Prawns

Live prawns in a Chinese market

I love Qi Baishi’s paintings of prawns.  Here are some more examples.

Of course, with their long arms & pincers, they are not quite the prawns we are used to eating here, more like crayfish.  In China this year I ordered a dish of “prawns” and got a large bowl of tiny fresh water shrimp, all with little arms & pincers, to eat whole.

Here is a video showing sketching Qi Baishi’s painting – a good way to understand the structure.

This video shows how to paint these prawns, including some photos of Qi himself!