Laundry day in the fishtank

I decided to buy a fish tank with two ordinary goldfish that are now called Victor and Vero. In my opinion the best pet for a creative person like me. I now have a living decorative element!

How to dress up your fish tank? 

 1. Think of a theme. Is there a special time of the year like Easter, Christmas, Halloween or a birthday party? But also quiet periods of the year can be fun to come up with a surprising, funny theme. Here are some possibilities:
 • A room from the house like the bedroom, bathroom, garage or even the attic.
•A public place like a grocery store, magazine kiosk, vegetable stall or even he church or doctor’s practice.
• A country you would like to visit. There possibilities are endless! For more inspiration take a look at my Pinterest page.

 2. Take a paper that’s big enough to cover the backside of your tank and cut it to size. At this moment you can have a look at the composition of your drawing. Do you have rocks at the bottom of your tank, mark how high they come on your paper to make sure you have no sunken or floating objects. Also have a look If you have any plants, branches, large rocks or a filter that block the view if you look from front to back. Make markings in light pencil. Also draw a line representing the water line of your tank. You don’t need to strictly avoid these areas because you might still view objects from an angle, but main elements are always visible.

3. Now try to think of objects that fit your theme. I usually think of one or two bigger objects (like in case of the laundry theme, I have the washing machine and the ironing board) and other smaller objects that I can place on a shelf, nail or string higher on the wall. Sometimes it is possible to take objects in the fish theme like my clothes line doesn’t contain pants and T-shirts but a mermaid tail and bra. In the garage you might store some diving gear. No obligation though!

 4. Now start drawing your objects in pencil. At this point you’re either a good draftsman, or like me you search the internet on nice doodle drawings of you objects. Put the drawing in the correct size. To put them on your paper I use my “projector” technique, but you can also use the “see-through” method using a glass computer screen (no touchscreen). This depends however on the thickness of paper you use. Another technique is using liming paper. I don’t always copy exactly but use the image as a guideline and put it to my own hand. If I cannot find a nice doodle, I sometimes use a picture of the object and use this as guidelines to make my own doodle-version of it. Try to avoid using doodles that give an angle (perspective) to the object. Everything I draw is a flat front view of the object.

5. Hold the paper behind your tank and see if you are satisfied with the drawing. You can still erase at this moment. When satisfied, take a black marker, no too thin, and go over your pencil lines. Erase any guiding lines in pencil.

6. You can add color using color pencils or paint if you like. If you use (water) paint however, it might be better to apply this first and then finish the lines with a marker. But you can also choose for a black and white drawing, or add some light grey shades here and there.

7. Now put you drawing behind the fish tank using some transparent paper tape on the sides. Make sure the back of your tank is completely dry and clean!

8. If you like you can now combine the drawing in the back with a drawing on the front glass of your tank using erasable (chalk) glass markers. This can be other small items, or like in my laundry fish tank a “company” logo (think on the shop themes) including the names of my fish. I make a draft from this drawing on paper and cut it out. When I refresh the water in the tank, I wipe dry a piece of glass on the inside of the tank and paste the paper draft on the inside of the (partly) empty tank using paper tape. Then I take my glass marker and go over the lines on the OUTSIDE of the tank. Remove the paper again and fill the tank again. When you want to remove this drawing you can simply wipe it away using a window cleaner.

TIP: You don’t need to stick with drawing alone, you can also make a kind of collage using cut out pictures from a magazine whether or not in combination with drawings.

TIP: You can try to search real attributes that fit in the theme to place inside the tank. But first think on the health of your fish off course! Don’t put any toxic, corrosive or sharp objects in the tank. For example on Easter I am going to search for tiny glass Easter eggs in bright colors, so it looks like the fish are doing an Easter egg hunt. Or in a “high tea”- theme you can place a small cup buried under the bottom rocks. Off course always test first if these items do sink!

Have fun creating your own fish tank background and off course keep updating them so your fish don’t get bored. I am thinking of making a background with tealights on some shelves, a miniature copy of the one I have in my home and I will try to light up the tealights using a very fine light cord attached to the back of the paper. Let’s see if it works and the fish can enjoy a romantic candlelight evening.