Drawing Flies 52_12 Bomber

Drawing Flies 52_12 Bomber- Gouache on chip board 8.5" x 11"

Original status: Available. Contact me for information.

Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the of the Bomber!

Tech Info- I really enjoy drawing and painting on chip board. It is inexpensive and creates a great textured neutral value background. Chip board is the stuff you will find on the back of note and paper pads. Threw down a quick pencil sketch to rough out the shape, then I followed up with applications of gouache. I started with darker values and worked to the lightest to define the form. Creating the illusion of deer hair is always an interesting challenge. The spun deer hair for this fly was created by dabbing the end of a stiff bristle brush on the surface. This was the most time consuming task and I had to layer the paint carefully as to not overdue the effect or blow the 30 minute rule.

I have not swung a waking or skating fly like this for steelhead yet. Since the steelhead season here in the Midwest is unpredictable and the times I get to my home river I am usually fishing my confidence patterns. I should take a day to experiment with this style of fly. I know steelhead on my home river have been caught on a waking fly. Catching steelhead swinging a fly is an incredible experience, but catching one rising for a dry fly has to be the ultimate experience!

This fly is modeled off of Dec Hogan's bomber pattern. I really like the shape and the way the orange band breaks up the body. Bomber patterns are available in numerous colors and shapes.

After I finished it and stepped back I realized that I should have fattened up the body a bit more. Almost exaggerate the shape a bit. But hey, when you only have 30 minutes, you do what you can and hope for the best.

Above is a quick fun sketch that I did yesterday while sitting on the tail gate of my truck enjoying the Spring weather.