may be.

The Mystery of the Sunfish

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I have posted very few of my pen and ink drawings, so I dug deep to and found an old sketch book from nearly 30 years ago.  Here are a couple of sunfish drawings for your consideration.

Sunfish 1

I drew these fish when I was in college.  One of my roommates was a wildlife major.  When I was half way through one of the fish I realized I made a HUGE mistake.  I finished the picture anyway.  Then I presented the picture to my roommate and asked if he could see anything wrong with it, but he thought it looked good.  Then I told him there was definitely something wrong with it.  He still couldn’t find anything wrong.  I finally had to tell him what it was.

Sunfish 2

Here is your challenge if you choose to accept it.  What is wrong with the picture?  I will give you one hint.  The mistake is in Sunfish 2.  A wildlife major couldn’t find it.  Can you?

Grasshoppers On The Loose

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Make sure the lid is tight or your bait will get away.

I just completed this illustration for the fish story I’m working on.  The large mouth bass studies were for the same project.  The media on this one is watercolor, and pen and ink.  It was an easy one to reference, since all I had to do is revisit my childhood.  I hope you like it.

Large Mouth Bass Study 3

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Large Mouth Bass Study

Here is the last one. It was all wet wash technique. I followed it with pen and ink for detail. I like the wet approach although this picture isn’t quite right for the project. Perhaps I need to do the pen and ink first. Any thoughts?

Large Mouth Bass Study 2

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Large Mouth Bass Study 2

With this watercolor I used strictly dry brush technique. I followed this with pen and ink. However, I don’t think this is the style I’m looking for this project.

A Forester’s Traveling Companions

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Blitz & Nellie taking a break for a swim at Lake Prairie

One of great things about being a forester is taking your dogs to work.  They want to go and I have an empty truck bed.  It works out for all of us.  It is a joy to take them along and bears run away from them.  They are pretty handy to have around.  When they find a yellowjacket nest they love to run to me so I can knot the bees off of them.  If they find something dead or smelly they love to roll in it so they can find me and share their awesome prefume.  However, we do have to watch out for rattlesnakes and Nellie could tell you a story, but we will save that one for later.  Perks of the job.  It seemed like a good time to bring up my traveling companions.  They bring a smile to my face and with all the chaos going on around here I hope they do the same for you.  More about them later.

Bo was our first Golden Retriever. He traveled with me for many years throughout the Sierra Nevada. He had visited more of the Sierras then most people will ever see.

How Is A Forester Like An Artist?

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The forester and the artist both create landscapes.  Only a forester’s canvas is far larger than an artist’s canvas.  The artist uses pencils, pens, brushes and all the other tools that create the play of color and light on paper.  The forester’s tools are far larger, louder and powerful.  They are the skidders, feller-bunchers, chainsaws, yarders and seedlings.  Okay, I know what you are thinking, what kind of baloney is this guy selling.  When we look out at a forest we see a beautiful thing.  Harvesting trees changes how that forest looks and develops.  The conventional wisdom may be that harvesting trees makes a forest ugly and at stages along the way I would agree.  That is all part of the process.  When an area is burned in a wildfire and the salvage harvest is complete it looks pretty bad to most folks.  This is only one stage in the development of an ever-changing picture.  Soon the seedlings come and it is no longer a barren clearcut, but it is a brand new forest.

A new forest rising from ashes of a wildfire.

Each year the trees grow and the picture is adorned with deer, turkeys and other wildlife that forage in this new forest.  As a forester I relish the changes I see with each passing year and how our work adds to the picture.  For a forester the picture is never done so we have to appreciate it for what it is at this moment in time.  Most folks have memories of that favorite camping spot in the forest that they went to as a child.  Memories that are so striking and indelible that they cannot imagine them ever changing.  However, these forest change every day.  Mostly slowly, but sometimes in blazing moments.  To the forest the changes are not good or bad, but simply different.  To the forester it is a canvas on which to apply his or her trade.  The forest changes and grows and our pictures change with it.  We may not always agree on what makes beautiful art or a beautiful forest, but I hope as practitioners of the trade we are passionate and dedicated to the process.

I did this watercolor for the children’s book Firestorm In The Forest , a Red Tail Publishing book.

As an artist working in the forest provides an endless source of subjects to paint or draw.  Never stale and always changing.  I never know when I will come across a bear crashing through the brush or a dramatic vista that will make me pause for a minute to take it in.