Most times, when I get up in the morning, I usually know what I want to paint or what kind of painting I want to start. Often it is about a place I have been or a flower I have grown or a still life of the fruits and vegetables that grow in my garden. Occasionally it will be a portrait of a friend or family. However, whatever it is, it is usually something I know about or the subject is familiar to me. Once in awhile it might be about an animal and that is usually very unfamiliar to me.
A good artist needs to stretch and grow and the animals are part of my stretch and grow lessons. When that occurs I find I have to do some research prior to doing a painting of whatever animal I choose and when I decided I want to paint a tiger, especially a tiger swimming, I knew I needed to do some serious research since I have only seen a live tiger swimming once in my life time and that was in the early 80's.
At one time, prior to humans taking its place the tiger was the top predator and most serious killer on earth.
I was amazed to find out that they can grow to 13 feet and weigh in at about 900 pounds and I needed to figure out how much of this tiger was going to go onto my piece of watercolor paper as I wanted this to be the best I could possibly do since these cats are almost on the verge of extinction and there is not supposed to be more than 200 of these tigers left in the wild. The wild being Amur-Ussuri region of Siberia and also in northern China and Korea and since there is very lax legislation to control poachers in these areas it is estimated that about 50 of these animals are killed each year which is far more than the number of tigers being born. Plus a poacher can get upwards of $30,000.00 for a tiger and that is far more than the poacher may earn in a full year, especially in Russia !
I had to concentrate on two things in my painting and those two things included making my painting believable as to having my tiger swimming and making his fur believable.
This type of tiger's coat is very long and very warm. When it is in the snow the white part of the coat helps to camouflage it
At any rate, I started my painting, which is a gouache watercolor on 100% acid free hand made cotton rag watercolor paper and I worked on it 4 straight days until I was satisfied and upon completion I felt I had truly captured my "Swimming Tiger." What do you think?
"Tread the Earth Lightly" and in the meantime May your day be filled with
Peace, Light and Love,
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