This is one of my first attempts at designing and digitising something for my own pleasure, rather than to sell. It was inspired by a photo on e-bay of some brightly-coloured Mexican fishes. I loved the colours and the cheerfulness of the fishes, and the fact that every one was different.
Mexican fish on e-bay
So I drew a very simple fish shape and then added different fins and decorative details for each fish. I used applique for the bodies of the fish, because I like the flat, even effect that appliqueed fabric gives. If I'd used large areas of embroidery for the bodies it would have made the fabric buckle and look uneven, which I didn't want
In the end I had 20 different fish, which could have been used in a number of different ways. I arranged them in a simple staggered grid and relied on a gradation of colours to give the panel interest. The colours of the fish and their decorations move from dark brown at the upper left to pale cream at the lower right
With hindsight I should have done this the other way around, with the pale fish at the top, so it would appear that the sun was glancing off them while the dark fish at the bottom were removed from the sun's light. I tried to do this with a smaller panel, done in greens, but it wasn't really successful. In the first place I think you need a large number of fish to make the colour gradation effective – it's not really clear with a smaller number. In the second place I made a bad mistake with the applique fabric on the last fish in the third row – it's way too pale. The fabric was marbled in several shades of green, and I inadvertently used a pale part of the fabric for the applique rather than a dark section. Oh well, you live and learn