Happy New Year! ✨🐟 ✨ 2023 #SundayFishSketch Collection

Geometrically speaking, the always stunning Manta Ray ("if you could be any fish" theme, 13 Feb) and the Egg Case spiral (Mother's Day theme, 15 May) were probably the most satisfying to create. 

Enjoy this diverse piscean array and Happy 2024! Wishing you a creative, healthy and expansive year ahead.

31 December, 2023: The tail end of #25DaysofFishmas was the flashy silver salmon. Fitting for the #newyears #fishytheme too as we surf the flows and eddies that 2024 may bring… #HappyNewYear2024 fishy friends!  

17 December, 2023: An Arctic Grayling for this week’s #SundayFishSketch - the mystery fish for last week’s #fishsketch / #25DaysofFishmas combo. I’ve always wanted to paint one of these beauties so took a bit of extra time with this salmon relative that smells like thyme. 

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4 December: Three-spined stickleback emerging from his nest for #SundayFishSketch. He’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas for #25DaysofFishmas .

27 November : A lionfish, also known as turkey fish, and its flamboyant larva, for #SundayFishSketch Thanksgiving theme. A repost but nice to see them together, as it is all about family... Happy turkey day! #sciart #fishart

Novermber: A bit of a cheat for this week’s upside down #SundayFishSketch. I couldn’t draw much so went with repost of recent whale shark, this time with some associated remoras, who really should have been there all along anyway…#sciart #fishart 

12 November: I was garateful to have an excuse to illustrate this fascinating #livingfossil and have garnered a new appreciation for the splendid spotted gar, smallest & spottiest of the seven living species (~3 ft). Garrreat gar themed #SundayFishSketch

5 November: The striking tiger shark (Galeocerdo cuvier) is the only extant species in the genus Galeocerdo, making it monotypic, the theme for this week’s #SundayFishSketch . It is part of the requiem shark family, 1/3 of which are #endangered, %68 threatened (IUCN). #conservation #SciArt

30 October: The eel-ish Hagfish for #SundayFishSketch #Halloween & #Sciartober #slimy theme. This jawless vertebrate has a cartilaginous skull but no skeleton. It can produce abundant slime to protect itself/escape from predators & can tie itself in a knot to avoid a face full of its own goo. #sciart

1 October: #SundayFishSketch & last of #SciartSeptember co-prompts: #rebirth. In ancient Egypt, two sacred pilot fish would have protected the sun god Ra during his nightly journey through the underworld- shepherding his solar barge to sunrise each day, a sun reborn   #sciart #fishart

27 September: A shimmery False Albacore for recent #SundayFishSketch and #SciArtSeptember combo metallic theme. Like other tunas, the "little tunny" has a silvery, reflective body, helping it to confuse potential predators. #sciart #fishart

18 September: A Picasso Triggerfish for #SundayFishSketch and #SciArtSeptember combo #abstract prompt. The vibrantly marked Rhinecanthus is the Hawaiian state fish, also known as as Humuhumunukunukuapua’a, meaning “snout like a pig”. #sciart #fishart

Another fun fishy #SciartSeptember / #SundayFishSketch combo theme: #gossamer. ASargasso sea dragon and his lovely leafy fins. #SciArt #fishart

3 September: A puffer fish and his magnificent sand mandala for #SundayFishSketch and #SciArtSeptember favourite fish crossover theme. It takes the industrious 5 inch male 7-9 days to complete a 7 ft circular design which it will use to attract a mate and during courtship. #sciart #fishart

17 July: The splendidly spotty Brown Trout for #SundayFishSketch fishes of Virginia theme. Native to Europe and Asia, Salmo trutta is thought to be one of the most valuable fish species introduced to North America. Produced some years ago for trout fans #fishart #sciart #troutart

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9 July: A marigold swordtail for #SundayFishSketch 'fish with flower names' theme . In this vibrant Central American cichlid, males can develop a sword- like tail extension along with a modified anal fin or gonopodium. #sciart #fishart

Happy #fathersday to all the dad types! Male sticklebacks create circular nests, dance to attract mates, fan resulting eggs, then guard eggs and young in the nicely crafted nest. A pretty good  dad. #sundayfishsketch #sciart #fishart #dadoftheyear

 

13 June: A wee Northern Redbelly Dace for yesterday’s #SundayFishSketch “Fishes of Nebraska” theme. It has become threatened in some states possibly due to erosion and changes in water temperature. Dace comes from “Darz”, the Old French word for dart. #sciart #conservation #fishart

4 June: Here's a Barreleye for this week's #SundayFishSketch open day. Started for@drawanotherfish 's inside-a-fish theme. Their upward pointing eyes can spot prey above thru transparent heads. #sciart #procreateart

 

A satisfyingly geometric tweaked past post of a pineapple fish for #SundayFishSketch “fish with plant names” theme. Fishy Fun with #hexagons! #sciart #patternsinnature

15 May: A spiral of egg cases for all those who mother. Also delightfully known as mermaid’s purses, they hold tiny, growing skates, rays and sharks. For #SundayFishSketch Mother’s Day theme. Nice to be back after a little hiatus. #sciart #fishart. Happy #MothersDay !

21 March: A belated biofluorescent Eel, Anguilla japonica, for #SundayFishSketch green theme. Its muscle contains a GFP (green fluorescent protein) unique to vertebrates but similar to that found in some fluorescent jellyfish. #sciart #biofluorescence #fishart

12 March: The Southern Saratoga or Australian Arowana, often found near the surface of slow or still waters, known to leap above to capture insects, frogs and other prey. #SundayFishSketch leaping forward theme #SpringAhead #sciart #procreateart

6 March: "Shark Lady” Eugenie Clark was devoted to raising awareness of shark behavior & conservation, established the Mote Marine Lab, inspired countless budding marine biologists & discovered that the Moses Sole produces a shark deterring chemical. #SundayFishSketch #WomensDay

13 February: For #SundayFishSketch, "if you could be any fish, what would it be" theme. Perhaps the marvelous manta ray. Its grace and triangularity is so appealing... #sciart #geometryofnature #vesicapisces #triquetra

 

5 February: The Oyster Toadfish composes its boat-whistle mating call with a series of grunts & hoops. #SundayFishSketch noisy fish theme.This species was sent to space with John Glenn as part of an MBL (Marine Biological Lab, Woods Hole) study looking at the effects of microgravity on the vestibular system.  #sciart

24 January: It’s the #YearOfTheRabbit so here’s a gold spotted rabbitfish for a belated #SundayFishSketch “free for all” theme. Happy #ChineseNewYear #yearoftherabbit2023 ! May it be creative and contemplative   #fishart #sciart

16 January: The ethereal smallspine spookfish for #SundayFishSketch wintery theme. As its ghostly looks suggest, it lives at depths of 2600 m or deeper. One of the smallest of the long-nosed chimaera, this species has sensory nerves on its snout and a venomous dorsal spine. #sciart #fishart

8 January: A Northern Seahorse for #SundayFishSketch, fish with water body names theme. Male seahorses guard developing young in their brood pouch where up to 150 tiny seahorses, less than half an inch long, will eventually emerge. #sciart #fishart

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