New Painting; Seahorse Part 1

 Well, I like my Northern Pike painting so much that I decided to do a seahorse in the same manner.  My first step was to realize I had no idea what a seahorse looked like, and to wander down to our library.

After checking out three books and closely perusing them, I began to sketch.  There are a number of seahorse species, all with different features.  I had to work out exactly what I wanted in my painting.

Here are some preliminary sketches.

The teal seahorse is painted in fingernail polish.  Just had it sitting there and couldn't resist...

I liked this guy with the trees growing out of his head...

And note the snout.  They don't have teeth, they just snap the snout shut to trap their prey.

The one in the top right hand corner is an x-ray of a seahorse.  They don't have an exoskeleton because there's skin stretched over all, but this is their basic bone structure.


I liked the fat dude a lot, too, but nixed him as my subject.

 I thought these little guys were cool.  They were just hanging around with their bulging eyes and floating, ghostly 'hair.'

Well, I ended up with a choice, and I didn't put it online because I don't want to go upstairs again.  It's up there by my newly-begun painting.

This was my last sketch before beginning to paint.  I had to work out the color scheme and make sure everything was balanced before beginning.  Bad composition - no need to even bother.  And yeah, I know this sketch is weird, but I only spent probably two minutes on it.  The drawing wasn't my concern, the layout was.

Tonight I painted the entire seahorse and kelp in friskit.  Have to let it dry overnight before going further.  I'll take a pic and show you that one tomorrow.