Drawing Flies 52_16 Undertaker

Drawing Flies 52_16 Undertaker- Charcoal Pencil, Watercolor and Gouache.

Original status: SOLD

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

Tech Info-I just received three 13.25" x 11" Canson scrapbook pads. These books are spiral bound an contain 20 sheets of 80 lbs. oatmeal colored paper. This is a perfect mid weight mid value paper. I could not wait to give it a try. Since the fly has a lot of black in it, I went with my General's brad 4B soft charcoal pencil and drew in all the details except for the floss. I typically used a combination or colors to get black, but for this I went straight charcoal. Next I added the watercolor drop shadow and started in with the gouache work. I was not sure how the gouache and charcoal wold act, but I liked the way I could smooth out some of the charcoal with a damp brush.

Last week I received an email from my good friend, fly tying master and one hell of a spey caster, Marty Howard. He suggested something steelhead for this week. I told him to name it, and he came back with the undertaker. Marty has a great pattern that has some similarities to an undertaker. It is called the undercoach. It is a great come back fly that you can throw on if you receive a strike but no hook up. Change the fly over to a come back version, take a few steps back up river and start swinging again. Most times, in the right hands, it results in a hook up. I had the opportunity to tie up and swing a few of Marty's pattern during my trip out West this past Fall. Like stated earlier, in the right hands it usually works, in my case it did not.

Swing by the spey pages and look under Hooks, Feathers and Floss. You will find some great Marty Howard step by step tying. His explanations and photography is top shelf. If you would like some great instruction on tying steel head and spey flies, check out the DVD that Marty and Dec Hogan produced. This DVD has a prominent spot in my collection!