Painting a Mad Hatter Tiger

I decided to have a go at filming myself while painting, it was my first time so I was a bit nervous! I treated myself to a tripod for my camera and thought I'd have a go with one of my favourite subjects, a tiger.

I managed to attach my camera to a chair to keep it steady. I did discover the camera was in the way quite a lot and also my hand kept blocking the view as I was painting, so next time I might set it up a bit differently,  but in the end it wasn't too bad. I also knocked the camera a couple of times but luckily it isn't too noticable in the finished version of the video! 

I've speeded up the video and made over an hour of painting into just over a minute, wish I could always paint that fast!

Here's the finished painting:

Mad Hatter Tiger - Acrylic Painting

I've also made it into a greeting card:

Mad Hatter Tiger - Greeting Card

And a badge set:

Steampunk Tigers - Badge Set

So I have tigers everywhere!

I'm looking forward to another foray into filming soon!

Clare xx

Tiger Print

Back in July last year I was in my usual place by the tiger enclosure at Dudley Zoo when the tigers suddenly started mating! The male tiger strutted off looking very proud of himself and the female rolled over onto her back and just looked very chilled and relaxed. I managed to get quite a few photos of her and knew I would have to do some artwork featuring such an unusual pose for a tiger!

I did a couple of acrylic paintings featuring the very happy tiger:

Happy Tiger - Acrylic Painting

Happy Tiger 2 - Acrylic Painting

I also had to depict her in a collagraph print too.  A collagraph print is a print created from a card plate made by adding glue, paint, enamel etc. This holds the ink in varying degrees and is then printed through the intaglio process.

Sadly the original printing plate (which took hours to make!) warped in the printing press due to some of the paint being too thick, so that one had to be binned. This is the second collagraph printing plate just finished and ready to be printed:

Lots of blue/black intaglio ink is wiped all over the printing plate.

And then wiped off again! The ink stays in the textured parts of the printing plate and wipes off the smoother parts which will print lighter or white.

The printing plate is then placed onto the intaglio press and a slightly damp piece of paper is put on top. all of this is covered with a blanket and then put through the printing press which forces the ink off the printing plate onto the paper, leaving the paper slightly embossed.

The finished collagraph print, framed and ready for exhibition.

I decided to enter her into the Wolverhampton Society of Artists new Centenary Exhibition at Wolverhampton Art Gallery and luckily she was accepted! 

Also I was very shocked and proud to receive the first prize for the Selection Panel Choice and got to meet the Mayor of Wolverhampton who presented me with a certificate and book.

The exhibition is on until February 16th and well worth a look and you can see a very relaxed looking tiger!

Clare xx

Printing Tiger Feet!

I have a slight obsession with tigers and whenever I go to Dudley Zoo I spend hours watching the tigers. I was really lucky the last time I was there as the male tiger Joao was having a little sleep and showing his lovely big paws which I just wanted to tickle!

I knew I would have to produce some artwork of him so I decided to do a quick acrylic painting:

Sleeping Tiger Acrylic Painting

He looked so cute I thought he would work brilliantly as a collagraph print too, here's the start of my printing plate being designed.

About to start printing, not many people get to see the printing plates before they have been inked up and got very messy!

Here he is after being inked up. I've inked him A la poupée which is a technique for applying different colours of ink using a ball-shaped wad of fabric to apply the ink which then means I can print the image in just one run through the press. Its a bit fiddly but well worth it.

Hot off the printing press!

A few different variations of the tiger print, still deciding which one I like the best.

I moved house about 5 weeks ago so I am still unpacking everything but my new studio is starting to come together and I'm really enjoying doing a bit of printmaking again!

Hopefully lots more new prints coming soon!
Clare xx

Painting a Sloth

I love sloths, they are just so odd looking but still very cute! I've seen one in the wild while on holiday in Costa Rica but it was so far away and up a tree it just looked like a vague pile of fur so when I went to Chester Zoo last year I took loads of photos of their two toed sloths and had to paint them! You would think they would be easy to take photos of as they are supposed to be quite slow but these ones were so active a lot of my photos were quite blurry!

My original intention was just to paint one sloth but I enjoyed it so much I got carried away and ended up doing three paintings!

This is how I painted them below. They are all painted in Liquitex Heavy Body acrylic on box canvas.

First of all I hate working on a white canvas so I painted the canvas a neutral grey all over. I wasn't intending to keep the grey background but it worked so well against the colours of the sloth's fur that I kept it in the end. I gridded up the canvas and the photo that I was working from so that I could enlarge the sloth image onto the canvas and now I'm all set to start painting!

I laid in a rough idea of the sloth with a light mix of water and an acrylic colour called parchment, which is great for animal fur, so that I could get an idea of the shape.

I'm beginning to add a few different colours to the sloth building up a few of the dark areas.

Adding a few more darks to the fur, I always work by adding paint all over the painting and never working too much in one area. 

Gradually building up the paint and adding a few more details. I'm trying to keep the direction of the paint strokes always going in the same direction as the fur so that it looks more realistic and has a sense of movement. Also I like to use a large brush so that I don't get caught up in too much detail and also get some lovely paint strokes showing in the painting.

Almost there, just strengthening the lights and darks and adding a tiny bit more detail. I like to have a strong contrast between the lights and darks in my paintings as it makes it more dynamic.

The finished painting and the two other sloth paintings I couldn't resist doing too to then make a Sloth Triptych!

Sloth Walk - acrylic painting on canvas

Hanging Sloth - acrylic painting on canvas

Sloth Reach - acrylic painting on canvas

I really enjoyed painting these sloths and loved having fun with the paint in their fur, might be tempted to do a few more soon!

Clare xx

Painting a Steampunk Tabby Cat

I had a bit of time to kill on Tuesday morning while waiting for the chimney sweep to come round so I thought I'd start a couple of new Steampunk inspired animals in hats acrylic paintings!

Its been a while since I did a new cat in hat painting so I thought I'd try a tabby cat in a leather flying hat and goggles, I've done a black and white cat and also a tiger in a flying hat and these have proved to be very popular!

Flying Kitty Greeting Card

Flying Tiger Greeting Card

I decided to take a few photos of my step by step painting so you can see behind the scenes of how I paint!

Here is the very start, I manipulate the image in Photoshop and have added a hat to the tabby cat (I don't really force any animals to wear hats, its all done digitally!) Here's my canvas at the very beginning - I hate working on a white canvas/paper so always paint the canvas first. For my cats I find red seems to work the best as a background colour.

I also always start with the eyes as I think if the eyes don't look right the painting will never work.

I try to cover as much of the canvas as I can working on every part blocking in the basic colours. 

I am gradually building up layers and refining areas. Again I like to get the eyes to be very clear and often exaggerate them slightly to make the face look cuter!

He is starting to come together. You can see the cat is a lot more refined than the hat at the moment. The hats and goggles are usually the last things I work on. Also you can spot my palette is an icecream tub lid, it keeps the paint wet for a bit longer and doesn't need cleaning off when I have finished!

Just about finished! I've added touches of gold paint to the goggles and a bit more detail all over. I love painting goggles and adding all the reflections in the metal!

Flying Tabby Acrylic Painting

Here he is all finished and ready to go off on a new adventure!

Clare xx

How to Steampunk a Giraffe!

Last year I went to Florida and had the most unforgettable experience of hand feeding a very friendly giraffe at Busch Gardens. I got so many amazing photos and knew that I would have to do a lot of giraffe artwork when I got back home!

 I decided I would have to paint a Steampunk giraffe to go with the rest of my animals in Steampunk hats series of paintings and started thinking about what hat would look best on a giraffe!

I decided he would have to be an explorer and after seeing my partners very nice new pith helmet, above, at the last West Midlands Steampunk Assembly's very fun expedition to hunt dinosaurs at the Botanical Gardens in Birmingham in June, I knew the giraffe would look great in a pith helmet and goggles!

A lot of people ask me how I get the animals to wear the hats in my artworks, I don't think many of them would be too happy with me dressing them up so I do use a little bit of photoshop magic before I start the artwork. I prefer to work from real hats as I can get more detail, to control the lighting and also sometimes wear them while painting so I an see what it looks like on! So I borrowed the pith helmet and took a few photos from various angles. I then put these into photoshop and added the pith helmet to one of my photos of the giraffe.

Here is what he looks like and what I work from while I am doing the painting. It is very roughly photoshopped (and excuse my thumb!) but I only need a rough idea and can alter things as I paint.

Explorer Giraffe - Acrylic Painting

And here he is, the finished painting! I think he looks very cute in his pith helmet and goggles!

Explorer Giraffe - Greeting Card

I also made him into a greeting card to go with my many cards depicting my animals in Steampunk hats!

Steampunk Animal Cards

I'm sure there will be a few more Steampunk inspired giraffe paintings coming soon and there may be a few more animals wearing pith helmets as they are great fun to paint!

Clare xx