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How to paint a tiger illustration

... using the wet into wet technique

Sitting Tiger LR.jpg
Aim of the session

In this watercolour project, we’ll paint an illustrated tiger.  It's a good one to practice paint to water ratios, blending and brush marks (tiger stripes).  Notice that there are white areas on the tiger,  we need to reserve these by not putting paint on those parts of the paper.   Also, look at the tiger stripes,  they curve around the tail, body etc and help to show the form of the tiger.

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Materials
 

  • Watercolour paper, 300gsm cold pressed, A5

  • Tube watercolours

  • Cocktail stick

  • Brushes (medium round x 2 + small detail brush)

  • Black fine liner or black biro

  • White gouache (optional)

  • Tissue / kitchen roll

  • Water pot

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Colours
 

Yellow ochre, orange, burnt sienna, sepia, black, white (gouache or bleed proof white)

Sitting Tiger for tracing.jpg

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1. Trace or sketch the tiger lightly

  • Use a soft pencil and keep your drawing minimal.
    Focus on the tiger shape, eyes, nose and mouth.  No tiger stripes, apart from the double ones, either side of the face

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2.  Body - Practice

  • Practice some tiger stripes using black paint and a medium sized round brush with a point.  You're aiming to get variety in your stripes.  Vary the pressure on your brush to achieve thin - thick - thin stripes
     

  • Now, on a separate piece of paper, lay down a background wash of yellow ochre, that bleeds into orange and burnt sienna
    Vary the consistency of your paint,  some thick, some more watery. See the guide below.
     

  • Now we need to add the tiger stripes.  It's important that the tiger stripe paint is quite thick here - ice cream consistency (almost neat of the tube).  Thicker paint will not travel as far across the paper.  We're aiming for a slightly fuzzy bleed, to look like fur. 

    Use the practice paper to judge when to go in and add your stripes.  Ideally the paper should still be wet, but not have a sheen.  Too wet, and the black will run away with you , dry and you'll have crisp edges (would look fine on the tiger if you can't get the fuzz)

Paint as coffee images LR.jpg
Watercolour tiger fur LR.jpg
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3. Body & Head

  • View the body as five separate areas (tail, hind leg, side body, front legs & head).  Depending on your confidence work one or two areas of the body at a time.
     

  • Have your colours ready to go.  Notice the pale grey areas under the belly, legs and chin.   Create a very diluted combination of burnt sienna and black (weak tea) for these parts.
     

  • Mix burnt sienna with a little black for the stripes - keep this thick like ice cream
     

  • Make a mental note of any soft white areas as you go e.g.  top of hind leg, chest, front legs etc.  Put no colour here ( this is called reserving the whites).
     

  • We're going to lay down the background yellows/oranges first, then, when the paint has lost it's sheen but is not dry looking, we'll go in and create the stripes.
     

  • Start with the tail, easiest.  Lay down a tea like wash of yellow ochre all over the tail,   drop in some expresso  burnt sienna along the bottom edge of the tail and let it bleed up,  to create form.  Once the tail starts to loose it's sheen, add your stripes.
     

  • Same method for rest of the body.  For every part of the body, notice the colour goes from strong to pale.

Watercolour tiger fur bigger.jpg
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4. Eyes, Nose & Ears

  • Paint a light wash of yellow ochre in the centre  of the eyes and light pink on the nose and dry completely

  • Use a fine liner or very fine brush to add the pupil an black outline of the eyes.

  • Once dry, using white gouache, add a highlight to each eye.

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5. Background & final details
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  • Paint a light wash of blue, here and there, behind the tiger

  • Use the dry brush technique to add streaks of yellow/burnt sienna for the ground.  Use a damp brush to soften where needed and throw in a few splashes, if you like those (cover your tiger first)

  • Once dry, take one last look.  We need a mouth.  Using a non permanent fine liner or a fine brush with black paint, indicate the mouth.  Then with a slightly damp brush, encourage this ink/paint to create a soft shadow beneath the mouth.

  • I also added fine liner, on the paws, and subtly on any  edges of the body where needed


    If you give this a go, I'd love to see it.  Please tag me on instagram @kerryslackart

Water texture techniques_edited.jpg
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