Passing By

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I end up using some artistic license with these fish, but mostly with the space around them. The photos are almost never perfect, and often I end up changing the background in order to help keep the fish as the center of attention. Also, if you squint at this particular reference photo, you'll see that the values (and colors) at the bottom of the photo are very similar to those of the fish. Your eye can separate these in the photo, but it's harder to make that clear in paint. So I left out the sea floor. That's easy with water - tougher when the background needs to make sense, and you've got to make it up. That's where choosing the photo carefully is important.