Step-by-step demonstration of Gyotaku (fish-rubbing), from master Gyotaku artist Captain Greg Aragon. Experience Greg's 20+ years of experience in the unique Japanese art form, including a handout detailing his skilled techniques and prized methods.
I. Preparation
A. Start with a whole fresh fish kept on ice and, preferably, in really good shape. The better the condition, the better the quality of rubbing. Choose the best side of fish to rub. Also, hopefully fins are all intact and in good shape. Some fish produce better rubbings than others, such as Snook, Redfish, Snappers, Mahi, Triggers, Hogfish, Bigeyes (deep water), Grouper, Pinfish, or pretty much any scaly fish with good fins.
B. Remove fish from ice and carefully rinse with spray hose to remove slime coating. Be sure to rinse out gills and handle fish with care to prevent any scales from falling off or causing damage to fins. Submerge cleaned fish in tap water to thaw to room temperature. The submerging in tap water brings down the fish's core temperature. Any frozen or cold sections will be like painting a glass of ice water. Next, rinse the fish a second time.
C. Lay fish on a table covered with newspapers and carefully pat dry with paper towels. If fish has been gutted, stuff it with paper towels. Keep fish damp - never dried out. D. Next, to prepare fish to paint, place a stack of newspapers under the tail fin and 3/4 empty paper towel rolls under the dorsal and all other fins. Removing the eye can be helpful for a clearer margin to paint the eye later.
II. Painting
A. Fish should now be ready to paint as long as it is not cold and it is thawed to room temperature. Repeat patting dry with paper towels if still leaching water.
B. For practice, use black ink or acrylic paint and paint fish (against the scales to get paint under the scales). Then, blot off any excess paint so there isn't too much black paint on fish. Make sure all surfaces are painted, then slide out newspaper from tail and replace paper towel rolls with clean rolls to clear the field of any excess black paint. Next, lay white paper on the painted fish and rub. Practice a second time, paying attention to details, with just black on white or white acrylic on black paper. Black shows a lot of detail of the fish and sometimes is as appealing as a full color fish rub, and it's less difficult.
C. My main method includes full color high grade artist's acrylics. I want to copy the true colors of the fish, adding pearlescent or iridescent acrylic mediums to my white base coat. A variety of colors, and some mixed with silver or golds, add a metallic look that is tricky to capture, which is that wet iridescent look of most fish. I also use an acrylic slow dry medium in my paints to prevent acrylics from drying before finishing the entire painting of the fish. If the paint gets too dry, it can cause the rice paper to stick to the fish.
D. For my rubbings on black, I start by painting an entire fish with Titanium White Acrylic, mixed with small amounts of Acrylic Slow Dry, blending medium and small amounts of Liquitex Iridescent Medium. This adds an iridescent look. And, by painting white under scales the rubbing shows up better on black rice paper. One trick is to wipe off, against the grain of the scales, some of the excess white, before adding colors to mimic the true colors of fish. Mix your acrylic colors to get the right colors of fish and try painting the entire fish with all of the colors that are on the fish. Use fish as a canvas, until all colors are on the fish ready to rub. Note: I use artist nylon acrylic brushes and highest grade artist acrylic paints such as Golden Fluid Acrylics and Liquitex Acrylic Colors "Soft Body." Most of the time, paint your fish against the grain, which assures the paint under scales will pop out when fish is rubbed, showing scales and details. There is always a time limit dye due to acrylics drying fast! Once the fish is entirely painted, you should be ready to rub. Clear the field of excess paint, remove the sheet of newspaper from under the tail, and remove and replace the used paper towel rolls, with clean rolls under the fins.
E. Rubbing fish is an imperfect science. Lots of practice is essential. After 20+ years, I occasionally still have to throw away one that either did not come our right or the paper tears. Mistakes can and will happen, like the first couple of rubs can be too wet then get better as you keep going. Some flaws make the rubbings look authentic, showing that it is a true rubbing, not a painting. If you start doing a lot of hand detailing or hand painting after the rubbing is finished, you can change the look of the rubbing into a drawing
Ill. Rubbing
A. Now that your fish is completely painted, full colors like a finished painting on canvas, clear the field of any paint that's not on the fish, add new paper towel rolls under the fins and a new piece of newspaper under the tail. Now, get a Q-tip, and clean the paint off of the eye, then carefully lay rice paper, sufficient to cover the fish, on top of the fish
B. Next, use your palms and fingers to gently press down on the paper, especially starting in the middle of the fish, to set the paper in place. Paint will slightly seep through the paper as you press down. Continue carefully pressing down lightly with your palms and fingers all over the paper, covering the entire fish using your fingertips to follow the body down to the dorsal fin and all other fins, from nose to tail. With practice, you begin to learn where to rub, by feeling the natural lines of the fish. Another tip is to sometimes, after setting the paper on wet fish, you can put a thin scrap of paper you used for rubbing so as to double up on paper. Then, press firmly to get scales to show up better.
C. This entire process of painting and rubbing the fish should always be fairly quick, 30 to 60 minutes, before acrylic dries and paper can stick to the fish and tear when pulling it off. Drying time is also slower with more slow dry and high humidity.
D. Now, carefully pull rice paper off of the wet painted fish, starting from the head and slowly pulling back and up until the paper is off the fish. You have completed a fish rubbing! Lay it down to dry. Lift occasionally to make sure it doesn't stick to anything. It should dry in approximately 15 minutes.
IV. Finish
A. While you have pulled off the paper, and you are waiting for the fish to dry so you can paint the eyes, you need to quickly clean off the old leftover paint from the first rubbing. So that you can repaint the fish for an additional rubbing, you need to keep the fish clean and hydrated or moist, so slightly spray it with a hose between rubbings, or you can use wet handy-wipes to remove all leftover paint. After fish is clean again, pat dry with paper towels. Put wet towels over the fish to rub later that day. If overnight, pack on ice. You can get multiple rubs in a 6 to 8 hour session.
В. Most fish eyes (saltwater especially) have a gold base, black pupil, and a small white reflection dot. Paint with a small brush in that order. Other Snappers, etc., have red eyes that match their body color. You can experiment when painting the eyes in your first rub.
Materials for Gyotaku Cooler, Fish, Hose, Table, Newspapers, Rice Paper, Paper Towels, Cups of Water, Hand-wipes, Acrylic Paints, Q-tips, Razor Knife, Blow Dryer, Ice for fish stored in good condition, preferably not frozen and without scales missing or broken fins, pick the best side of the fish to rub and tub or container to rinse fish and submerged in tap water to thaw fish at good height to work on rubbings to stack under fish and tail fins white, black, or colored rolls 3/4 emptied for under fins, for blotting and stuffing for brushes and paints to wipe paint off fish also acrylic slow dry and iridescent mediums to get paint off fish's eye before rubbing for cutting rice paper on top of cardboard for quick drying of rubbing
