Tinted gesso on the canvas, layer one of three.
The projector, projecting the image onto to the wall to see what it’s going to look like. This isn’t my photograph, of course. It’s from a Blue Planet program. The photographer is Tony Wu.
The drawing on the canvas, with one layer of paint on the fish.
The original photograph. I got this online.
A look at the painting and the photographs I printed as reference. The fish is called a Sheepshead Wrasse, or Kobudai in Japanese.
More work done on the ‘bumpfish’ painting. I started the scales on the right hand side.
I painted the first layer on the scales. I wanted lighter and darker stripes running down the side.
Now I’m blending the colours to make the stripes less distinct.
The whole fish, with the scales and the lighter areas painted on the top of the fish.
I started the fish on the left hand side. I also did some of the seaweed in the background, just to paint something in a different colour.
Layer one of the paint on the scales on the left-hand side. The fin wasn’t as hard to do as I thought it was going to be. There wasn’t much definition in the original photograph.
Layer 2 of 3 on the fish on the left.
The scales on the left hand side are finished. I also added some more green and blue paint to the bottom of the fish.
O.k. so I missed a few in-between steps here…
A closer look at the seaweed details.
I think it’s pretty much finished. I have to try to take a good picture, then I can varnish it.
The finished painting, varnished.