Salmon Outlines and Silhouettes: 20 Leaping Fish, River Bears and Fishing Scenes

Leaping fish, a salmon on the hook, two grizzlies with a catch and a few fish that carry a whole landscape inside their outline: all 20 drawings in this set are black, and each comes as a solid silhouette and as an outline.

Fish in motion

Seven designs are about the run upriver. A salmon curves up out of the water in 01 and twists the other way in 03, while 02 stretches into a long, low arch. In 04 the fish leaves a burst of spray behind as it breaks the surface, 05 swims level over two wave lines, 06 jumps a small waterfall and 07 angles steeply up to the left.

Fishing and bears

Three designs come from the angler’s side. Design 08 is a salmon pulled tight on a hook and line, 09 lies across the mesh of a landing net with its handle showing and 10 leaps at the end of a looping fishing line. Two more feature grizzlies. In 11 a bear walks forward with a salmon crosswise in its jaws, and in 12 a bear stands on a rock at the water’s edge holding its catch.

Landscapes, pairs and close-ups

Designs 13 and 14 are side-on salmon with a scene cut through the middle of the body, snowy peaks over a still lake in the first and pine trees, mountains and a winding river in the second. Design 15 puts a mountain and a full moon inside a leaping fish. Design 16 keeps the head, fins and tail and shows the spine and ribs in between. Two fish swim one above the other in 17 and chase each other around a circle in 18. The last two are large close-ups, a big salmon with a hooked jaw and open mouth in 19 and a closed-mouth salmon head in 20.

How the two styles differ

In the solid files the fish is black, with fin rays, gill curves, the eye and any landscape cut in as white. The outline files draw the same edges as narrow bands with the inside left open, and they include short straight bridges that tie inner loops to the outer edge. START-HERE.txt advises the solid style for small projects, because very small sizes can lose the outline’s narrow details.

All four formats share a 10 x 7 inch canvas, with each design fitted inside a 9.3 x 5.9 inch area, so tall leaps and long side views come out at different widths. Measure the paths, not the canvas, when you size a project. The full-page PDF sheets print the art 7 to 8.5 inches on its longer side on US Letter, and the page headings and footers aren’t part of the design. Print at 100%, and cut a small test piece first, since the files haven’t been through a physical cutting test.

Questions

Why are there straight lines across some outline fish?

Those are connecting bridges. Where an outline has a closed loop inside it, such as the eye or the mountain scene in design 13, a narrow straight band links it to the rest of the shape so the inside doesn't fall out when cut. They're easiest to spot on the large heads in designs 19 and 20.

Which PDF pages do I print for a sheet of small salmon?

Each PDF runs in the same order. Pages 21–40 hold four copies of each solid design and pages 41–60 hold six, and the outline versions follow at pages 81–100 and 101–120. Pages 1–20 and 61–80 are the full-page solids and outlines.