No. 334

"Up Close" (and personal) Graphite pencil on Moleskine.

No. 333

"Grizzly King" Graphite in Moleskine sketchbook.

No. 332

"Blue Charm" Graphite and gouache on moleskine. We spent the Thanksgiving Holiday with my wife's family in Michigan. I brought my Moleskine sketchbook some assorted paints and an arsenal of graphite pencils. I drew this fly in graphite and added the blue bird as an accent. Something different for Friday's fly.

No. 331

"Thanksgiving Fly" Sepia ink and watercolor. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

No. 330

"Alewife Spey" Watercolor and gouache. This is a fantastic Midwest Steelhead pattern created by the talented tyer Jon U at Chicago Fly Fishing Outfitters. I am not exactly pleased with the way this one turned out. It was a bit of a struggle to get the look I was aiming for. I will have to try again.

No. 329

Original - SOLD - prints available for sale. Email me for details.

"Pretty in Pink Dee" Watercolor and Gouache. This is a Marty Howard Pattern. Drop By The Spey Pages to check out more of his flies.

No. 328

"Pretty in Pink Dee" A quick sketch for tomorrows painting.

Latest Press

I know this has nothing to do with drawing flies, but I am still going to announce it here anyways. I had three paintings published in the November/December issue of Ducks Unlimited Magazine. My good friend Bob White who has illustrations regularly published in this and many publications, called and asked if I would be interested in creating paintings for an article for the DU Magazine. This was a bit of a challenge for me due to the fact that I have never been duck hunting and the paintings involved some rather close ups of people. Well, I took the challenge and the following is the result. The paintings were developed around the well written story by Dave Books.

No. 327

"Scarlet Ibis" Watercolor and gouache. This is for Kurt at the Connecticut Fly Fishermans Association.

No. 326

"Leaf Hopper" Raked 35 bags of leaves this Saturday. This leaf bag has a hopper drawn on it with my trusty Sharpie. I wonder if the Sanitation Engineers will notice?

No. 325

"Wreath Wet" Our family took on the task of managing our churches youth group wreath sales this year. As I was waiting for people to pick up their wreathes, I found a scrap piece of card board, drew this fly and adorned a wreath with it. Some individual walked off with a fly in their wreath!

No. 324

"Fungi Fly" I found this big fungus growing off a dead tree stump. I decided to adorn it with a parachute dry.

Kellen's Metal Art

Kellen is an extremely talented artist and welder. Stop by his blog and check out some of his work. Who knows what he will come up with next!

No. 323

"Gold Fly" 3d Digital. I was working in my 3D SolidWorks program most of the week. During lunch I created this fly.

Fly Fishing Yellowstone

Guy over at Fly Fishing Yellowstone has a very nice post about Drawing Flies 365. Thanks Guy.

No. 322

"Rusty Rat Sketch" Another get to know you sketch".

No. 321

"Ibis Sketch" Felt tip pen, marker on sketch paper. A quick "get to know you" sketch for an upcoming painting. I do these sketches before creating a painting to get a feel for the proportions and shapes of the fly.

No. 320

"Firestick Caddis" Burnt firewood on sketch paper. Another one drawn the next morning as I downed a cup of camp coffee on a 25 degree morning. This is a Goddard Caddis a I drew from memeory. Chuck B. from our tying club NIFT demonstrated it a week back.

No. 319

"Firestick Dry" Burnt firewood on sketch paper. My youngest Son and I were on bay Scout camp out this weekend. While sitting by the fire, I found a piece of burnt wood on the ground. I thouoght that this would make some fine drawing charcoal. So I grabbed my sketch book and drew this in the light of the campfire.

Stay Tuned

I will be without internet access this weekend. I will have the weekend flies posted on Monday.
On another note, The year end is closing fast. I have just enough days to get in all the requested flies. I will also have an announcement soon as to what the future will hold. Also stay tuned for a holiday sale on prints.

No. 318

"Black and Orange" Gouache on Moleskine.

No. 317

"Red Frances" Watercolor and Gouache. This suggestion comes from Ýmir from Iceland. According to Ýmir "This fly is one of the deadliest Icelandic fly of all times on a gold treble hook!"

No. 316

"Dark Spruce" Gouache in my Moleskine sketch book.

No. 315

"Palette Knife Salmon Fly" Watercolor and Gouache. This was a bit of an experiment. I sprayed the watercolor paper with some water. I then used a palette knife and spread paint on the paper straight from the tube. I moved it around and scraped at it with the palette knife. The colors blended with the water to create some interesting shapes. I added a touch of gouache to help define the fly.

No. 314

"Migratory Ink Fly" Ink and water on bond paper. I grabbed a paintbrush and loaded it with plain water and just started painting. No guides just plain water on the paper. After I finished, I dropped ink in at the hook eye. It was the coolest thing to watch the migrate through the water to all parts of the fly. I will have to do this again and shoot a video of the process.

No. 313

"Alewife Spey Quick Sketch" Sharpie on bond paper. Life has kept me away from the computer the past few days. I have not stopped drawing the flies though. This is Sunday's post and the day that went with it:

Alarm goes off at 4:55 a.m.
Get clothes on and jump in the truck to head to my fishing buddy Corey's house.
Head out to Milwaukee River for steel head fishing at 6:00 a.m.
Weather conditions: Air temp 33 degrees F, snow flurries, gusty winds. Water temp 46 degrees F. perfect steelhead weather!
Meet up with two guys from our club to instruct them on spey casting.
Corey lands a nice buck steelhead on an Alewife Spey.
15 minutes later, I land a buck steelhead on an Alewife Spey.
Eat lunch.
Fish the rest of the afternoon until dark. Chip ice off of guides.
Get home around 7:30 p.m.
Hang waders, clean gear.
Eat dinner.
Shower.
draw fly.
Go to bed.
What a great day!

This pattern mimics the alewife bait fish that the steelhead feed on during the Summer in Lake Michigan. The pattern was developed by A fantastic tier and fisherman named Jon Ulenhope from Chicago Fly Fishing Outfitters. You will see a nice painted version of this fly in the upcoming weeks. You can see the tube pattern in the pictures. My version varies from Jon's in that I added the jungle cock nails.

No. 312

"Deep Sparkle Pupa" Gouache on Moleskine. A great Gary LaFontaine pattern.

No. 311

"Partridge and Orange" Gouache in my Moleskine sketchbook.

No. 310

"Rubber leg Black Stone Nymph" Moleskine sketchbook amd gouache. This one was suggested by Robin Roberts.

No. 309

"Jock O' Dee" Gouache in Moleskine sketchbook. I liked yesterdays so I tried it again. I like the shape of this Dee fly so I grabbed the brush and started painting. To learn more about Moleskin sketchbooks, click here.

The Envelope Please....

The winner for this months print is................Sarah Sanford! I will send you an email with all of the details. Congrats Sarah!

No. 308

" Ally's Shrimp" Gouache in my Moleskin sketchbook. Great traditional steelhead pattern.

No. 307

"Sunkist Emerger" Sepia pen and watercolor in sketchbook. Another from the Hatches Magazine.

No. 306

"Buzz Kill" Sepia pen in sketch book. Cool looking pattern I found in the latest Hatches Magazine.

No. 305

"Bunyan Bug Sketch" From the sketchbook on Saturday. A quick study for a future painting.

Weekend Posts

I was busy and away from the computer this weekend. I will post the weekend flies later today.