Drawing Flies 52 Connemara. Number 2 pencil (everyone’s fave from grade school!) with a dash of white-out pen, all served on a torn piece of craft paper, fresh from the roll.
Tech info: Went for more of a “sitting by the lough” feel with this one. Got the sense I wanted overall, maybe a bit “slick,” [...]

Drawing Flies 52 McGinty. Charcoal sketch with watercolor.
Available for purchase? No.
Tech info: 6″ x 9″ Strathmore paper, medium-soft charcoal with watercolor. I like charcoal in that it is so immediate and so spontaneous. With a toothy paper like I used here, the look and feel almost charts its own path as you go. Of course, charcoal [...]

After the Braided Butt Damsel post, I got a couple of questions about fishing damselfly adult patterns wet. Using the BB Damsel pattern shown, with a yarn parachute post (versus foam), the fly can be fished “damp” easily (just fish “sans floatante“). If you need to get the fly deeper, or are fishing a pattern [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Deceiver (pike/muskie/baby tarpon colors). Had to join the DF 52 digital revolution in my own way (see Jeff’s soft-hackle for more on his first DF 52 digital foray). Pen-and-ink sketch, scanned, set as paths in Adobe Photoshop, exported to Adobe Illustrator, paths adjusted, printed, partly colored, ate the whole 30 minutes like [...]

If you’re not into fly tying the above title could give you pause, but if you are into the “vice of the vise,” then here’s a post for you. This has already been up over on GB’s blog, but I figure why not post it here, as well? This is from GB’s 1991 book, Designing [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Soft Hackle. Almost salmon-style with those long fibers. Pen with some watercolor added with a detail brush. Couldn’t stay away from the color….
Available for purchase? No, kinda like it for myself.
Tech info: 9″ x 12″ Canson tracing paper (I’ve come to really like the gliding smoothness of this razor-thin paper for pen [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Hex Dun in the Comparadun/hairwing-style (as in Hexagenia mayfly). Played with the technique that I ended up lucking into last week, and added a bit to the mix (some pen and some more color on the fly itself). Started a little late today (1:37, ended just before 2:00). Not bad; I see some [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Muddler Minnow. Almost blew it today, but saved it last second with something unexpected (and that I’ll now be using more for sure). I used the entire 30 minutes right to the *ding*, but the final drawing shown only took a few minutes.
Tech info: 9″ x 12″ Canson tracing paper. Mechanical pencil, [...]

FF&W reader and fly tyer, Leng, recently sent me an email and asked about the Cross-Dresser fly design that I had in the Modern Midges book project. Specifically, Leng wanted to know about the wing and other aspects of the fly, since the photo in the book is from only one angle and there are [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Flashback PT. Really pressed for time today, so drew in mechanical pencil (50s-style sleek), and went after it with detail brush, crayon, and some down-and-dirty washing and spattering.
Tech info: 6″ x 9″ Academie sketch pad. Mechanical pencil with watercolor crayon. Had one idea in my head all week, and I flat ran out [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Boss. We like the old-school here at the DF52 project! A classic steelhead/salmon fly, done in a rather “improper” way (but then, my illustrations are frequently tortured into existence via whatever method I can get to work).
Tech info: 9″ x 12″ tracing paper. Mechanical pencil colored with watercolor pencil and watercolor crayon. [...]

Drawing Flies 52 Keys-style tarpon fly. Old-school, with a bit of flash thrown into the wing. Nothing fancy, but it would work…
Tech info: 8-1/2″ x 11″ recycled inkjet paper, inked with an Office Max fine-point roller ball pen (only 79-cents!), and colored with watercolor pencil, watercolor crayon, and a dash of Prismacolor marker. Decided to [...]