Fish on a plate

I was not looking forward to this exercise at all, I bought my fish - a rainbow trout and slid it out of its bag and onto the plate. I'm not a squeamish person at all, but I did not enjoy having a fish staring at me. I started by drawing the outlines of the plate and fish very lightly and then once I was satisfied I added watercolour to the coloured areas to add a better density of colour. I did some experiments in my sketchbook and found this way looked best - watercolour with coloured pencil on top. After about an hour or so, I really started to enjoy doing this exercise, and I am really pleased with how it turned out. Although looking at the photo of it I am going to go back to it and sort out the outline of the plate. I mostly used cross hatching to colour the fish in, which added the perfect texture. It was difficult getting the colours right at first, but I think I got the colours quite accurately, and succeeded in showing the iridescent shine the fish has. This is definitely a subject I would like to return to - despite the smell!


Check and Log

What were the main challenges of drawing animals?
I think the main challenge was Ralph not sitting still, which meant having to stop a drawing midway and starting again. I also found it quite challenging drawing the eyes, it is easy to make animals look evil by getting the eyes wrong! 
Which media did you enjoy using most and which did you feel were best for the subject matter and why?I enjoyed using the mechanical pencil when drawing the birds, as these are excellent at getting fine, delicate lines. I also found the charcoal enjoyable as it is nice and loose. And also very forgiving if you make a mistake, or two. The coloured pencils were fantastic for the fish drawing, they blend well together and the cross hatching created the right texture.
Where can you go to draw more animals? Think about the sort of places that will give you opportunities for animal drawing. Have you tried drawing a moving animal yet?
I am lucky to live right by a nature reserve so this will be excellent for practicing bird drawings. I haven't tried drawing a moving animal, I will definitely be revisiting drawing animals as it was enjoyable and I feel there is much more I could do.