Ant & Past Sketches

Here is a little drowned ant.  I love fishing the ant.  Hungry fish love these little guys on small inaccessible streams.  The variations are many with the ant and I have posted a few of them in the past but this one is drowned and meant to be fished just under the surface on a 'dead' drift.

And as I mentioned late yesterday, here are some of my past sketches using the wet pencil.  I have used these special pencil in the past for monochromanic sketches of future paintings or just as a practice on value painting.  Most of these are from a 2007 sketch book. 

 How you use the pencil is fairly simple.  Sketch out the subject then start dropping in water to smooth out the pencil eventualy giving the work a depth of contrast and texture you cant get without the pencil.  It is a perfect way to prepair for a watercolor work because the pencil and water react to the brush much the same as the watercolor pigments.  My favorite of these is the Huey's.

On the fishing front, It has gotten a bit cool down here lately and in the comming weeks I have a few days off and plan to hit up some serious trout fishing.  Keep an eye out for some fishy posts.