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Ink and watercolor wash Richmond Annex Sketchbook Pages

Sketching Fish Heads at Ranch 99

Salmon Heads, Ink and watercolor
Salmon Heads, Ink and watercolor

For Tuesday night sketchcrawl we met at Ranch 99 Market inside the Pacific East Mall, an Asian shopping center. I spent most of my sketching time in the fish department, where shoppers can poke and prod a huge variety of whole fish, select the ones they want and hand them to the fish mongers to scale, wash, and carve them into steaks or deep fry them whole in their gigantic deep fat fryer.

Fishmongers, Ink and watercolor
Fishmongers, Ink and watercolor

I didn’t want to get in the way of shoppers (or have my fishy model sold before I could sketch it) so I moved down to the bins of fish heads to sketch. But even in the low rent department my models were being picked over and sold.

Cod Heads, Ink and watercolor
Cod Heads, Ink and watercolor

The catfish (below) had long whiskers that reminded me of Salvador Dali.

Salmon and Catfish Heads, ink and watercolor
Salmon and Catfish Heads, ink and watercolor

We also sat on benches inside the mall and sketched diners at some of the restaurants. That made me hungry and it was getting late so I ordered takeout from Great Szechuan and we called it a night and went home. The dish wasn’t great, made worse by being slopped into in a styrofoam clamshell container instead of a traditional Chinese takeout carton and I didn’t even get a fortune cookie!

Ranch 99 Market, Ink and watercolor
Ranch 99 Market, Ink and watercolor

12 replies on “Sketching Fish Heads at Ranch 99”

Love the sketches, especially that top one with all the gorgeous blues and pinks and greys. Wonderful drawings! And such a neat story, it’s always so much fun to go along with you on your rambles. Love the little guys in their yellow aprons!

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Thanks Nel, I would have loved to sketch the guys more — their workstation and aprons were very colorful as was their work. Maybe another time. I hope you’re doing well and are settled in from your last move.Your new region looks quite spectacular and after visiting your blog was so pleased to see all the new work and how well it’s selling! Jana

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Very cool indeed! I wouldn’t have picked fish heads, though I guess it’s mostly I don’t have access to fresh fish here. That first one with ink and watercolor is suitable for framing, I think.

THanks for you post a while back about Jackie Miller’s video. I ordered it from the library, watched it, took notes, and have been trying to incorporate some in my current work. I noted your post today in my blog.

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Thanks Sherry! I’m glad you found the video helpful AND that you could find it in your library. You may not have fresh fish there but it sounds like you’ve got a GREAT library. We have three different library systems here — 1 city, 2 counties, and NONE of them had the video so I had to buy it! Thank you so much for your nice words about the watercolor and for the nod on your blog! Jana

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This is a great post with all your beautiful paintings. It makes me want to dash off to see all these wondeful colors and fish heads. Wow, I never thought I would say that.

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Thanks Peggy, It’s one of the things I love best about living in the SF Bay Area–the huge amount of diversity in landscape, cultures, ethnicities and lifestyles! Jana

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Oh, I love these fish heads! You’ve really captured their elan, especially the top one.

You have such wonderful adventures each time you paint. I wish we had such a thing in our town…well, wish you and Kathryn were here, or I was there!

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Oh fisheads are scary! Lovely pictures however. Pacific Islanders value the head of the fish, eat most everything on them but not for me!
We’ve come back from a huge weekend – a Fiji Indian conference and today I’m tidying up the house for visitors tomorrow! No rest for the wicked!Wendy

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