He Watches....(tiger in jungle shade)

[Crow Haven]

I do a lot of digital artwork, but when time allows I love still to use traditional media. As I don't have a tiger in my backyard some reference material was used with permission. This is a 24" x 36" canvas painting done in acrylics (private collection) -- modified to a postable size with PS CS. He waits in the jungle shade..... tigers are such amazing animals even in repose...

---Maya

[bat]

That is absolutely amazing work, thank you for sharing. Nothing to crit there, looks better than most paintings here. Nice composition and use of colours.

bat

[se7en_]

I call bullsh1t - you didn't paint this. It looks like a photo with some filters on it. LMAO.

[Punq]

I call bullsh1t - you didn't paint this. It looks like a photo with some filters on it. LMAO.

...Why are you wasting your time here, your probably just some 15 year old prick with no friends and nothing better to do.

Great painting, very, VERY nice work.

[Crow Haven]

What a riot, Se7en! Sorry, but you made my day, that's perhaps the best compliment -- that you feel my painting is physically impossible to do with just plain old brushes and paint! Well, sorry to disappoint you, but it's an actual 24 x 36 canvas and acrylic painting I did. You don't have to like it, but it's fact.

Thanks so much Bat and Punq for giving it your time and replying! Much appreciated. I'm glad you enjoyed viewing it!
---Maya

[marc_taro]

Well - I'm impressed - I'd never have the patience! - great job and in traditional media at that. How did you get the nappy fur texture on the foream? Don't tell me it's just hundreds of strokes with a 000 brush....*grin*...

[bwkeough]

very nice colors and composition. I'm curious about the background, how did you get the nice soft blurs and color transitions with acrylics?

[S.C. Watson]

very nice colors and composition. I'm curious about the background, how did you get the nice soft blurs and color transitions with acrylics?

You can do that if you use them like a wash, and work quickly -- at least in my experience. Tho I was never really good at it. Another technique may have been used here, however.

Great picture, Crow Haven. I never developed an affinity for acrylics for my own use. When I do traditional stuff I've always prefered oils. But I maintain a hefty respect for anyone that can create something even halfway good looking out of them.

Cheers,
~Oreg.

[kyliegirl]

brilliant work

[Crow Haven]

Thanks for the comments marc, bwkeough, Oregano and kyliegirl!

Yeah, acrylics dry fast -- something l both love at times and hate -- so I do what amounts to thin layers, rather like wash techniques, and also a lot of dry brushing (A LOT---I go through a lot of brushes this way) I prefer soft sable brushes for much of my detail work (yes, marc, the raised hair texture did require some individual hairs painted here and there in areas of highlight =okay, quite a few!) but I kept the "hair painting" to a minimum on this cat by concentrating it mostly in the face and foreground paws/forearms, then used a loser softer approach for the areas further away to give some depth. For soft shading in background areas working wet in wet with soft cloth pieces of rag, sponge, and even ...dare I say it, fingers!) will blend things very nicely working fast. I like dry brushing over the top with bristle brushes in thin subtle shades, as the paint dries it changes colors (very light colors as you know dry darker so more layering on is needed to bring it up to the right coloring -- working from dark to light. I began this canvas by painting the entire thing a burnt umber color and built up lighter shades over it gradually. I don't want to bore you with my own methods, we all have our favorites, and what works best for one may not for another --- but it's always fun to experiment with new tools when it comes to painting! Oils give beautiful results and I used to indulge in them, but then later found trouble with it from a toxic affect on my skin -- can't say I like the fumes much either -- so I began with acrylics and had to find ways to make it work for me, which it did after a lot of patience.

Thanks for your comments and ideas about painting techniques! Any questions welcome -- I'm happy to try and explain.

---Maya

[chozometroid]

Very nice work, but I'd like to see you pay the same attention to detail with the rear paw as you did with everything else.

[Akiman]

Very Good,Very good...VERY GOOOD!...I've got nothing to say.well can you please post some digital work here man i'd love to see and compare your digital and traditional work.That'll be good thing for us i suppose.

[Cybergig]

wow! one of the best real life works i've seen.

(even if it was fixed up in PS)

[Twisted Nail]

this is incredibly photorealistic! amazing!

[chapel]

That's fantastic! Do you have a link to any detailed shots or a higher resolution version? I would love to see it up close!

[bOne]

great work !!! very impressive technique

I'm not a great fan of works from photos, but this is very well done

[egerie]

^ me neither but it seems to be more and more widespread nowadays. Anyways, can we see your ref pic just for kicks ? I'd never be able to reproduce something so vividly. holy cow.

[Crow Haven]

Gees! haha. Well. I hadn't expected there'd be the difficulty in people believing this was painted the traditional way! Due to the canvas size being so large, and the photo I had of it being not optimal, I cropped the pic and added a digital sig since at 24 x 36 it was nearly unreadable, glare on the canvas texture from lighting wasn't good either...but I see some of you need "proof" that this was "painted" on real canvas, so I put the painting out on the deck with a chair next to it for scale (for those who don't believe the painting is that large)....then even with the harsh sunslight on it I took a digital pic of a closeup on a portion (for those of you who need to see that this is canvas and there are brushstrokes---yet realize that even the closeup is no where near actual size but it should do)...hahaha. That's okay guys, I just wasn't prepared for the disbelief. It's just a painting. It's in no way "photorealistic" in my view. Perhaps now you can better see it's "painted."

Thanks for the comments everyone!

[Crow Haven]

here's the one just for a sense of scale...

[bat]

I think you just laid se7en's doubts to rest. Once again, excellent work. I actually would have guessed the softer areas were done with an airbrush (in hand, not the digital version) over working fast with a brush, the effect looks similar, but you have shown how masterfully one can wield a brush.

bat

Don't sweat the disbelievers. There are more than a few frauds that do creep around, and it tends to make some skeptical when they see something this good. Take it as a compliment.

[Crow Haven]

Thanks Bat -- I understand now where some are coming from, it just wasn't the reaction one expects...sorta being put through the gauntlet...yet with what is being done these days with digital media there's no doubt plenty of frauds out there -- but I'm sure not one of them and I'm happy to provide proof if that's what it takes here on this board.

On the note of other means to shade a background with acrylics you could also try using a mechanical airbrush. I have tried this a time or two but found that with the set up I had it was more of a nuisance than it was worth with all the mixing of individual shades (lots -- and lots of time spent fiddling around with that), getting the right consistency or the brush needle clogging up, etc., so I prefer to just use regular paintbrushes. I never try to create something which looks just like a photo -- it's just not my preference is all. On something like this, an exotic animal or bird, which I don't have access in person to view, I will consult photos and view video footage when that is all there is. I prefer just using live models, but that can't always be done.

Thanks for your reply, Bat. I, too, am a fan of Tolkien's works.
---Maya

[dns2k]

man kool work... i was looking at it thinking there was no way it could be real. mainly because it was bad ass and it was obvious there was digital cleanup. i am glad to see its real and also to see the detail shot to see the brush strokes. kool stuff.

-dns

[Crow Haven]

Thanks dns! Yeah, the first photo taken of the canvas wasn't the best -- I'm no photographer, I'm just a painter! I'm glad to provide the closeup to show it's real and some better painting details as there's no way to post the actual sized painting in it's entirety.
Thanks!
---Maya

[Leopoldo]

Excellent work!

I love your shifts of saturation and tempature in the greens. I bet your palette look really nice with all those oranges and greens once this was done.

Here's a tip which a don't know if you will enjoy.

When priming with gesso by very detailed, getting all the brush strokes out and then sand paper the gesso down building up an eggshell like surface to paint on. That way you can even be more brutal when dry brushing :-)

Great piece! I also think you got a nice frame for it though I think the white border around it is a little stark in contrast. I would proberbly choose a dark value (darker than the painting in general. Maybe not black but rather Raw umberish) for this piece, letting the light in painting being the lightest, drawing your focus into the painting.

Thanks for posting!
Leopoldo

[bat]

On the note of other means to shade a background with acrylics you could also try using a mechanical airbrush. I have tried this a time or two but found that with the set up I had it was more of a nuisance than it was worth with all the mixing of individual shades (lots -- and lots of time spent fiddling around with that), getting the right consistency or the brush needle clogging up, etc., so I prefer to just use regular paintbrushes. I never try to create something which looks just like a photo -- it's just not my preference is all. On something like this, an exotic animal or bird, which I don't have access in person to view, I will consult photos and view video footage when that is all there is. I prefer just using live models, but that can't always be done.

Thanks for your reply, Bat. I, too, am a fan of Tolkien's works.
---Maya

I do a fair amount of airbrush work, using several brushes and either pre mixed colours (I still mix from one colour to another, but the consistency is preset--there are some handy palette books for colours done with an airbrush), mixing oils to shoot through an airbrush (oils that mix and thin with water) or by using the Ciruelo Cabral method of shooting rubbing alcohol (cleans while it paints!).

bat
I am also in the Pacific Northwest, but nowhere near paradise.

[Crow Haven]

That is also a great tip, Leopoldo -- the sanding smooth of the gesso surface allows even more detail if needed and a different effect softening the dry brushing even more, I have done that on a few works too, and it's worth it for other's to give it a try if they're interested in acrylic techniques -- thanks for posting that! The frame on this painting was the only one available in the 24 x 36 size and so there just wasn't any other choice...but it's not too bad actually so it'll do until I find something that works better perhaps.
Thanks again for your comments and ideas, Leopoldo!
---Maya

[el coro]

jeez! thats an outstanding painting! i havent painted in acrylics in a couple years, and this kind of makes me what to get back into it. hope to see more of these in the future...-c36

[Crow Haven]

Bat -- Thanks for the info on the airbrushing techniques you've used -- my compressor gave up the ghost some time back and when that happened for a time I felt like I'd been totally spoiled. Going back to brush work seemed so tedious! haha. But after a bit I got over it and regained some patience I think I had lost (I've found that also with the digital media and being able to produce things so quickly -- not to mention the ability to use the "undo" button and layers to change things in the blink of an eye -- that it also is a complete shift for me to work on a canvas afterwards, it forces you to slow down, to maybe think along different lines).

For myself, I get a lot out of painting with traditional media still. It's what I started out with, and how I learned to use colors, shading, lighting, etc. It all helps a lot in translating painting techniques into digital aps, as I do pretty much the same things there with digital brushes and layers of colors as I do on actual canvas.

Paradise in the Pacific NW ... ahhhh.... yep, I live in North Bend/Coos Bay, Oregon -- the coast and the weather here is so incredibly mild in the summer with temps in the 70's -- only occasionally is there a day in the 80's or above. There's a lot of rain from Oct. through April but it keeps things here green and lush year round. I live up in the hills surrounded by timber and it is peaceful and I love it here.
---Maya

[Crow Haven]

Thanks for the reply, too, el coro! Yeah, it's fun to drag out the paints and brushes -- hope you do get back into it. I'll be posting things here from time to time and always enjoy viewing others works and the wide variety of styles and methods.
---Maya

[liquidwerx]

Nice work!

I think se7en definitely owes you an apology for making accusations about your work with absolutely no justifiable reasoning... but maybe that's just me.