This is the second pass. here you can see i have painted the fins negatively. I painted around them. The texture is made by using paper towel pressing it into the wet paint. The same thing for the scales I use my fingertips. I spray the paint on for a broken look and also let it run across the fish to break up some of the hard lines. The back fine is just paint put on thick and then wiped back out with a flat brush. This textured ampersand is less bright more flat, I like it.
I want to do a tonal Koi, I have yet to do one, its funny how quickly we reach for color. Someone once said all artists are whores for color it may be true.