Drawing Flies 52_43 Jack O' Lantern Spey

Drawing Flies 52_44 Jack O' Lantern Spey

Original status: SOLD. Prints are available email me for information.

Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Jack O' Lantern Spey!

Tech Info- Watercolor and Gouache on 140# Arches watercolor paper

My buddy Corey and I were making a stop at our favorite watering hole on the return leg home after fly tying the other evening. During the drive I was trying to decide which fly to paint for this week. That is when Corey said that a Jack O' Lantern spey is in order with Halloween being Sunday. What a great idea! I painted a JOL spey in April of 2008 for the drawing flies project. With the Midwest Fall steel head season upon us and and Halloween occurring over the weekend, I felt Corey's suggestion was the right fly for the occasion.

Drawing Flies 52_43 BWO Floating Nymph

Drawing Flies 52_43 BWO Floating Nymph

Original status: Available, email me for information. Prints are available.

Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the BWO Floating Nymph!

Tech Info- Sepia ink, Derivans Liquid Pencil, white gouache on Lenox 100 paper

Went with a few of my favorite ink products for this one. To start, I used my rigger brush and the sepia ink and just started drawing. As I was drawing, I would take my damp round brush, and soften and blend out areas to give the image some depth and value. For the tail, I put down a pretty healthy blob of ink, then I took a drinking straw and blew the ink outwards. To give the fly more volume, I worked over the top of the sepia ink with the liquid pencil, using my brush to soften and blend. I finished up with the white gouache to reclaim some highlights and add sparkle in a few spots.

Drawing Flies 52_42 Gray Hackle Peacock

Drawing Flies 52_42 Gray Hackle Peacock

Original status: Available, email me for information. Prints are available.

Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of the Gray Hackle Peacock!

Tech Info- Flair Pen on 20# bond paper - Watercolor and gouache 140 lbs watercolor paper.

I really enjoy producing flies that have a great history behind them. Another joy is producing fly art that moves individuals and has a great family or individual story behind them. It helps to put a personal face on a fly. If I can create artwork that helps to move people, then I know I did my job. I am hoping this fly does just that...

I received an email from Danielle requesting a fly that has great meaning to her personally and her family. I do get many requests for flies, and I try to accommodate most requests. This one was special. Not only does the Gray Hackle Peacock have great meaning to her and her family, it also has a historic connection to her Grandfather. Danielle interested in my rendition of the fly, but she also would like to get a tattoo of my art. I have had 4 others flies inked on individuals. 1 of which was a gal who had her grandfathers favorite fly permanently inked on her ankle. I find it a great honor that someone would permanently ink my art on their body and that the images I create brings back memories of a fond fly fishing loved one.

Here is a bit of what Danielle emailed:

"I would LOVE for you to add a grey hackle peacock to your paintings! My Grandfathers favorite fly was a grey hackle peacock. I am interested in getting a tattoo of this specific fly. This fly is special to me and my family due to mt Grandfather's love of it. Having this done would mean a lot and would be truly appreciated by both myself and my family!!

My Father reports that this was my Grandfather's most successful fly and of any other fly he tied, this specific fly caught the most fish. My Grandfather's favorite place to fish when he was alive was on the high mountain lakes of Colorado. My Father stated that "he would have rather been there and fished there than any other place on Earth. And, when he was there he was catching fish on the grey hackle peacock when nobody else was catching fish."

I, unfortunately, never fished with my Grandfather and picked up the sport/lifestyle/religion when I moved to Montana. The first fly that I learned to tie was the grey hackle peacock. This was also the first fly that my brother learned to tie years ago.

My Grandfather passed away in 1993. And although I will never be able to fish with him, through the grey hackle peacock, I have this attachment with him. Such great memories of my Grandfather surface every time I see that fly!"

So Danielle, in my 30 minutes alloted, I created some "INK" art for your tattoo (which, I expect to see a picture of after you have the tattoo completed) and my watercolor rendition of the gray hackle peacock.

Drawing Flies 52_41 Wool Head Sculpin

Drawing Flies 52_41 Wool Head Sculpin

Original status: Available, email me for information. Prints are available.

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

Tech Info- Watercolor and gouache 140 lbs watercolor paper.

I have a number of sculpin patterns in my box. This one is loosely based on Kelly Galloup's wooly sculpin pattern. I have had many a successful evening swing sculpin patterns late into the evening for large brown trout. I also have a few large sculpin in my "bug" collection sitting in a glass jar of ethyl alcohol on my tying bench. These specimens make for a great tying reference.

Drawing Flies 52_40 Wickhams Fancy

Drawing Flies 52_40 Wickhams Fancy (wet)

Original status: Available, email me for information. Prints are available.

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

Tech Info- Watercolor and gouache 140 lbs watercolor paper.

A beautiful traditional English wet fly. I like the combinations of the wing, collar and gold body. Jason was looking forward to my "metal work", so I hope He likes this one, since it is a bit obscured by counter wrapped hackle.

Drawing Flies 52_39 Bunyan Bug

Drawing Flies 52_39 Bunyan Bug

Original status: SOLD

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

Tech Info- Watercolor and gouache 140 lbs watercolor paper.

I created this quick sketch in my new watercolor sketchbook. The paper did not react to the watercolor in the manner I am use to, but I will have to work with it some more to get the hang of it. I am going to leave the story of the Bunyan Bug up to Jason, due to his connection with "The River Runs Through It". The Bunyan Bug is one of those flies that not only looks good and catches fish, but has a story that captures your imagination. Below is a full blown painting I did of the Bunyan Bug. This one took more than 30 minutes due to the complex layering of washes, but I thought it would be of interest in this post. . The final picture is an in progress shot of the initial wash, my palette and brushes.

Post on Captain Rusty Hook

The Captain Rusty Hook blog has a nice post about Drawing Flies 365. You can read it here (You will have to use the translate function in your browser unless you are fluent in Italian!). Thanks for the nice post Captain! While you are visiting, be sure to check out his other posts.

Drawing Flies 52_38 Joliette Hopper

Drawing Flies 52_38 Joliette Hopper

Original status: Available, email me for information. Prints are available.

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

Tech Info- Watercolor and gouache 140 lbs watercolor paper.

This is one of my favorite hopper patterns for late Summer trout in the Wisconsin Driftless area. Many a fish have fallen prey to this great pattern. I used a very tattered and beat up fly from my box as reference. If I painted it the way it looks now, it would almost be unrecognizable as a hopper. I just returned from a week long watercolor color workshop up in Northern Wisconsin. This was the first painting I did after returning. Nothing seemed to work the way I had envisioned. The brush felt sluggish, color mixing was off, but I struggled through and did the best I could today.

Drawing Flies 52_37 Rusty Spinner

Drawing Flies 52_37 Rusty Spinner

Original status: Available, email me for information. Prints are available.

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

Tech Info- Watercolor and gouache 140 lbs watercolor paper.

Back to the traditional media I love best. I was going for the look of the spinner laying on top of the water withe the Z-lon wings and tail fibers supporting it. Great simple and effective pattern. More on this later.

Drawing Flies 52_36 Dahlberg Diver

Drawing Flies 52_36 Dahlberg Diver

Original status: email me for information. Prints are available.

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

Tech Info- Dirty sidewalk, 1600 PSI pressure washer, 15 degree tip and water.

Now for something completely different! I was instructing my Son on how to pressure wash our real dirty sidewalk. It suddenly occurred to me that this section of sidewalk would make a great canvas. I grabbed the pressure washer and started drawing, I mean washing, this image of the Dahlberg Diver. I evened signed it. The image only lasted an hour, before my Son cleaned it away.

Just Exercising the Brushes

I discovered this pencil sketch in my watercolor sketchbook and decided to get the brushes out and go at it. I had nothing in mind as far as colors type of fly or values when I started. I just wanted this to be a spontaneous fun piece.

This original is available - email me for details.

Drawing Flies 52_35 Crazy Charlie

Drawing Flies 52_35 Crazy Charlie

Original status: email me for information. Prints are available.

Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of a Crazy Charlie!

Tech Info- Digital rendering in PhotoShop using Wacom pressure pen and monitor.

Went digital again with this one. A real quick monochromatic study using my Photoshop brush arsenal. I have been wanting to work on my digital drawing still, so I may experiment with a few more flies.

En Plein Air Trailer

en Plein Air (official trailer) from Wildman Pictures on Vimeo.

Friend and fellow artist Jared Shear at Terrapeer, shared this trailer to a new independent movie about plein air painting in the proposed Scotchmans Wilderness Area. There is nothing better than some great hiking, fellowship and plein air painting!

Drawing Flies 52_34 Hornberg

Drawing Flies 52_34 Hornberg

Original status: email me for information. Prints are available.

Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of a Hornberg!

Tech Info- Digital rendering in PhotoShop using Wacom pressure pen and monitor.

Decided to do something different this week. I decided to sharpen my digital skills a bit and figured this was as good a time as any to do it. Started by creating a neutral gray background. It is always hard to get started with a big old white canvas staring back at you. I then roughly sketched it the shapes then started blocking in color using my "Chalk" brush. I have created a set of digital sketching and painting brushes that I like to use for this kind of work. I continue building shapes and values, just as I would when I use watercolor and gouache. One has to remember that digital painting is just a tool, the fundamentals are the same. I will say though that there is no "Control Z" or "Undo" key with conventional painting!

I have tied a couple of Hornbergs, but I cannot say that I have had great success with them. The Hornberg was developed a retired Wisconsin Conservation Warden named Frank Hornberg. The fly has been known to imitate a large sedge or a small minnow. Knowing that Frank was from Wisconsin, my bet is that the later was what he was striving for.

The Hornberg can range from "Real Scruffy looking" to more refined as I have shown. I chose this look because I new time would be a factor when rendering the mallard. I recall seeing seeing a while back a rendition of a Hornberg where the the tips of the mallard were brought together and glued with some head cement. That is the way I decided to render it.

There is nothing like jungle cock as great method to draw your eye to the center of interest on this fly!

Drawing Flies 52_33 Takayama Sakasa Kebri

Drawing Flies 52_33 Takayama Sakasa Kebri

Original status: SOLD

Swing by Jason's blog to check out his rendition of a Tenkara fly!

Tech Info- Watercolor stock, Bamboo pen, sepia ink, gouache and watercolor.

Jason through down artist choice on a Tenkara fly this week. I have to admit that I did not know that much about Tenkara. So I went to the web to do a bit of research. I was fornutate to come across the Tenkara USA site, which is chock full of information and videos. For those who are not familiar with Tenkara, the site states - " Tenkara is the traditional Japanese method of flyfishing which uses only a rod, line and fly. Tenkara is a category of fly fishing particularly well-suited for fishing streams and for fishing while back packing. It's a very effective, simple and enjoyable method of fly-fishing small streams."

I scanned the page that had the flies listed on it and chose the Takayama Sakasa Kebri. According to the site - "The Takayama Sakasa Kebari are thought to be one of the older "sakasa" (reverse hackle) patterns used in tenkara fly fishing. It's an "elaborate" fly compared to some of the other tenkara patterns, for this one has a peacock herl collar, and a "butt". We'll never know whether it really is one of the oldest sakasa flies,but it's a beautiful one.

These are tied with the softer part of a hackle, which makes them a great mix of soft-hackle wet flies, and the stiffer hackle sakasa flies. They can be very effectively fished as a wet fly (swung), or by giving it some life by light twitches on your rod."

I really like the look of the reverse hackle, and I am always a sucker for peackock herl and a bright butt! I was not quite sure which painting approach I should take with this fly. At first I thought something similar, like the fishing style itself. Then I thought about something with an oriental flair. I scanned my arsenal and decided, I had to use a bamboo pen! I layed down some sepia ink, then folowed it up with the color. After reading more about these flies, I was curious as to the idea behing the reverse hackle.Since the hackle is more of a soft style, I imagine that it flows back when swung, creating an inciting look! Swing by Tenkara USA and check all there is to offer about Tenkara.

Drawing Flies 52_32 Serendipity

Drawing Flies 52_32 Serendipity

Original status: email me for information..

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

Tech Info- Oatmeal paper stock, Graphite pencil, gouache and watercolor.

I was not sure exactly how to approach this weeks fly. I intended to pull out the old standbys, bamboo pen, sepia ink. Instead I went with a graphite sketch and then threw down some watercolor and gouache. Keeping true to the the name, I used all warm colors, creating a calm and serene feeling.

The serendipity was the second fly I fished when I started fly fishing. Unfortunately, it did not produce, but I will try it again when the time is right.

Drawing Flies 52_31 Brassie

Drawing Flies 52_31 Brassie

Original status: SOLD

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

Tech Info- Gouache, Watercolor and sepia ink and bamboo pen on 140 lbs. watercolor stock.

Created this one in a similar method as the leadwing. I started by laying down ink lines with my bamboo pen and sepia ink. The bamboo pen is a great tool to use for drawing. You can great great thick and thin lines by adjusting the pressure when drawing. I also break up the lines by using a spray bottle.

This pattern is a great imitation of a caddis larva. I have spent considerable time turning over rocks in the streams and rivers I fish. The most abundant insect that I encounter is the cased caddis. The brassie imitates the unfortunate caddis whose anal proledges cannot overcome the natural or unnatural dislodging forces. The wire wraps get the pattern down in the water column and the peacock hurl is a wonderful representation of the emerging legs from the case. A simple yet effective pattern.

Drawing Flies 52_29 Loop Wing Dun

Drawing Flies 52_29 Loop Wing PMD Dun

Original status: email me for information..

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

Tech Info- Gouache, Watercolor on medium gray Canson paper.

I really like to tie and fish parachute patterns. A loop wing parachute would make a great combination to tie and to fish!

Drawing Flies 52_28 Chironomid

Drawing Flies 52_28 Chironomid

Original status: email me for information..

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

Tech Info- Watercolor, gouache, sepia ink and graphite pencil.

I found this pattern a few months back and really fell for the shape. It is a chrionomid emerger pattern that I though was unique and different.

Just got back from our family vacation this evening. We visited family in the "Tip of the Mitt" in Michigan. More information to follow after I adjust from vacation mode.

Drawing Flies 52_27 Damselfly

Drawing Flies 52_27 Damselfly

Original status: SOLD

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

Tech Info- Watercolor on 140 lbs Arches watercolor paper.

We tied this pattern during one of our regular Monday night club meetings. John M. from our club demonstrated this pattern and swears by it's effectiveness. John spends time every year chasing smallmouth in Sylvania and has great luck with this pattern.

I rendered this pattern from the top because I liked the shape of the foam tail and the great flash and marker patterned wings.