Painting her way to success one brushstroke at a time, Diamond Bar High School senior, Annabell Yi, competed in Wildlife Forever’s National Fish Art Concert this summer, taking home a national second place win.
The 2023 Fish Art Contest was funded by Wildlife Forever, a program whose mission is to conserve outdoor heritage through conservation education, preservation of habitat, and scientific management of fish and wildlife.
“I was extremely happy when I heard about the results for states because of the scale of the competition and also because I knew that my piece would immediately be able to compete at a national level automatically,” said Yi via Instagram.
After she was recommended by her personal studio art teacher to compete, Yi saw the competition as a way for her to educate the youth about the conservation of aquatic environments.
“I wanted to connect people to nature and the outdoors with my piece while also educating people of how climate change has negatively affected our aquatic environments,” Yi said.
The process for this award-winning artwork started with a rough sketch from a reference picture. Utilizing her reference photo, Yi was able to properly color-match the fish and move on to the background elements with pieces like wood.
“I used tape to cover up the fish and background elements to easily do the water and sky, ” Yi said.
By covering up the fish and background elements, she used a larger brush to color the water and sky without disrupting the main elements of the piece. After coloring in the water and sky, she took off the tape that was protecting the fish and background elements. The piece just needed finished details, such as bubbles, and with that Yi’s masterpiece was complete.
Despite not having very high expectations initially, Yi was confident and proud of her work and ultimately she had remarkable outcomes.
“When I was placed at a national level, I was able to perceive it as the next step in my art career and how I can use my art for a greater purpose”.
