Carolynburger’s Blog

I recently decided to paint another fish under the ocean. I searched through photos and library books trying to find something interesting and colorful. I found pictures of many colorful and interesting tropical fish and decided to paint a butterfly fish among the bright coral found in the Caribbean. I like the dark stripes on the very light body which makes the fish stand out in the painting. Painting many smaller fish in a scene tends to keep the eye moving back and forth too much in my opinion. So I put only one large fish in the painting with a dark background and a variety of bright red, orange and yellow coral. The blue starfish behind the fish also adds an interesting color and variation.

It took about 8-10 hours to paint this piece. The fish was easy to paint, but the coral was difficult because there were so many shadows, movement and variations of light to show in the coral. Painted with acrylic paint, I used a glossy acrylic gel made by Liquitex to make the paint able to blend more easily and increase the drying time. The piece is painted on a linen board which was rather smooth. I had to put at least 3 to 4 layers of paint on the background and coral, and have about 5-6 layers of paint on the fish to make it have a bright pearl-like appearance. Without the acrylic gel medium, I would have had to revert to painting it with oil paint which blends more easily. But I am glad I could paint the entire piece in acrylic so that I could have brilliant colors and a glossy appearance.

Now I hope that I can find a frame for the piece that will complement it.