Gyotaku by David Mac · Picture It Framed Gallery
Hand-pulled gyotaku prints of real specimens from the flats, passes, and backwaters of Tampa Bay — each one a physical record of a single fish that will never exist again.
I’ve always found a way to make something. I started with drawing. Then music, playing it, recording it. Later, I found woodworking. Different mediums, same impulse. Then I found gyotaku.
The medium changed again. The need to create never did.
How It's Made
Gyotaku — from the Japanese gyo (fish) and taku (rubbing) — began in the 1800s as a fisherman's way of recording a catch before cameras made it unnecessary. Every print in this collection follows that same original process, adapted only where Florida's saltwater species call for it. One fish. One impression. It can't be exactly repeated.
David works from real Florida specimens — redfish, snook, seatrout, black drum — sourced fresh and handled with care to keep every scale, fin, and scar intact for the print.
The fish is cleaned, dried, and positioned, with fins pinned outward. Any trapped moisture will show up in the final impression, so this is where a print is won or lost.
Sumi ink is worked into the fish by hand and brush, layer by layer — thin enough to hold every texture without drowning the detail underneath.
Rice paper or fabric is laid over the inked fish and pressed by hand, contour by contour, then lifted in one motion to pull the print free.
Painted in by hand after the lift — the one part of the print that isn't a direct impression, and the part that brings the fish back to life on the page.
The print dries, gets inspected, and is signed and dated. What's left is the only impression that fish will ever leave.
No two fish are the same. No two impressions are the same. That's the whole point.
