americanfishes

http://www.bigbirdcreative.com/ Jordan Dunseth designed it, and since I'm over 50, I know next to nothing about this web stuff.

Now, as far as why all the fish face to the left, this is absolutely a standard! It's called "left-lateral view." In the 1800's, when scientists got serious about having illustrators draw accurate pictures, it became a standard that any tissue samples or dissection or scales pulled for aging be done on the right side of the fish, that is, with the fish snout facing the right of the viewer. So all drawings were done from the left-side of the fish by convention to avoid having to contend with the damaged tissues, etc.

Kanye West and I both like fish sticks but not for breakfast.

Great question! When I started, I had to have a photographer make 4 x 5" color transparencies of the images in order to get them reproduced properly, then those were taken to a someone with a drum scanner to make color separations for publication. So anytime a magazine wanted to publish images, I had to send them transparencies and they had to make their own scans to a specific size for the magazine, and output the film, strip it, etc. Now when I finish a drawing, I can scan it right here on a flatbed scanner at 600 dpi, then I only have to send a digital image via dropbox or email and any publisher can use it at any size they choose. It's so much cheaper and so much more efficient for both me and the publisher -- so they use many more color images than they used to in books and magazines. What I don't like is the proliferation of copies and people using images without permission, particularly on products for sale. That comes with the territory I guess. At least online, every image appears to be "free" -- more folks should ask for permission.

I have a B.S. in Biology and also a M.S. in Biology with emphasis in Range Management of all things. I am really much more of a botanist than an ichthyologist, and Limnology was really as close as I got to a fish class in college! So obviously I believe that if you have a passion for something, you can learn quite a bit on your own. However, I am deeply in debt to the many fisheries biologists and professors that have taught me more in the field than I could otherwise have learned from a book! I'd list some of these folks but it'd be too long and somebody would get inadvertently omitted!

I started illustrating fishes as a graduate student in the mid-80's. Some other biology students and I did a local interest book for Fort Hays State University (Kansas!) and I drew the fish pictures. I didn't really know what I was doing at the time, but always had a penchant for drawing -- something I must have been born with, lucky! There are several things that help with the accuracy/precision of the drawings. Most importantly, drawing from actual specimens of fish and seeing those fish live in the field whenever possible. Secondly making contacts with ichthyologists and showing my work to them, generally through professional meetings. And yes, I do eat fish, but generally not those I catch!