You could call it drawing from real life, you could call it drawing from imagination. (I could never do it from photographs though, because things in water don't photograph very well.)
When I went to the park today, it seemed there was nothing inside the stream...but wait; there was an erratic ripple there by the rock. Sure enough, it was my friend Softi. After a while, she began swimming around actively, no longer caring that she was noticeably moving around the sakura petals on top as she did so.
"How did you know I was here?" she seemed to ask, "I made a ripple on the surface, didn't I?" I nodded. Why was she trying to be like turtles?
I've spent so much time with carp, when I needed an image of my "Cowboy Rascal Carp" Mai Mai (Dec 1, '23 post), I pictured him swimming in real life; and even Sara Fin, years after I no longer had my "Guardian Angel", I merely pictured what it looked like to see the carp swimming nearby in real life, and that gave me what I needed (April 13, '23 post EXACTLY ONE YEAR AGO!).
But I've gotta say, the influence of the first carp I met at the park can be seen in all three drawings: the tail is much too long. Goldie, that first carp, had an exquisitely long one!
