"Up Close" (and personal) Graphite pencil on Moleskine.
Sunday, November 30, 2008
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.
Thursday, November 27, 2008
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.
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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.
Monday, November 24, 2008
Sunday, November 23, 2008
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!
Saturday, November 22, 2008
No. 323
"Gold Fly" 3d Digital. I was working in my 3D SolidWorks program most of the week. During lunch I created this fly.
Friday, November 21, 2008
Fly Fishing Yellowstone
Guy over at Fly Fishing Yellowstone has a very nice post about Drawing Flies 365. Thanks Guy.
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
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.
Friday, November 14, 2008
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.
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.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
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!"
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
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.
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
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.
Saturday, November 8, 2008
Friday, November 7, 2008
No. 310
"Rubber leg Black Stone Nymph" Moleskine sketchbook amd gouache. This one was suggested by Robin Roberts.
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
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!
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
Monday, November 3, 2008
Weekend Posts
I was busy and away from the computer this weekend. I will post the weekend flies later today.