Monday, June 30, 2008

No. 182


"Fly Fishing Merit Badge" I am a merit badge counselor for the fly fishing merit badge. The current badge artwork shows an abstract style salmon fly. I think it should be a dry fly. This is my proposal. Now that I am back from camp and adjusting back to normal life, this will end the Boy Scout series of flies. It was a real challenge due to the busy schedule!

No. 181

"Camp Fly" We did not get back from the big final camp wide campfire until late. I just got back into the tent, pulled out mu headlamp and the sketchbook. I recalled an elliptical symbol somewhere in camp. I thought it had a nice shape, so I did this abstract style fly incorporating the symbol.

No. 180

"Scout Law" Continuing on the Boy Scout theme, this is the first 2 points of the Scout Law.

No. 179

"Scout Motto Fly" The Boy Scout Motto "Be Prepared" adorns this fly. Time is real tight to get sketches done. We are running all day and into the night. making sure our scouts get to their merit badge stations and attending leaders meetings takes it out of you.

No. 178

"Drawing Flies Merit Badge" I am pushing to have this merit badge approved by the Boy Scouts of America!

No. 177


"Camp Gadget Fly" I was working on my own leaders merit badge at camp. One of the requirements was to make a camp gadget. I came up with this handy paper towel holder. I also drew a fly on one of the sheets.

Sunday, June 29, 2008

No. 176

"Swiss Army Fly" Waterproof ink and watercolor. The alway versatile knife transformed into a fly.

No. 175

" Carved Apple Fly" I took my apple to go from the camp dinning hall and decided to carve a fly into it.

No. 174

"Leave No Trace Fly" White gouache on tree bark - I spent the last week at Boy Scout Summer camp with my youngest Son. I am one of the Assistant Scout Masters for his troop. I was going to use my knife to carve the fly into the bark, but that would permanently scar the tree and would be against the "Leave No Trace" policy we try to teach the kids. So instead, I pulled out my white water soluble gouache and painted the fly on the tree. It rained a couple of times during our stay and all traces of the fly are now gone.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Away for a week - no computer

I will be without computer access for the next week. Never fear, I have my sketching and painting supplies all packed up. I will still be creating my daily sketches and I will post them when I return.

No. 173

"Ole Red Eye - Again" 8" x 12" Watercolor and ink. Had to try it again in color.

Friday, June 20, 2008

No. 172


" Old red Eye" - Revisited" A quick hand skerch with some digital color added.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

No. 171

" Negative Fly" 14" x 10" Watercolor. Just experimenting with some negative shape painting and different techniques.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

No. 170



"Cherry of a Dry" Cherry juice on watercolor paper. Around this time every year, our cherry tree provides a beautiful bounty of sour pie cherries. My 7th grade son who could be described as an amateur tree climber, can scurry up and down a tree like no one else I know. Anyway, it is his job to pluck the cherries from the tree. This was a good year for cherries. You have to time it just right so that the cherries are ripe enough but not too ripe that the birds strip the tree before we can harvest the cherries. My son picked as many cherries as he could reach and we proceeded to pit them using corn cob holders. The same son that climbs the trees is also a speed demon at pitting cherries. He can out pit me 3 to 1. We used some of the cherries to make a pie this evening and we froze the remainder for use in future pies during the Summer. The dry fly was painted using cherry juice and a few smashed cherries as a brush. I had to use Marachino cherry juice, because the fresh cherry juice does not have enough color to it.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

No. 169


"Impromptu" 8" x 10" watercolor. I just picked up a brush and started to paint. No planning, no sketches, no value studies.

Monday, June 16, 2008

No. 168


"Serendipity" 8" x 11" Pen, watercolor and a digital gradient.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

No. 167










"Pancake Fly" Happy Fathers Day to all! Today my palette consisted of a frying pan, pancake batter and a few blueberries. The pictures tell the rest of the story!

Saturday, June 14, 2008

No. 166

"Practice" Watercolor, indigo pencil and gouache. Just sketching the shapes and form in advance of a painting for this fly. Story to follow.

Friday, June 13, 2008

No. 165


"Yellow Sallie" Ink and watercolor. Tried this patter a couple of times on the AuSable when the stoneflies were coming off the water.

Cool Website

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Thursday, June 12, 2008

No. 164

"Rat Mouse!" Pen and Watercolor. I tried this pattern for the first time last year. It was around 11:00 pm and I decided to try the only mouse I had in my fly box. I tied it on and cast to some dead fall along the bank. The mouse hit with a "PLOP" before I could get my first strip in, the water erupted. It sounded like a depth charge hit the water. I set the hook and the reel started to scream. The fish took off for cover and broke me off in the submerged logs. I picked up a few more mice to give it another try this trip. I had a difficult time of not setting the hook right away and stripping the fly from the fish. My buddy Corey used the mouse with much greater success. He really knows how to strip in the line after the take and then sets the hook. It was great watching him hookup on some nice fish using this pattern.

No. 163


" Parachute Adams" Pen and Watercolor. Another classic high confidence pattern. I fished this early on our last evening and picked up 2 nice brookies. There were numerous mayfly species in the air that evening. The Adams does a great job as a general multipurpose imitator.

No. 162

"Bead Head Prince Nymph" Pen and Watercolor. A great pattern that never fails me.

No. 161

"Olive Madonna" Pen and Watercolor. I love swinging this fly after dark on my 6 weight. I have caught many a good size brown on a down and across swing. I have been known to fish until 12:30 - 1:00 in the morning swinging this fly in total darkness. Caught a few this trip on it, but not as many as previous years. It is still one of my high confidence patterns and it works equally as well on smallmouth

No. 160

"Drake Emerger" Pen and Watercolor. The last evening of the trip was by far the most productive fishing dries. After the sun went down, we switched to an emerger and started back down river. Fished the emerger down and across on a swing. Corey expertly cast the emerger in a spot where he was earlier rejected while fishing a dry. The first cast in the area resulted in a nice brown. Persistence pays off.

No. 159


"Roberts Drake" Pen and Watercolor. I just returned home from fishing the Au Sable River in Michigan. The next six fly installments are the flies that I fished with during the trip. There was a lot of rain, so fishing was off a bit from previous years. although conditions were a bit tough, I had a great time fishing with my buddy Corey and the rest of the regulars who make the trip every year. I fished this drake pattern in the evening when the drakes were coming off the water. There is nothing like experiencing squadrons of drakes looking for a mate.

Friday, June 6, 2008

Drawing Flies On Vacation

I will be gone on a fishing trip until Thursday of next week. Never fear, I have my sketching and painting supplies all packed up. I will still be creating my daily sketches and I will post them when I return.

No. 158

"Old Skool Drawing Flies Template" Digital. I use to use these templates back in the day. Actually, even though I do a lot of my design work in 3D on the computer, I still pull out my templates when I do some sketching. I did retire the slide rule!

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Wednesday, June 4, 2008

No. 156


"Lite Brite Soft Hackle" 8" x 10" ink and watercolor. I just finished tying up a half dozen of these soft hackles. At our annual end of the year dinner/ fly swap, I picked a couple of these up in the swap. I used these on the Au Sable in Michigan last year with great success. The actual name and the tier are unknown. The body is pearl ice dub with a silver bead. The collar is a partridge soft hackle.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

No. 155

"Finger Fly" I laid down a watercolor wash on YUPO which is a synthetic paper that repels water and water based pigments. After the wash was complete, I used my finger to push paint away and paint the fly. Kind of takes me back to grade school when you would finger paint.

Monday, June 2, 2008

No. 154

"Crazy Charlie" 10" x 8"color and gouache. I have been wanting to get to a saltwater patter for a while. Today it was over 80 degrees here, so it was time for some salt! This pattern is so simple and a classic.

And the Winner Is....

The winner for the month of May drawing is (drum roll) ... Kerry P.
Kerry wins a print of his choice from the Drawing Flies archive for emailing fly suggestions.

Congrats Kerry.

Sunday, June 1, 2008

No. 153

Brook has a new tattoo! I am sure that you will be able to find it. Brook will be featured in a twelve month 2009 calendar. Stay tuned for the update.