A few months back I was commissioned to paint a scene from the Smith River in Montana. It was for Lady whose husband is an avid fly fisherman. Since I love Fly Fishing and painting rivers this was a perfect commission for me to do. Ideally I would have liked to go on site an do some sketches of the river in person to paint from, but seeing that it was still winter and the River is in Montana that was not going to happen so I settled for working from photos. After some black and white composition/ value studies and a watercolor sketch of the scene I decided on a composition.
The challenge of this painting was the large cliffs in the background I did not want them to be too detailed and distracting since the river and the fisherman are the focal point of the painting but they are obviously an important element. I really like the finished painting I feel there is good color harmony and composition, I like the reflection of the cliffs on the water and the sun coming through the trees on the upper left. The fisherman were another challenge since this painting was for a fly fisherman they had to look accurate. I think they came out good I did a page of sketches of fisherman in different stages of casting to make sure I didn't mess up the whole painting however there is one small error with the fisherman's line (it does not go through the lowest eye on the rod... oops) but I don't think too many people will notice.
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| Fly Fishing the Smith River, Watercolor 22" x 30" Commissioned Painting |
