Gah, I am SO frustrated!! I did a second tiger, and I’ve easily spent 4-6 hours on this piece. I’m about 95% done, and it’s simply an OK-for-an-amature piece. grrrrrrrrrrr…. I think I might be DONE with Tigers in Watercolor.
I was really meticulous with my drawing this time, and thought I was SO clever in using watercolor pencils to grid out my paper, and draw the image. I assumed that all my lines would disappear once I started painting, but nope, not so, you can actually see the grid lines in the background, sigh………
This is a big painting (for me, anyway) – 20″ x 30″, 300 lb cold press rough. LOTS of visible tooth to the paper. I used frisket for saving small whites, like whiskers, eye areas, etcs. (no frisket used to save the white fur area) but I used Frisket FILM for the palm fronds. Not effective on paper this rough, paint bled underneath the film like crazy. Fortunately, this wasn’t a problem as they were going to be darker than the background anyway, so I could just paint over the bleeds.
I love the background; great colors, wonderfully uneven, using wet on slighty-wet and allowing the colors to blend on the paper.
I slowly and patiently added the main fur color, and things are still going well at this point. Those of you that know me know that “slowly and patiently” is NOT my style!
Then, I began patiently adding the black stripes on the right side of the painting, adding juicy color, spritzing it to make it bleed, and blotting it on the edges to contain it to the space I want it in. I didn’t use any frisket to save the white stripes, as I didn’t want any hard edges. I am feeling SO confident at this point!
Then I added the black stripes on the left side of the painting, again adding color, spritzing, and blotting to contain the color.
I had it looking just the way I wanted it, and made myself walk away, and not poke at it. When I came back, black had seeped into WAY too much of the paper. I guess that I didn’t blot enough, and although it looked perfect when I left it, it just kept creeping and creeping further and further beyond where I’d blotted.
I was pretty much ready to just toss it at this point, but I soldiered on, and didn’t even enjoy doing the rest of the painting.
I finished up the palm fronds, removed the liquid frisket, did a bit of touch up here and there, and I’m calling it done. But not worth framing.
I just love the image; maybe I’ll try it in acrylics…….
Just think of what you learnt by doing this. As far as patience goes anyone who spends as much time as you do at this has lots of it. It’s a passion and you love it.
Actually, it’s true that I learned a lot from this, so yeah, I’ll take that from this piece, thanks for the positive feedback!
well, I think it looks fabulous, but I am admirer of art, not a critic 🙂
I can’t imagine working on a watercolour that size. I am guessing the 300 lb paper helps keep the areas wet enough to be consistent when painting. This drawing is so much better than the first one (the uneven eyes in the first one kept drawing my eye) and I can’t see any grid lines in this one. I love the left eye in this one. And I think the whole painting is great, but the black did bleed a bit too much. But if I hadn’t read your blog, I would have thought it was intentional, to give it a different, dark look. I think it is worth hanging.
I think you did a fabulous job, and it should be framed! even though you did not enjoy the last finishing stage, you finished it….way to go!!!!
I love tigers, the only tattoo I have is of a tiger! Brilliant! Also as always your art is stunning! :~) Thank you for stopping by my blog and leaving me a comment! Gratitude Dance!
Bummer!!! o sad to hear this .. sending you a hug .. Susanne