Mickey Finn 01 - 12" x 10" - Gouache on black Canson paper. This is the first in the "Drawing Flies 52" weekly collaboration series with Jason Borger at Fish Flies and Water (FF&W) .
The one rule we have is that the image must be completed in 30 minutes or less. I was not sure if I could do this style of image in under 30 minutes. That became the challenge for me. I grabbed my sheet of black paper, stared at it for a moment, took a deep breath and clicked my stopwatch. I quickly prioritized the order of what needed to be painted first. Tinsel body and hook, glance at the stopwatch, then drop in the head while the body was drying, glance at the stopwatch, paint the yellow bucktail winging then let that dry, glance at the stopwatch... I think you get the idea. I completed the image in 25 minutes and 23 seconds. I knew in my mind that in order to pull this image off, I had to use a minimal number of brush strokes and had to strategically paint in a specific order so that the paint would have a chance to dry. Working on a plain colored background help reduce the time so I could concentrate on rendering the fly.
Be sure to stop by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Mickey Finn. I am sure that you will not be disappointed with his artistry! I really like the flowing, dynamic lines of Jason's rendition of the Finn. It takes a gifted hand to get such a great look in under 30 minutes.
Jason and I will have the next fly in the series posted on Thursday. I am going to go out on a limb and throw down our next fly, the humpy.
Jeff—Wow, nice piece! I can't believe the quality of the metallic stuff you got in 30 mins! This is going to be an sweet project... Humpy is next? I'm good with that...
ReplyDeleteJason - Thanks!wasn't sure I was going to pull this off in 30 minutes. Rough and quick blocking in and some accents to give the illusion. Cool, Humpy it is.
ReplyDeleteThis is beautiful. However, I thought you were going to show the real Fly Hook too! Disappointed.
ReplyDeleteSherrie Roberts
Great start to a great project guys,
ReplyDeletereally excited to watch this thing unfold!f
Sherrie-Jason is correct in his answer to this same comment on his blog. When I did this illustration, I did not use any physical reference. When I started I just laid down a few white lines to get a general proportion, then filled in the rest with the brush.
ReplyDeleteSo sweet work. Can not tell it was done within 30 minutes. Look forward the next one. Tight drawing!
ReplyDeleteJeff- I love this project you have going on with Jason. I checked out both of your work and it's terriffic. I'm looking forward to the Humpys.
ReplyDelete