Fishe Meet the Artist Series: Chaney Fray

Do you love Fishe’s new Brookie leggings?  We do too, and we want to introduce you to the artist who developed our favorite new design!  Chaney Fray is the creative mind behind Brookie, in addition to many of Fishe’s most beloved patterns, including Groovy Grayling, Troutrageous Rainbow, Arctic Char, Fly Pheasant, Floral Fish, Cosmo Coho, Radical Red Fish, and Totally Tarpon.  We are proud to be able to work with such a talented artist, and we’re grateful to Chaney for taking some time from her busy schedule to tell us a bit about her background, her work, and her inspiration.  

Chaney is, above all, a storyteller.  She has a life-long passion for illustration and animation and for using the art of drawing to tell a tale.  She describes sitting at the table with her older sister, when they were still children, drawing different characters and making up stories to go with their drawings.  And while her skills have certainly sharpened since then, Chaney notes that her creative interests remain much the same.  She writes: “Being the sentimental sort, I love remembering all the magic that was in the books I read and the movies I watched growing up and how they made me feel. I really want to make things that create that sense of nostalgia, and hopefully affect others in the same way.”

Chaney has loved drawing since she was a child, but she hadn’t anticipated that art would become part of her career.  She went to Tech school and became a Graphic Designer (a job that she still practices to this day), but at the same time as she was studying, she was also nursing an “obsession” for art and drawing.  She writes: “I would take multiple art labs, go to life drawing sessions and study groups and watched YouTube tutorials. Every hour of every day was spent drawing and learning; I couldn't get enough. For a few years I would draw every evening after work, from 6pm to 1am. I was desperate to create a unique style, which is very challenging and takes time. Now that I am more confident in my style, I'm allowing myself to just go after the kind of art I've always wanted to make!” 

Chaney’s focus and drive and her unique set of skills are evident in the designs she has created for Fishe, which are graphically powerful but also capture the essence of the different species of fish that inspire them.  Chaney says that when she first started working with Fishe, she felt nervous about taking on a new challenge, but she jumped in with both feet and is grateful to have not passed up the opportunity.  She writes: “To see my art on all these amazing products and worn by people all over the country -- that feeling is hard to describe!”

Talking to Chaney about her process and looking at her work for Fishe, what comes through above all is her shrewd design sense, her sense of balance and composition, and her ability to synthesize and pay homage to the wide variation that occurs in even just one species of fish.  When asked about what it takes to make a successful Fishe pattern, Chaney shared that the two most critical elements are “observation and a lot of time.”  Here is Chaney’s description of how she goes about creating a new design for Fishe:

“The first thing I do is figure out the silhouette by looking at multiple references so that I can get the shape of the fish worked out.”

“Then the abstract comes into play. To create the fun colors and shapes, I research the fish and try to focus on its defining features.”

“One thing I noticed that made things interesting was comparing all the different photos of the same species, and to see how different they all looked. Not to mention how colors looked in the water vs. out of water.”

“I work hard to make the fish pretty and have contrasting colors, but still work the design so your eye can comfortably move all around the fish. It's not easy when you are using so many bright colors, but I think I managed to pull it off with designs like the Groovy Grayling and Troutrageous Rainbow.”

If you would like to learn more about Chaney’s work, please visit her website: ObasiStudios.com

Check out the entire Brookie collection HERE