This is Heather, and her fish purse, Steve. Heather has been one of my best friends since I met her in seventh grade and discovered a mutual love for that great epic, Star Wars (as you can imagine, we were in the minority of middle school girls who could quote Empire Strikes Back and name all the different planets and spaceships... gotta stick together). Among other things, we share a love of beta fish and Gilmore Girls, compulsive cosmetic shopping at Wal-Mart, and a tendency to get lost obsessively in imaginary worlds.

Anyways. Heather is now the queen of Ebay and has a Fahsion Blog to prove it. I thought it would be fun to use has reference. Plus, she has sportingly modeled for quite a number of my illustration projects so I though it about time I do a picture of her.

(Side note: When I'm attempting to draw an expression, I often find myself making that expression. So , yeah... lots of fish face...)

I got a new watercolor sketchbook, and to initiate it I decided to paint my old standby: the betta fish.

This is Xyrichtys, who lives in a bowl on my desk and has kept me company through many an all-nighter.



He was named by my good friends Nikki and Natalie, who gifted him to me after the betta I bought for my birthday passed away, tragically, a mere three days after his purchase. Ric, however, I've kept alive for nearly ten months. He's a survivor.

Did you know? I love painting fish.I was excited to get a betta so I could paint him from life. An idea that works much better in theory than practice, I've found. Every time I'm think, "Hey Ric, I'm going to paint your picture!" He's like, "Umm, no thanks," and swims behind his decorative greek columns. And then I use the internet.