I'm an avid fisherman and was looking for ideas for something fishing-related I could make for myself and some of my fishing buddies. I came across @lillaurabee post and know I had to try and make something like this. 

For the art style, I wanted to try and emulate Gyotaku or Japanese-style woodblock print. For those not familiar with Gyotaku, It is a traditional form of Japanese art that began over 100 years ago as a way for fishermen to keep a record of the fish they caught. They would apply sumi ink to one side of a freshly caught fish, then cover the fish with rice paper and rub it to create an exact image of the fish. It's a pretty cool alternative to doing a complete fish mount!

1. I started this design by finding an image I liked that I could process and make look like a fish print. I used the image editing tools inside XCS to make an SVG out of the image. 

2. I decided to use wood as my top layer, I stained it to give it a bit of a distressed look and give some contrast to the engraving

3. For the bottom layer, I wanted to try and get the effect of water and waves. so I experimented with an acrylic sheet I had lying around and some plywood. 

3a. I found a design for a Japanese-style wave pattern and decided to engrave it into the material.

3b. I stained the plywood prior to engraving the pattern on it. 

4. then I just layered the two pieces over each other and glued them. 

This is by far still a work-in-progress project, as I am still not %100 happy with the design, amount of layers, and final product. I'm still new to photo editing, Ai, and XCS But I wanted to share it with the community and get some feedback. 

I hope you all like it.