St. Luke's Attic

So there I was, snorkeling with the kids, looking for crabs, sand dollars, snails, starfish, whatever and along floats a dead Crevalle Jack. A small one to be sure, but a very fresh one. In fact, it still had a small fish in its throat. I am unable to pass up small gifts like these. So my wife, who is very understanding, advised me to put the fish in the cooler and take it home for later use.

I have been reading a lot about gyotaku lately. Ever since I took up fishing agin, I have been enamored of the idea of printing my fish. This little Jack was a great opportunity to engage in some saltwater gyotaku.

This is the fish as I found it; it has been cleaned, dried and positioned on styrofoam. 

My next step was to paint the fish using oil based relief inks. I tried to approximate the natural colors of the fish, but I think I may have juiced the colors a bit.

This is the print as it looked immediately after having pulled it. The eyes are painted in later, after the print has dried. 

The finished print complete with painted eyes.