Pouncing Tiger

Chinese New Year is fast approaching and the zodiac animal for the new year will be a tiger.

I want to attempt a tiger that has vigor and might, not one that is leisurely roaming in bamboo groves.  I have an image of a fierce tiger with outreached menacing paws pouncing towards the viewer.

I am going to be using the same Xuan paper with golden flakes that I received as a gift.  I used that for my last painting project and I loved it.  I believe the golden flakes will be most appropriate for the occasion and it saves me from sprinkling my own glitter onto the painting. 

I trim off the corners of a square piece of paper to make it appear more roundish. I am using a saucer as my template for the corners. My painting is going to be set in a rectangular frame and I do prefer the contrast of a rectangle and a circle.  I am a subscriber to the ethos of a round heaven and a square earth.  My pouncing tiger with its tail and extended paws shall require some length, so I shall paint my tiger diagonally on my paper.

I am starting with the tail, seemingly the easiest part of the body to paint.  Traditional Chinese brush painting techniques generally are divided into two major styles, that on Xieyi and Gongbi.  Xieyi literally means to write with expression and typically relies on the nuances of brushstrokes for form and expression.  Whereas Gongbi means crafty brush and relies on meticulous lines with filled in color to achieve the painting, and is more regimented.  Having said that, many Chinese brush paintings incorporate a combination of both styles and techniques; a typical landscape painting comes to mind.

I will confess to being sort of a renegade and do not adhere to such strict doctrines and like to do what comes naturally, doodling!  I don't even mind the derisive comments for my sometimes reliance on sketched outlines.  Loading my brush with light ink and burnt sienna and painted the tail.  Bands of dark drier ink is added after the tail dries.

The two lone brushstroke gives the tail a 3-dimensional appearance.  

My tiger painting needs the paws of the tiger to demonstrate vigor so I am paying special attention to give them realism.  Rubbing with a dry ink brush helps to render texture to the callused pads under the paw.  Distinct outlines with the frayed brush delineate the exposed nails.

The head of the tiger actually is easier than one might think to paint.  As long as the position of the eyes and nostrils are correct, the rest will gel itself since the stripes will hide any mistakes and help to personify and validate the species.

The brush is now loaded with burnt sienna and cinnabar to form the body of the beast.

The tiger comes to life once the whiskers and camouflage stripes are painted.

This golden flaked Xuan does not enjoy heavy coloration; the binders in the color forms stiff patches on the paper and causes the paper around the colored area to buckle and crease.  This is what happens when I try to iron out the warping,

Thus this leaves me no choice but to wet mount the painting onto a regular Xuan backing, as I do with most of my other works

So the tugging and pulling during the drying process eliminates the warping!  Now I can either frame it or mount it onto canvas or wood board and the painting shall be flat as a runway.