Original watercolor, gouache, and ink on Fabriano cold press 300gsm paper, 8 × 10 in. Presented in a black acrylic frame with bright white mat, approximately 14 × 12 in framed. Currently on view at H&D Gallery, South Park Slope, Brooklyn.

I'm a scuba diver and I take all my own reference photos underwater. This puffer fish was already puffed when I found him — I did nothing to startle him, I promise. There's something irresistible about a creature that is simultaneously ridiculous and perfect: all those spines, that indignant little face, the sheer improbability of the whole design. I wanted to see what watercolor could do with him. It turned out to be the right medium: loose enough for the softness underneath all that armor, precise enough for the spines. I liked him enough to paint him twice.