Why I painted a koi, seahorse & giraffes yesterday

Oops forgot the top fin, I'll have to fix that today.  

Sometimes I get a request that isn't exactly in my repertoire.  I knew next to nothing about the three above animals.
In that way it was fun to try and paint something resembling the real thing.  In painting the giraffes, and never having scrutinized a giraffe that carefully, I thought somehow they must be related to camels, based on the shape of their heads.  So, I looked it up.  Here's an interesting fact that I found out.  The Giraffe and Camel are the only known animals that walk on the tips of their toes like cats, but no, they are not related.


Next onto the seahorse.  They are so complex and  incredible looking, and apparently are experts at camouflage.  I can see great surface inspiration there, which I really didn't have time to get into, but perhaps later on........
A few facts:
Male seahorses give birth, and mate for life.  They are very bad swimmers, they wear a coronet on their head that is similar to a human fingerprint,  they can move one eye at a time and there is so much more.  Beautiful mysterious creatures...


And the koi.  Well, I didn't know anything about this one.  Lots of symbolism here, which I should have figured out since so many people have the coy as a tattoo.  They are symbols of happiness as well as beauty and abundance and the stuff of myth and parable.  Anyway, it was a fine day of painting and learning outside of my normal perspective, which is always a good place to go, as often as possible.