Flying Fish

Realistic Flying Fish

The first flying fish appeared in the mid-Triassic Period, around the time of the first dinosaurs.  All the 64 flying fish species that live now seem to be descended from flying fish that first appeared around the time of the LAST dinosaurs...about 66 million years ago.  Modern flying fish are found in every ocean in the world, mainly in tropical or sub-tropical waters.

We saw flying fish on our cruise in the Caribbean.  The fish would fly off away from the ship as the ship was sailing.  The  flying fish could glide for around 20+ yards, 20+ meters.  We would stand at the lowest deck railing and try to take photos of the fish.  We never could see the fish in the photos, but we did get a couple of videos where you could see the flying fish zipping away from the ship. Sometimes  a whole school of flying fish would surface and take off all at once.  Sometimes it was a few at a time and sometimes just one would fly away from the moving ship's hull.

Young Flying Fish

The younger flying fish seemed to be much smaller and thinner than the adults. Sometimes, as an artist, you are very critical of your own work.  In fact, it has been said that an artist does not finish a work, they merely abandon it.  Having said that, I think this juvenile flying fish needs a somewhat larger head, but from the deck of the ship, and with them flying away so fast, the above drawing is what the juveniles looked like to us.

Cartoon Flying Fish, male

We saw that the flying fish would often drag their tail fins in the water as they flew.  

Cartoon Flying Fish, female

The trick for making a cartoon animal female is often just adding long eyelashes. 

 Of course, fish don't really have eyelashes, only mammals have eyelashes.