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Year of the Tiger

Year of the Tiger by Amy Crook

Year of the Tiger by Amy Crook

2010 is going to be year of the Tiger in Chinese astrology. I painted this homage to Henri Rousseau for the cover of the 2010 Starcycles Calendar — every year the cover is by far the most enjoyable part of this big project for me. This time, when we were talking about themes for the year, Georgia brought up Rousseau’s famous Tiger in a Tropical Storm, and from there a painting was born.

Year of the Tiger, 9″x12″, oil on canvas board, $299 with free shipping. $30 of your money will go to charity, check out the sidebar to see who I’m donating to this month!

Or keep reading to see how the Tiger got his tail…

Here’s the initial sketch. Our tiger got a little turned around, but I switched him to facing left for the painting.

I first painted in some very basic background colors on a 9×12 canvas board — this is a good size for me, because when I scan I can get the whole image (minus a tiny bit of border) in one go.

Then I added in some background jungle. I didn’t worry too much about perfecting some of the plants, knowing they’d be 90% covered up, heh.

Then in came the tiger himself — or at least most of him. Again, since I knew he’d be lurking, I didn’t finish the feet.

Then I painted in the front foliage, not to mention his golden eyes. He’s nearly done here, scroll up to see the final result!

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This entry was posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 7:16 pm and is filed under Flowers, Trees and Landscapes, Series and Books, Whimsical and Strange. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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