siberian tiger

curious kitty..

oil on artist canvas panel. 22" x 26". i didn't paint until the edges of the canvas for my own peace of mind. This way, if i handle the canvas, i can hold it at the edges without worrying about embedding my finger print on the semi dry oil paint which will drive me crazy in trying to retouch (speaking from experience from the koi-chan painting). I also didn’t clean up the boarder for effect purposes. Besides, when I frame this the un-painted part will be over layed with an extender anyway.

the tiger is a female seberian that's why she's a bit smaller (average 7-feet-11-inches to 9-feet long and weigh 221 to 368 pounds) than the usual tiger pictures. siberian tigers usually have coarse fur during winter time, i hope it's slightly depicted on my painting.

i start with painting all the black parts in the painting. this way when i put in the flesh tone color of wash i can still see the details of my blacks. after this i worked in detail on the head.

when i'm satisfied with the outcome of the head i go to the body. starting with the tiger's left front arm drawing right to left because i'm left handed and to avoid any semi dry paint smudging.

next comes the background. i had a bit of trouble depicting the stone-like texture of the wall but in the end i just used sponges to bring it out.

finally finished =^_^=