Fish Blanks

It’s called layering your colors down. Look at fins underwater as long as you don’t have light refraction their opaque.
Your rays will be lighter in color and the webs will be darker.

 

Mike O once said fins are not as transparent as most people think

 

And has prove as well as I have. It’s the refraction that makes them transparent!

 

Thought it might be helpful to explain in part what refraction is. The word tends to be used out of context often on here. To try and simplify it and relate it to what we do, refraction is when light enters a medium, the given medium changes the speed of the colors (color is the reflection of light and each color has a unique wave length), this in turn changes the appearance of the colors. For example a prism enhances this refraction creating a rainbow. What is happening here is the light bounces around through the medium reacting to reflection, refraction and the medium itself causing what we see as a rainbow. A fin under water reacts differently using these same principles. Many fish have fins that are translucent and when light enters the fin it bounces around changing the wave lengths of the colors. If the fish is out of the water the light is able to project out of the fin giving it a clear appearance. If the fish is under water the light will reflect off the interior of the fin causing an opaque appearance. Kind of has that light blue ghost like appearance. The appearance will also be heavily effected by water clarity and depth of the fish. Although refraction is part of that equation the fin under water has that appearance primarily due to reflection.

Personally I prefer to paint the illusion of translucency in my fins.


-Pete

 

As frank mentioned above, layers and blending colors and lines so they blend in and look natural. Hard line edges and color changes generally look fake.

 

How can I see a yellow perch's scales through an "opaque" pectoral fin? X-ray vision?

I disagree that the rays are lighter and webs darker as well.

I do recommend studying the underwater pictures. As well as the above water pictures, to get a sense of whats happening for each fin.

 

It’s lighter cause of the bones in the fins and yes darker in the rays
Mike O, Rick K showed me this yrs ago. When we do see that transparency it’s light refraction and yes I totally understand what you’re saying.

 

I'll go by reference.

Whereas webbing is translucent, it's appearance is affected by the background.

I like M. Fahrni's attention to this detail.

 

An example of a pec fin.

Most freshwater fish fins are like this with of course, some exceptions. To achieve this look like a real fin you need to start out with a transparent "blank" fin. After that it's up to you.

 

I've always been super impressed with how nicely you achieve this look with replica fins. Despite the obvious techniques it calls for, it's not easily accomplished at all.

 

Great reference pic Timjo! The fins you create on your pieces are second to none. They have always impressed me.