Wednesday, May 13, 2009

WIP Reef - Fairy Basslets

coral reef colored pencil drawing in progressI saw a photo from the Great Barrier Reef with these tiny little orange fish in it, and knew I had to put them in my drawing. I couldn't find out what they were, though, until a trip to the New England Aquarium. These fish are orange fairy basslets (Pseudanthias squamipinnis), apparently an uncommon color based on the number of Google image hits I get, also called sea goldies or lyretail coralfish. They are 3-7 inches long and live in very large schools. So large, in fact, that I think I'll be adding a bunch more to my drawing.

orange fairy basslets, lyretail coralfish, sea goldies drawingAlthough these guys are very small, there is a lot of color packed in each one. I used a base of poppy red on top, limepeel on the belly, deco yellow on the yellow parts, and Spanish orange everywhere else. Tuscan red outlines the eyes with a black center, and the stripe behind the eye is process red. I layered orange on top of the body.

References:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudanthias_squamipinnis

3 comments:

ButlerWifey said...

This is amazing. I can't wait to see the finished product!!

Val said...

Very pretty!

Heather Ward said...

Thank you!