So lately I have decided to try out some time lapse videos of me working on either smaller projects or just snippets of me doing things. I don’t really have an official set up for this yet so for now its just my IPad using the app Hyperlapse but it should get the job done. I have given this a test run on my new painting of a cute little chickadee drinking from a wine glass! If you are interested check them out!
Ok so on Tuesday, we tried paddlefishing again. This time we decided to go out to a place call the confluence. Its where the Missouri River and the Yellowstone River meet. Its a rather big deal because these two rivers are pretty good sized. The confluence is like the “mecha” of paddlefishing. They have the weigh station there and the cleaning house and all that fun stuff. There are a TON of people there on opening weekend, and really any weekend, camping and trying their luck at fishing. But this was a Tuesday, so there were not that many people fishing so we decided to go try there. We left around 6 or so, because of school and stuff it took awhile to get out there. When we left it was 61 degrees and sunny, Excellent weather. 20 minutes later, when we arrived at the confluence, it was drizzly and cloudy. By the time we left for the day it had dropped to 48… awesome. Anyways we gave it out best shot. When we arrived someone had just hooked into one and we watched as they landed it a ways down shore from where he hooked it. You see you don’t really real in paddlefish, you more or less hold them till the current of the river pulls them close to shore and they you gaff them. He ended up pulling in around a 50-60 lb fish. Its hard to say for sure, I have not held to many of them and the are just really fat and hard to gauge, but he seemed to be around there. Never the less, he was an awesome fish and really got us excited. So we walked down the shore a ways till we found a place to fish, and began the work. Our bodies were none to pleased to be doing the motion again but after about 50th cast they stopped complaining. We found out there are a lot of snags at the confluence, twas most annoying. Everest is getting quite good at ties the paddlefish rig lol. But after another 2.5 hours of casting and talking with others fishing, we ended up with nothing to show for our efforts. Hopefully our luck will change soon! I will try and post some pictures next time of us fishing.
James
Alright another year of paddlefishing is upon us! For those that dont remember I did manage to get one last year, on the fifth day that I tried I managed to get my 56 lb Paddlefish! Woot, here is a picture just to remind you guys.
Alright, so the first day I got a change this year was Sunday. They changed a few regulations and Sunday is now a catch and release day. A friend and I (Everest) went out Sunday morning to try our luck. It was snowing. The high for the day was supposed to be 43, I don’t think it ever got above 38 but with a change at catching one of the biggest fish in North America we were willing to give it a go. We went out to the pump house, a fishing area where I got the one last year. Much to my surprise it was rather empty, only 4-5 other guys paddlefishing that day (I guess the weather really was crappy). We managed to get the exact same spot of caught mine. The water level was a bit higher so the nice beach wasn’t really there but it was still basically snag less so that was nice.
Anyways this was the first time Everest had ever paddlefished so I showed him how it was done. Big pole, big hook and weight, throw out, drag in, repeat. Difficult stuff I know. So then we preceded to fish. We were told that two were pulled in right before we got there so spirits were high even in the bleak winter weather like day.
Within 30 min I actually hooked into a paddlefish! The drag started ripping off the reel and I could feel the power of the fish at the end of the line. I set the pole to my hip and slowly started increasing the drag, but the fish didn’t stop. It kept pulling more and more line, and was now deep into the river and its strong current. I knew I had to somehow slow the fish otherwise it stood a good chance of spooling me. I was walking down the river bank trying to keep with the fish and trying to turn it when all of the sudden, pop… and nothing. The fish was gone… Man I almost cried. That was probably the biggest fish I have ever hooked into, and it was gone. I reeled in the line to find the hook and weight still there, she just came unhooked. There was really else I could have done. I keep thinking I could have let her run more (even though I was running out of line) or something, but alas she was gone. I sat for a while to gather my wits and strength, and for the next 4 hours Everest and I cast, over and over and over again, to no avail… Well that was Day One.
Paddlefish Diaries, Season 3
James Skinner
Alrighty, time for another card alter! This time its Mistcutter Hydra plus WIPS! woot. So now you get to see a little bit of how I go about making my alters.
A landscape some friends asked me to do for one of their friends weddings. They wanted it to be a snowy winter landscape North Dakota style. I added a few more tress than ND but its close enough I think.
Hey so I decided to have a little fun and alter a card in a very odd way for me. I took a 1/1 Soldier token and put a little something different on it. Now I know the internet is full of stuff like this but I figured it would be a little something fun to try my hand at. Enjoy!
![Tylosaurus 16x20" $20.00 USD [wpepsc name="Tylosaurus 16x20" Print" price="20.00" align="center"]](https://i0.wp.com/www.jamescskinner.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/TempFinal1.jpg?w=580&h=580&crop=1 "Tylosaurus")
Alrtight its finally done! After quite some time, many sketches, revisions, and edits (ok and procrastination) I have finally finished my painting of the Tylosaurus! There was alot of learning done in this one. For starters I have never painted an underwater scene before. Secondly, how does one go about painting a baitball of fish??? Then there was the tylosaurus! But i feel that this art piece came out really well. Here is all the in progress shots to go alont with it!
Finish is 9×10 watercolor on Aquabord, really awesome stuff. This is the first painting done on that material and I really like it.
Here is another new card I did today, did it as an example as I showed/talked someone else through the process.
Hey guys, so I love the card game Magic the Gathering, and lately I have been getting into doing some alterations on cards. I have not yet got up the nerve to try my hand on something like my Thassa, God of the Sea yet, but I did just recently do a couple of really cool ones and I thought I would share them with you!
Geralf’s Messenger was probably the easiest to do, but i think it came out to be the best looking of these couple.
Triton Fortune Hunter I think looks really sweet, it was pretty difficult to do and the end result makes the card look way more epic than it really is.
Supreme Verdict is definitely one of the coolest ones I have done, alas i covered the name up so i guess its not tournament legal, but I dont mind, its just for me anyways.
Finally Cloudfin Raptor… Did you guys know there were buildings in the background of this? I didnt until I got started but overall im pleased with them. I did two, I actually run four in the deck their from but I though two was enough, on i think the building on the right was done better and the other i like my clouds and waterfall better. But Im not telling which, you guys can decide for yourself! Anyways hope to post more soon!
Recently I did a image of the Hulk riding a lion. That seemed to have started something, and someone asked me to do a picture of Iron Man. So i did. Anyways, here are a few of the work in progress shots I took, and the finished project. I feel this one came out pretty good, i got to play around with some lighting effects and i feel im learning more about that effect. And the air brush really pushed this one up to another level. I think it really helped the lighting effects. Mostly watercolor but the airbrush work is acrylic. Hope you like it!
