Tiger Painting, Final stages

So…. after I did a bit more on the rock, I turned my attention back to the Tiger and I wasn’t happy with it at all really 😦

There just wasn’t enough light and vibrance in it, I don’t know how I let it get away from me, so I just got out a medium sized brush and brushed a more vibrant colour over most of it. I lost a good bit of the detailing I did in the previous stage doing this, but I knew I wouldn’t be happy if I just continued detailing to the end, even though it would possibly look OK’ish. It’s only paint, canvas and time right 😉

Then it was back to putting details on top

This is where it’s at now, I’ve put in the longer fur around the neck as well, so now I have to refine everything over a few sessions.

Lots of areas need softening and I will do that by using a larger hog brush which will cover up some of the obvious brushstrokes that look too contrived.

So still a ways to go, but getting there, it’s at this stage I find that all of a sudden after 2 or 3 more sessions I suddenly think, Oh… it’s done! Like it catches me out – weird 🙂

The photo has boosted the whites a bit on the photo and burned them out. FYI

Tiger Painting, Rock Details and More….

Hi :wave:

OK….. been working quite a bit on the Tiger Painting and it’s getting closer to completion 🙂

I started working on the rock (I usually enjoy painting the other elements in the painting more than the subject 🙂

I wanted to make sure the rock looked, well, hard 🙄  and I also wanted to get plenty of texture in it so that it played off against the softness of the Tigers fur.

So I masked off the Tiger with just a bit of kitchen tissue, grabbed my wife’s toothbrush, when she wasn’t looking :p  and started to flick paint at the rock 🙂

The photo below is a close up of the final effect (I used a macro lens to get in real close, hence the blur front and back).

I then let that dry before I started to add form to the rock. It worked quite well as the speckles were visible in the darker areas of the rock, but not on the lighter, smoother areas.

This photo doesnt show it up much, but you get the idea.

Tiger Painting – Bringing him to life – adding the details

Before I can add details I need a nice dark layer to work over, otherwise the lighter details would never show up.

To get this dark layer I cover the Tiger with a thin coat of painting medium, the use a dark colour mix like Burnt Umber, Ultra Marine Blue etc then brush it in to the wet medium.

When the dark layer is dry I once again cover the surface with a thin coat of medium, but this time I am using it to help my brash marks slip on the canvas.

This is the 1st layer of proper details, there will be a few more layers before I am satisfied with the details.