Patterns; Continued

I continue to be intrigued by the variations in patterns all around us AND the function that each pattern serves.  For example, I recently had the opportunity to watch a small school of brown trout.  The pattern of the majority of their body seems to be a combination of the pebbly gravel on the bottom of the waterway and the bubbles in the water that they seem to be attracted to.

I tried to capture the shapes of the pattern in a pencil sketch, but will need to experiment to land on a brush technique, with acrylics, that does it justice.

Scale pattern in body of brown trout.  Pencil on tan Strathmore sketch paper.   Click on image to enlarge.

Exterior tail shape of brown trout.  Pencil on Strathmore tan sketch paper.  Click on image to enlarge.

 in an earlier post, I shared the rocks I had painted as part of a riverbed;  also acrylic on canvas.  There are parts of this image that are very close to the colors and texture-look of the brown trout.  I will keep this in mind as I do some experimentation.