Thursday 5 July 2012

Flying Fish



 

Sometimes, it's nice to do something a bit different, and paint a picture from your imagination. I did this picture last week; I saw flying fish and phosphorescence in the Indian Ocean ten years ago, and I used to have a little boat rather like this one, and still have the storm lantern. But that's as far as actual events go. That's the House Teenager there at the tiller....

There's a print of it over on Etsy.


Here's the first flying fish I ever saw; it had landed on deck during the night. It wasn't long after that I saw groups of them, flying out of the way of the boat as we zoomed along; their wings stretched out tight and shiny in the sunlight.



..and this is a drawing of plankton flashing as we zoomed by; I think this is called bioluminescence, and I don't know enough about it to know if it's a different thing from phosphorescence.... it was like silent fireworks, exploding underwater. And, like so much else far out in the ocean, it was something rich and strange.



4 comments:

  1. This is beautiful Dru. Love it. I once did a course in children's book illustration for which we used to on trips to places like the the zoo and Trafalgar square to draw, when we got back to the studio I'd always work on them to make them look really zany and out of this world. It's always nice to use your imagination- it's sort of like putting your own unique mark on it!

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  2. Thank you, Sy! I think I'll have to do some more experimenting too.

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  3. It is when reading posts like this I realise there is still a little bit of magic in the world.

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  4. loads of magic, Bella! May paint the sea monster I saw, next!

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