Something Fishy

Yesterday I was painting at home for a change.  Decided to carry on with a study of sardines - bit of a change for me, I suppose.  Perhaps it was the domestic environment. We had sardines for tea on Saturday (from Clark Brothers, of course) and when I saw them on a plate I decided to do a quick watercolour sketch. Did it on the basis of no drawing to start with - just painting straight onto the page, and I had to be quick. It turned out like this.

Four Sardines (Watercolour)

I then did a charcoal sketch on Sunday, so the image was still in my head yesterday. I started in charcoal, and decided in this version I would include reference to the spotty tablecloth.  More of a challenge, and potentially a more interesting picture.  So quite soon it looked like this.

Four Sardines, emerging

I quite liked the link between the spots and the eyes (in the photo I took on Saturday, the eyes really stood out).  I also wanted to accentuate the black tails, looking for some drama in the picture.
Anyway, after more acrylic and charcoal it ended up like this.

Four Sardines (Acrylic).

I was quite pleased at this point, so I stopped.  Do they look good enough to eat?  I think they look nicely dark and characterful, so that'll do for me.  Maybe this is the start of my collaboration with Peter to compile a Fisherrow cookery book...Sardines a la Grecque, Fisherrow Style...haha.