First post

This blog is about my drawing works, mostly fishes.

I did some fish watercolor drawings about 10 years ago just for fun. And then I'd stopped since then.

About six months ago, when I discussed with some of my colleagues about the fishes in an area that we have done surveys together, the idea of drawing come back!

I did a few trial drawings and they turned out to be not so bad! :-)

 

An Acantopsis, one of the drawings that I'd tried when started to draw again.
Size of the drawing: 23 cm.

And then we've started to discussed seriously about fish drawing as a mean of illustrations for more "official" documents.

I haven't been through any art or painting training, therefore my "techniques" is rather straightforward: "you try to draw what you see"! :-) Generalization of an object is one of my weakest points because I've always tried to "copy" the maximum level of details that I've seen.

So far, the only materials I've used is watercolor and paper. Many fish species have transitional colors, changing from one to another without discrete boundaries. Also, many more fish species don't have "clear defined" but "mixed" coloration with some physical colors that change when changing view angle or light sources. I feel that watercolor is the right material to reflect that.

Ilisha melastoma - Kind of failing to illustrate the nacreous coloration on the fish body due to light reflection! Size of the drawing: ~ 13 cm.

I use all kinds of paper that I can get, from cheap, thin, low quality paper to thick higher grade, from pure white to ivory. I prefer the white paper but so far the paper that satisfied me the most is the ivory color sketch book that I've bought from local bookstore. The white paper makes it easier to crop the drawing for a clear background after scanning/photographing and editing on computer.

Piaractus brachypomus - A farmed fish. Drawn on the cheap 70 gsm ivory-colored paper. The paper is so thin that it was distorted with watercolor! This is one of the fish that I tried to draw fast, no measurements. Size of the drawing: 18 cm.

Most of my drawings are small to medium size ranging from about 10 to 20 cm. Later on I did try to draw fishes at bigger sizes. But it seems to cost me lots of time. :-)) I tried to limit the maximum drawing time for each is about 4 - 5 hours. Big drawings appear to be "too luxury" to me for the time being!

Parupaeneus barberinoides - One of a few drawings that I drew at rather big size. Barbels appear to be too small but that could be fixed! Drawing size: 27 cm.

Another disadvantage of big-sized drawing is that it is impossible to scan them by A4-sized scanner. A3-sized scanner is too expensive that I can't afford for now. Using camera to take photos of the painting is ok but it is essential to set up lighting conditions for consistent results and accurate color.

Lepturacanthus savala - Biggest size I've drawn so far, 37 cm.

I will update my future drawings on this blog. So stay tune! :-)