Paper to Pixels — Two Little Fish (Patreon)

Hey there :)

This month's Paper to Pixels started at a fish market, of all places. I went in and saw so many different kinds of fish, all these shapes and colours I'd never really sat and looked at properly before, and by the time I got home I was itching to sketch. I grabbed my coloured pens and pencils and got straight into it, trying to get as close as I could to what I'd actually seen.

I ended up with a whole handful of little fish sketches that day, and honestly, I don't know the real names of half the ones that inspired them, and I definitely didn't get every shape exactly right. But I picked these two, one green and one gold with a hint of red and green, because they were the ones I kept coming back to. Maybe the rest will get their own Paper to Pixels someday too.

I like keeping this series simple on purpose, one or two pieces at a time, rather than layering in a dozen different elements. It makes it easier for you to get some inspiration from and follow along/learn from, rather than getting lost in something too busy.

What surprised me this time was how closely the digital version ended up matching the traditional one. Because I'd already worked out the colours by hand, moving into Procreate wasn't about deciding anything new, it was just following what I'd already made as closely as I could. I really wanted to see how close I could get, and getting there felt like a small, proud little win.

For the brushes: I used Butter for most of this, it's a paid brush, but you really don't need it, the free 6B Pencil or Studio Pen work just as well for laying down base colour. Bonobo gave the airy, soft texture in the shading, and Technical Pen handled the fine details.

I hope this one gave you a little to learn from, and maybe even the itch to go sketch something you saw today too.

See you in the next one ♥

Hasi~