Underwater Blues

Time to explore another color palette -

While exploring at the Duluth Aquarium, I discovered some very pale fish.  They seem to be either bottom-dwellers or murky-water dwellers, and take on a very albino-like patina.  If they had red eyes or fin and gill coloration, I would assume they were albino.  Because of the lighting in the exhibits, many of these very pale fish take on more trendy, fluorescent colors when they are in the right location in their own confined quarters.  The development of this blue environment and fish is the result of pushing the subtle effects of the lighting further beyond it's limitations.  I began with a sketch of the most appealing, pale fish in the collection;  I do not know the species of the fish, but it is native to fresh water in Minnesota AND is NOT a koi. 

6B graphite pencil on tan Strathmore sketch paper with white china marker highlights. 

Don't the features, body-shape and fins make you think goldfish?  It's actually about an 8 pound fish, however. 

Because this fish appears to be a bottom-dweller, creating a substantial bottom environment will make a more meaningful visual environment. 

Quick sketch of boulders on the bottom landscape with reminder lines for sunlight rays creating rock/boulder highlights.  6B graphite pencil on tan Strathmore sketch paper.