Saratoga reference

[Little grey men]

I Caught A 73cm Sarratoga At Cania Dam

Top stuff mate....did you get any piccies of it.

I'm doing the first sketch now from bit's and pieces that people have supplied. I'll take a photo of it and post it here. These fish really do have an amazing looking head. A little like my Mother in law....on a good day.

[eotbmg]

Michael,
I just sent you a few pics. Hope they are useful. Would love to see the final product.
Cheers
Ben

[tiges]

Little Grey Bloke, looks like you're gunna have to do a run of prints and sell them to everyone on here .

[Little grey men]

Little Grey Bloke, looks like you're gunna have to do a run of prints and sell them to everyone on here .

Hey Tiges, depends on how good it looks when finished mate.
Just got some amazing photos from eotbmg ( thanks mate ) fantastic colours in those togas.

[Cammy]

hey LGM, since i cant post pics in the pm, i will just post em here. Now it looks like the light is off but its actually on, the camera blocked it out for some reason. these pics r generally for color, as you can see he has nice red bands on every scale , and on the gill plates he has a series of random red stripes. Now the tank he is in now does not have a blue light for coloring,thats just normal colors, that but his next tank will have the blue light.
these pics r very good imo for color patterning, probably not the quality but the color stands out, so you get a good idea, and also dont forget the red dots on the tail, and mine for some reason has an electric blue rimming on his pectoral fins, and also the barbels on the mouth. This guy was the bully of the tank he came from,so he's in good condish.
sry if i was boasting a bit, but im proud of him

Cammo

[el_carpo]

Now this is strange! There is a fish called an arowana in S America that looks just like your saratoga. I wonder if they are the same thing or very closely related?

[Cammy]

Saratoga are a type of Arowana, but this saratoga is Australian Saratoga/Arowana. They are from the same family, im not sure if there is wild populations over in the states of Saratoga jardini (gulf saratoga),there are lots of types of arowana. this is just the Australian species

Cammo

[Cammy]

here i got some more pics of him/her. as i finally got my camera working after a long month of not being able to take pics. these 4 i took today, and i picked out the ones that were most clear on the colors of the face and fins.

Cammo

[Little grey men]

Thanks for the pics cammy, that fish sure has got some colour. Excactly what I'm after.
What do you feed that big brute.

[Little grey men]

Here's the first sketch. This one was made up from seven different pictures. One had the correct eye, one had the correct fins etc.
I did a few drawings of the fish twisted up snaking through the air but it lost too much, it was hard to tell it was a saratoga.
These pictures lose a lot of life when you download them onto a computer, so take my word for it when I say the original looks a heck of a lot better than this.

[Jeremy87]

Ok wow that looks awsome. Is the fishes tail going to be completely out of the water or still slightly underneath it? The head region looks pretty much bang on for a southern strain fish. The detail is is a little sketchy from having to put it up low res but have you given the fish those little needle teeth? also the nose tip doesn't seem to have the little downward cleft on the tip. The top side of the fish looks really good, you can see how they are really rounded at the top but come to a sharp meeting at the bottom . The only other suggestions i'd make is the pelvic fins seem to be too far down the length of the fish and to high up the fishes side. the pelvic fins on most fish are fused together as a girdle with the fins on either side but it looks in your drawning that they have been separated. and also the anal fin looks too short, i think it needs to extend further up the fishes underside. The drawing looks great, the only reason i'm being picky is because you said before you wanted it to be as true to life as possible. I've attached another photo that gives you pretty good detail of the fishes tail section and another pic showing the tail proportions that I think look more true to life. If you want some high res images just pm me your email address.

[Little grey men]

Thanks Jeremy...mate, this is excactly the type of feedback I'm after. I'll take all of those suggestions on board. Thanks for explaining the girdle effect on the pelvic fins and the cleft on the snout.
The anal fin is shorter because what I want to achieve is the lower half of the fish actually starting to bend up wards, ( In your earlier thread you explained how the fish would bend into a 'C " shape. I didn't include enough shading in the draft copy, but when painted you'll be able to see a definate concave shape to the fish as the scales get darker in shadow.
The tail will have a lot of water splashed in front of it as the tail is travelling towards the viewer.
I have drawn the slightest hint of teeth put they disappear when the photo is resized to fit.

I'll pm you my email address. Do you have any pics of the cleft on the snout?
I had a look at the big one at Anaconda on the weekend but it wouldn't open it's gob for me to have a peek.

....Just understood your first question Jeremy, about the fishes tail underwater, that line is actually two pieces of paper stuck together, try to imagine the drawing without that line. the fish will be about four inches clear of the surface I think.

Thanks again Jeremy.

[Cammy]

Bloody hell thats awsome! looks like a pro did it, seriously!

yer jeremy pointed out the key points, especially the fins. the body depth, scale pattern, gill plates and everything els looks fine at this point.
And the eye looks spot on! cant wait till you put the colours on the fins and gills!! And the tails!

Good stuff, are you gonna share this picture around on ausfish? duplicating it.? cause i would certainly buy one!!

Cammo

[Cammy]

I feed him a range of food like, crickets,roaches,mealworms,garden worms,beach worms,pilchards,blueys,pellets,goldfish,feeder gudgeons,cray fish,prawns and i also found out he eats 13cm sleepy cod .

But its always good to get any fish on pellets strait away. And i feed him a range of foods because how would you feel eating the same thing everyday, and plus i can get all these things for cheap prices

Cammo

[Little grey men]

Hey cammy, thanks for the comments mate. Not sure about making prints of this one...I was just doing it because I've got a wall in my study that looks a bit bare.
Most of the paintings and artwork I do are usually given away.
I've got some friends from my graphic art days who can organise high quality prints for me, I'll see what the finished painting looks like.
It should be fairly easy to paint. but let me tell you, saratoga are very hard to draw. That head is amazing. If you don't get it just right they look really weird.