My Second Attempt At Painting Koi Fish

The first time around, I was less than impressed with the way my Koi fish painting had turned out. This time I changed a few techniques up and used several reference photos in order to get the details a little more accurate. Given that this is only my second try at painting these scaly friends, I think it came out rather good.

Watching Koi Fish Is So Relaxing ..

I never want to pass up an opportunity to spend a little time watching Koi, so I thought why not make a painting of one in order to get that quality viewing time in. Great Idea! So here we are (again) today.

The Process ..

This time I am going to skip the part where I tape a piece of watercolor paper to my work space, and sketch out the fish. One reason being that I forgot to take a photo of that part. haha, sometimes that happens, so we will just skip a few steps.

Below you will see the first few layers of water color. I applied these large areas of water using a wet on wet technique. I wet the paper first then apply the water color to allow it to spread out in random patterns. I Used an aquamarine color and then dabbed a darker cobalt blue over top of that.

I tried to get the water as close to the outline of the fish as possible, then allowed everything to dry before moving to the next step. I then turned my attention to the Koi fish. I did not paint this wet on wet this time, so that my colors would not run too much. Instead, I loaded up my small brush and dabbed the orange color in random spots, trying to keep a nice balance of white and orange areas.

The white just seemed to be too white, so I added in some gray shades and even applied some of that aquamarine along the edges of the fins and sides. I also used some black for the eye, top fin, tail and mouth. The fish is really starting to take shape, and may be close to done at this point.

And I would mess with it much more except for some very light highlights. Instead, I turned my attention to that large area to the right hand side of the painting. I wanted to randomly paint in some lily pads.

Again, I don't paint a lot of lily pads, so this was a little bit of a challenge. They came out okay, but I am glad they don't stand out too much. The last thing I wanted was them to distract from the fish.

The last thing on my to do list, was to paint in a few small details. I added in a few dark blotches of blue paint to the right of the fish, and used a firm bush and then splattered blue paint over the whole painting. The paper seemed to absorb most of those blotches except in a few of the lighter areas.

I mixed up some thick white water color and applied that to the edges of the lily pads and made some swirls or turbulent areas near the fish. It's cool how just a few highlights change things and tie it all together.

The Finished Un-named Painting ..

I finished everything up by gently pulling off the tape and revealing those crisp clean bordered edges. It's always a nice sight and good feeling to see the finished product and clean edges. There was a slight bit of paint bleed at the top left and bottom right, and I figured this may happen. I had a fight with the tape when applying it. lol. (I since bought some new easy to use tape).

So What Do We Think?

I am very thrilled with this second attempt at Koi and even think a larger piece could be in the picture. We'll have to see about that. I won't make any firm commitments because I tend to bounce all over the place with my painting subject ideas. I like to mix things up and try my hand at new subject material, that way I don't loose interest.

If you think you have a good name for this piece, let me know in the comments!

“Japanese goldfish,
With your gossamer tail,
You are the loveliest creature
I have ever seen."

"Japanese kitten,
Put your tongue back in where it belongs
And go away. I know exactly what you are thinking.”
― Paul Gallico, Honorable Cat

Thank you for swinging by my blog and checking out the post. Have a great day!

All words, pictures and art pieces are the sole property of B D Miller Gallery, unless otherwise noted and credited, and are not to be reproduced or copied without the prior written consent of B D Miller Gallery.

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