Siberian Tiger

#1

http://www.tinaharkin.co.uk/yeahwell.htm
Siberian Tiger
Hand painted in Painter 8 from a photo using the grid method to scale up. It is neither a photo-painting nor a trace over and I hope I have provided proof of this. The outside shape is fairly simple so I could just have easily used the negative space method. So far I have put in over 50hrs of intense work. I just can’t cut it as a painterly artist (as much as I would like to) because I get obsessed by details. Since going digital though I feel I am becoming more selective in my detail!

I used a basic and fairly common colour scheme.
I wanted the painting to read as follows:
Focal point should be the eyes as this has the greatest degree of contrast. In the size posted it looks black and white but really is a combination of ultramarine blue, burnt & raw sienna and burnt umber (or as near as dammit!). The viewer’s eyes should then travel round and down the body to the middle/hip area (second greatest degree of contrast). Hopefully the gaze should then follow the rock edge along and up towards the reflected light on the chest area where I have used the stripes to open up and frame the head. I hope that it can be seen that I have created far more depth and texture than evident in the photo (unless I am also deluding myself) and the body looks more 3d-ish and alive.

The fur is mainly painted using my version of the bristle brush and blended with a brush from Chris’s Fineart Brushes (set one). The clouds were painted using the palette knife from the Classic version of Painter. I made several different papers to paint the rock.

The study of a lioness was an early attempt at a colour digital painting. The Golden Eagle is a current painting. I have included a drawing stage, the head crop which is at stage 40 (concentrating on placement and size of feathers) and a close up view of almost completed feathers (stage 90).
The final painting is of a kestrel and is causing much concernment. The idea was originally to portray a kestrel in a fairly old wood. I got caught up in painting the tree but the competition for attention was too much so I decided to slim down the tree and knock out the detail and several branches. The painting lost it oomph so I’m having a break from it before deciding which element should be the focal point – any help here would be much appreciated.
Thanks for looking.
Tina

#2

… amazing … photorealistic … better than reference …:bowdown:
head is big … but is not a problem …

#3

whoa… that must have taken a loooong azz time.
yea it looks softer and just better then ref… cept I don’t like the background on either.

#4

i agree with Bustasnipez… you put in so much of time and the pussy cat looks so damn good… just that the background could do alittle better… ohh and all your other paintings are superb as well… :slight_smile:

#5

Thanks guys for taking the time to look and comment.
What do you suggest for the background? When I painted this I had the Fineart Greeting card market in mind but, even through rose tinted glasses, I can see it looks twee.

I’ve been invited, as a past winner, to enter an international wildlife art contest and was thinking of painting this up in oils or acrylics. There will be stiff competition so I need to add more interest. The tiger is in its summer attire and in Ussuriland the summer period is semi-tropical so I could try a lush forest hillside. What do you reckon?
Tina

#6

I’ll echo what some others have said, morrie. This painting rocks. Getting fur right can be so challenging, and not everyone can pull that kind of thing off. As for a background suggestion, I’d stick with a rich blue as it would compliment the orange fur so well. You might need to adjust the rock to slightly cooler colors, but that’s the beautiful advantage of digital painting! I do like the branch detail in the photo reference, so maybe something like that? Exceptional work, and good luck with the contest.

Urrgos

#7

Thank you Urrgos. I’m going to go with your idea and see what developes.
I painted the clouds to echo the ‘clumps’ of the fur so I can do the same with the stripes/markings and tree branches.
Thanks,
Tina

#8

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