Odd art, fleshing out combinations, and dinosaur sharks

 Odd art, fleshing out combinations, and dinosaur sharks

Redid my older drawing of the Megalodon, especially considering it is no longer considered just a large great white shark.  Megalodons now have their own family which means 'megateeth'. As a result I redrew the monster shark, taking a guess at coloration, and guessing a few other details, given teeth and latest research. That reseign shows here:

https://www.spoonflower.com/en/fabric/13246411-megalodon-v22-by-combatfish

and here

https://www.cafepress.com/clownfishbutton/11854772

among other spots.

I also drew up an ancient freshwater shark, a true river monster of the distant past, the Xenacanthus. This beast was only around 4 feet or so, but had a giant spike on its head, and prowled through the Devonian to Triassic times.  I again took some liberty with coloration, guessing that a swamp or river shark would likely be colored much like a bowfin or gar. 

https://www.cafepress.com/clownfishbutton/17327440

https://www.spoonflower.com/en/fabric/13234248-xenacanthus-ancient-freshwater-shark-by-combatfish

then made some interesting combo patterns for the paleontologist or dino lover at home:

https://www.spoonflower.com/en/fabric/13311629-10-extinct-sea-monsters-scatter-4in-on-cyan-by-combatfish

the added several more snappers and the like, including Emperor snappers (juvenille):

https://www.cafepress.com/combatfishingdeepseafishesshop/17333061

Then a combo like so:

https://www.designbyhumans.com/shop/t-shirt/men/3-indo-pacific-snappers/1843851/ 

note that I also put all my combat-fishing gear on the design by humans site also:

https://www.designbyhumans.com/shop/CombatFish/

Enjoy,

Bryce

Gobies, and Chum Salmon

 (FYI..all my single fish and other drawings (minus patterns) are here: https://www.combat-fishing.com/DesignFishCafeCatalog.html though patterns with the same fishes mostly go here: http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/combatfish )

Drew up a few interesting gobies:

The Pinkbar Goby is another Indo-Pacific goby that is reef and rock oriented,

though 

Bluebanded Gobies are a cold water fish found in the Pacific off California, especially near urchins and kelp forests. 

I also drew up the last of my Pacific Salmons....the Chum or Dog Salmon.  It is often considered lessor behind King (Chinook) or Coho (Silver) or Sockeye (Kokanee) salmon, though it is bigger then the Pink Salmon. Since my skill has improved over time it is the most real-looking salmon of the bunch.  Note that Rainbow Trout (Steelhead), Cutthroat Trout (and Sea-Run variant), Golden Trout, Masu Salmon (Cherry Trout), Gila Trout, and Apache Trout all part of the Pacific Salmon and Trout Complex (i.e. Oncorhynchus). 

tight lines,

Bryce

Sharks and Tuna Weeks

Sharks and Tuna Weeks~!
Answered a bunch of requests, including the very colorful laurel dace, and added several scatter patterns of plankton, tunas, offshore and reef fish, and of course, sharks, including offshore sharks, and deep sea sharks!

tight lines, calm seas, and BE SAFE!
Bryce

More oddities

Oddities out finally...

In addition to lots of plankton and turtles hitting the Spoonflower side, I have started adding some fish I wanted to draw for a long time, because I catch them.
Goldeyes are a member of the Mooneye family, and are all over the northern half of North America, in the Mississippi river basin and Great Lakes drainages.  Canadians like to smoke them into a fish dish, I just like to catch them on the fly, as they are a great 2wgt flyrod fish that is a jumper. They have a close relative that I have yet to draw, the mooneye.  I also dropped in an Australian fishing fish, the Talang Queenfish ( a jack), and a fish I caught lots in the Florida Panhandle (especially Pensacola Bay), the White (Sand) Seatrout.  The White Seatrout is oft confused with both the silver seatrout, and silver perch, and is a croaker, of the weakfish branch (as is the White Seabass in California, and the Tortuaba from the Sea of Cortez).   There is some argument that the white seatrout is really a subspecies of weakfish that is minus spots. Whatever you call them, they are a fun fish that is roughly a pound and likes to bite at night. 
I also updated the Master Catalog to make is load far faster.

Enjoy, tight lines, and be safe,
Bryce

Cute little ignored fishy: Salema

The Salema grunt(Xenistius californiensis)

(for a real picture: http://www.combat-fishing.com/Salema1BelomntShoresPierPacificOceanCA06Nov2019wra.jpg )

In addition to my continuing shark updates for the deep sea sharks (updated the frilled shark...what an odd beastie to be sure! and added the smoothhound shark too, and fixed the sixgill shark and sevengill shark) I added a cute little fish that one sees when fishing light under the lights of SoCal bay piers (Belmont Veterans pier is a perfect example) : the Salema (grunt) (Xenistius californiensis). It is a yellow-orange striped fish that looks like a white bass, yellow bass (which is of the same size range too) or baby striped bass that got dipped in colorful paints.  Like many cases in nature its looks are due to convergent evolution, i.e. even though the Salema is a grunt, and the yellow bass is a temperate bass, they are both schooling fish that eat small invertebrates and small fishes.  Not to be confused with the Mediterranean Salema (a porgy, that looks like a pinfish which is also a porgy). Interesting ly enough, you could theoretically catch the deep sea sharks mentioned above and the little Salema on the same pier, but likely not on the same tackle!

Tight lines and calm seas,
Bryce

Slow Revisions and Updates

Slow Revisions and Updates

As time allows and the mood strikes me, I have been redrawing some older designs to make them more biologically accurate. Many older designs from 2015 or before are a little cartoonish, and have giant splashy signatures. The new designs are still signed (usually near bottom fin or tail) but not with crazy large font, and have far more detail in the design to reflect the beauty of the real animal. Last time updated the Bull Shark and added the Sand Tiger and Sandbar Sharks.

The latest set:
Great white shark, biting and swimming (yes, looks dangerous now, though the old version is still in the cafe press shop).
Leopard shark (this version is drawn from one I caught off Oyster Point Pier)
(Common) Thresher Shark (yes, the tail is that long...like a tadpole.  Seen them caught over the years and they are very powerful swimmers that jump.  There are legends of threshers chopping heads of fishermen. ).

They will show in spoonflower for your projects in the next couple of weeks (delays in getting cloth to review due to virus stuff). Will be available on furniture and decor at the same time, same site.

Stay Safe and Enjoy,
Bryce

Cafe press shops: start here for sharks: https://www.cafepress.com/combatfishingoffshorefish
Spoonflower: http://www.spoonflower.com/profiles/combatfish
Main Catalog: All the species I have http://www.combat-fishing.com/DesignFishCafeCatalog.html
Shopping Site for everything I do: http://www.combat-fishing.com/shoppingmain.htm
some designs also go here:
Design by Humans: https://www.designbyhumans.com/shop/CombatFish/

Sharks and Sharks

Sharks and Sharks

I took a chance to clean up a few older drawings and then add a new one.
Over time, my skills have improved, and I can take the chance to make the fishes look more real, and show their natural beauty better.
The Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) was one.  The old drawing was rough and cartoon-like at best, but after redrawing this king of the rivers, I added many details, made the proportions work, added scales and deeper coloration, and met the short description.  For those unfamiliar with the fish, you likely ate it when you ate salmon at a restaurant or or bought it at a store as it is heavily farmed.  The wild fish are premier fly fishing targets, usually released, and inhabit legendary rivers such as the Skye, Ness, Spey, and at one time, the Thames. They are native to the North Atlantic, and spawn in rivers in North America and Europe. Landlocked fish are targets in New York, and some have colonized the Great Lakes. They are now found in the Southern Ocean in South America, New Zealand, Australia, and have gotten loose to a small degree in British Columbia.  They are related to Brown Trout (Salmo trutta) which look similar when in the sea.

The Bull Shark (Carcharhinus leucas)  really needed an update too. It first appeared in my book Audrey's Amazon Rivers, and then in Cafe Press and other spots.  My drawing was primitive and sported river colors. This shark can live in freshwater or saltwater, and is found worldwide in temperate and tropical waters, including far up the Amazon and Zambezi rivers, in lakes in Africa and Central America, and rarely in the Mississippi River up to Alton, Illinois.  The new drawing is more color accurate, meets the description, and has the details such as fin edge markings that make it realistic.

Then I added the Sand Tiger Shark (Carcharias taurus).  This is a very scary looking shark, but in reality is a fish eater, and is fairly benign to diver and swimmer alike, which is why many aquariums feature this fish. The teeth are snaggle-toothed, and a key feature is that this shark lives from the surf to continental shelf, worldwide.

In Spoonflower, look for my latest, mostly groupers and butterflyfish.
Look for the new sharks and salmon, and two new butterflyfish in a week.


Enjoy tight lines and fair seas!
Bryce

More butterflyfish

More Butterflyfish drawings!

Drew up two similar butterflyfish: Chevron and Atoll.

Chevron butterflyfish (Chaetodon trifascialis) is a saltwater reef fish of the Indian and Pacific oceans including the Red Sea, and has lots of arrow marks (like sergeant stripes sideways).

A close relative, same genus is the Atoll Butterflyfish (Chaetodon mertensii)  hangs out on tropical Pacific Reefs.
Note the similar species to the Atoll Butterflyfish: Chaetodon madagascariensis  Indian Ocean, Chaetodon xanthurus , and Chaetodon paucifasciatus Red Sea.  Making something a species versus just a population is a big deal in the fishery biologist community, and can spark heated debate if the animals in question all look the same. Whole careers for some hinge on finding a species, and if you want to watch college professors yell at each other, ask them to prove their favorite is actually a species. 

Look for a whole pile of other fishes, including groupers, in my spoonflower site soon too. 

Tight Lines and Calm Seas,
Bryce