One Fish Two Fish

8.5″x11″, Colored Pencil

Technique
I was a commercial fisherman in Alaska for three summers. The experience toughened me up and taught me a strong work ethic. I also developed a taste and appreciation for salmon that hasn’t gone away. Much to my wife’s frustration to this day I still refuse to buy ‘farmed’ salmon (salmon that have been raised in live pens) due to the economical undercut they put on the commercial fisherman. All of this said, salmon fascinate me with their limited life span, how they travel down river and change from fresh water to salt water existence. How they fight their way to stay alive for their entire life out in the ocean, in the river and IF they make it all the way back fight for the right to spawn die shortly after. Makes me tired just to think about it, yet challenged to keep persevering in my life of comfort.

Photoshop
With darkening the dark values I lost some of the finner details in my background value. This is something that I have since very much worked hard at improving in my other drawings. I adjusted the saturation values of color and brightened the fish up substantially. The effect resulted in a striking contrast with my dark background and my bright fish in the foreground.