Shanny-gins

Today I started on the shanny blenny - Lipophrys pholis. I had painted the black background last week,  sized my drawing slightly smaller to fit on the paper better and traced it ready to start this week.

After transferring that tracing to the black background I then painted in a base coat of a neutral greyish brown... it is a colour in my palette that I have no idea what colours have gone in over the months even years to make it. 

That's what I like about gouache, it is very economical in that you can mix a batch of colour and if you don't use it all, you just leave it in the pallette - it dries out and stays like that until water is added again... this can be months or even years later and if the colour isn't quite what is needed, more colour(s) can be added. So I have a batch of pallettes that I very rarely clean... I have colours there which I use time and time again, added to with other colours to adapt to whatever illustration I have going, or left because, as with this particular neutral greyish brown, it is perfect as it is for a specific job like a base coat. I have a pallette for brown tones, one for greens and several wih a variety of neutral tones and other colours.  I do, of course have one or two pallettes that are kept clean for things like white mixes. 

Onto my base colour, when it is thoroughly dry (I often wander off to check my emails or do a little job that doesn't take very long - like today I swept around the studio and took the rubbish out) I used a dry brush method to add a layer of a greenish yellow grey... still fairly neutral but just a touch more colour than the base coat. I do this all over the head and body of the shanny. I do this to start creating the motley pattern that this fish skin has (shanny do not have scales but a smooth looking skin). It also adds texture allowing further coats of colour, when added, to continue with the motley look.

Next I start laying a few washes over the body to start to add a little form, putting in the lateral line, gill covers a shading to the underside of the body and along the lateral line and around the head. I also put in some rough colour for the eye, using a muted orange.

I add some definition to the eye and form of the head

In this close up of the head, at this stage in the painting you can see some of the washes applied to the head.

Now I work back along the body roughing in the darker patches on the shanny's markings using a warm pale brown. this is deliberately done with a on precise brush stroke to add to the motley effect.

 I now paint a greeny grey onto and between the brownish patches tosoften the effect and tie them together.

Back to the head and now I start applying random dots in a slightly darker brown to start work on the motley markings.

Along with this progress on the shanny I did a few of the odd little jobs that I tend to forget or put aside... among those were sweeping the studio and taking out the rubbish, emptying the 'paper to be recycled' box and taking the full bag out to the bins to be collected. Ordering more green bags for the 'paper to be recycled' box and also ordering 10 sheets of watercolour paper from the local office/art stationery supplier we use. I am now using the last sheet of a large pack of 56x76cm approx 300grm Sanders watercolour paper that I think I have gradually got through over the last 17 years. (I am sure it was here when I started this job!) This paper is generally used only for the fish illustrations and I cut  a piece smaller than A4 for each fish, so no wonder it has last so long. 

At 5pm I was feeling i the need of a naughty treat so I did a Choccie Run' to the vending machines out in the zoo. Unfortunately the one nearest the building I work in wanted only the correct change and I wanted one that would give me change so my Choccie Run' was a little further than anticipated but it was worth it as on the walk back to the studio I noticed the lovely love warm cast of light from the sinking sun catching the tree tops in the grounds against the beautiful blue sky that we have had today. And in each tree that I passed there was a bird or two sat, either singing its heart out or settled down quietly on a branch or twig. The lack of leaves and lovely light allowed me to easily see the birds - two robins competing with songs for territory claims in different trees, blackbirds -  male and female, great tit also proclaiming its right to something very loudly, a jackdaw added its two penny worth, two collared doves snuggled up quietly, a blue tit searching through bits of lichen and  a wood pigeon also hunkered down quietly. The air was full of bird song- twitterings, trills, cheeps, caws... all sorts of song bound together with the low sunlight and blue sky to give me that definitive 'Spring is here' feeling. What a way to end the day!