A new series that is under way is the Circling Trout Series. This is something I’ve been wanting to do for a while. Inspired by both tattoo art of koi fishes and a painting done by the extremely talented Yusniel Santos, I finally took the time to sketch out a concept and pose I liked.

Starting with the three most popular, Brook/Brown/Rainbow, and adding more to the series as time progresses and allows. These are all done in watercolour pencils with a Copic marker base coat. The first piece, the Brown Trout, was the test piece to try out using the marker background and see how it would work out. This method, which I had never heard of done before, works amazing! I sketched out the general layout and then filled it in with the marker. After I let it thoroughly dry, I begin adding in the watercolour pencils, layer after layer, building up the depth and colour richness. The marker gives a perfect neutral grey background in which I can build from that helps make the colours pop better than your typical white paper background.

Decals are coming very soon for this series and the Atlantic Salmon and Steelhead pieces are underway.