This is a 16" x 20" transparent watercolor of a Chinook salmon, also known as a King Salmon,  which is native to our waterways and an important symbol of our way of life here in the Pacific Northwest.

This painting started with a photo of a salmon as an inspiration, and then I had fun making changes to make it my own painting. That's called Artistic License and is part of what makes painting fun and challenging!

In this case, I eliminated the fisherman that was holding the salmon in the initial photo and changed the angle that the salmon was positioned (so that it was curving instead of straight), changed the color of the salmon so that it was in the colorful spawning phase of it's life (instead of the olive green that was in the photo), added rocks just below the salmon, added light reflections on the salmon and rocks, and added the interesting mirror-like water reflections on the top of the water.

Through it all, I found that I enjoy painting fish, too!  Thank you, Jeff Evald, for your initial reference photo, as well as for your helpful tutoring about the anatomy of a fish.  Without that, I might never have thought of painting a fish, especially one as iconic to this area of the world!