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 Oil Painting

A few months ago I treated myself to a new camera and took it to Dudley Zoo to try it out and get some interesting animal shots. The male tiger Joao likes to pose and I got some really good shots of him ready to be made into some artwork.

While on lockdown I thought I would try a different painting medium - oil paints. I haven't done an oil painting for ages as I loose my patience with it as it takes a long time to dry so I tend to use acrylic paint more but I thought as I have plenty of time I would give it a go again!

I took a few photos while I was painting. Here's the very first layer, I just like to cover the whole canvas with thinned down paint and just establish as much of the image as I can very loosely. 

A few layers in and I'm just trying to establish a bit more detail but also I like to get a palette knife out and scrape the paint off again so you can see some of the other layers. I can't help it with oil paint I love scraping at it and the interesting marks the palette knife makes.

The finished painting. I've darkened down the background and added a bit more detail but still tried to keep the expressiveness of the marks of the paint.

In the end I could only really manage painting this tiger in small 10 minute chunks so I'm very pleased with how it came out. Will have to try another oil painting soon too!

Clare xx

Tigers & Mucky Bottoms!

Normally if I'm printing more than one colour I try and add all my colours onto one collagraph printing plate and print it in one go, as its a lot easier! I decided to challenge myself and try out a different method involving two printing plates and a mucky bottom! I thought I would depict my favourite subject, a tiger.

Here are the two printing plates side by side. One is very much like my normal collagraph printing plate with lots of detail and tone, the other is a bit more abstract and will be used for background of the image.

I started by inking up the more abstract plate for the background with a lovely vibrant orange ink. (apologies for the blurriness of this image, trying to take the photo left handed and not succeeding very well!)

The background plate is inked and then wiped so that the rougher areas of the printing plate hold more ink and the smoother areas hold less ink and will therefore print lighter. It is ready to be printed. 

But first I need to get the main printing plate ready to print as I will be printing them almost at the same time. I've had to completely clean up everything first, getting rid of any orange ink, newspaper, gloves etc so I don't contaminate this plate with any orange ink. The printing pate is then covered in blue/black ink and then wiped with newspaper and tissue paper. 

The main printing plate ready to be printed.

Firstly the background printing plate is placed onto the printing press onto a clean scrap piece of paper and a slightly dampened piece of printing paper is put on top, with the blanket on top of this. This is then run under the rollers so that it prints onto the slightly dampened paper. The paper is then peeled back and very carefully trapped under the rollers so that it doesn't move and the printing plate is removed.

This leaves behind an imprint of where the printing plate was on the scrap paper, its mucky bottom! 

I can then place the main printing plate on top of this mucky bottom (making sure I put it the right way up!) aligning exactly where the first printing plate was on the scrap paper and as the slightly dampened paper was trapped in the rollers it should go back over the printing plate in exactly the same place as where the first plate was.

This then goes through the rollers again transferring the black ink on top of the already printed orange image. The big reveal, has it worked or not?

One tiger hot off the printing press!

Then repeat many times! 

"Tiger Sit" Limited Edition Collagraph Print

Here's the finished tiger print, I'm thinking of trying it in a few different colours too!

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

ACEO Tiny Paintings!

I have been painting teeny tiny paintings called ACEO's for quite a few years now. ACEO stands for Art Cards, Editions and Originals. Basically a tiny painting/drawing/print/etc which must be 3.5 x 2.5 inches, about the size of a playing card, and as I have discovered people love collecting them!

A 50p piece to show the scale!

I hadn't painted any new ones for quite a while but after my recent visit to the local zoo, and taking a few hundred photos whilst there, I decided to paint a few more. Two of these tigers have sold already!

I find them a very good way of seeing if a larger painting will work as if an image really stands out when tiny it should work on a larger scale. For example the tiny painting of a tiger that I recently did I liked so much I made it into a big acrylic painting.

I think it has also made me paint a lot freer as its very difficult to get a lot of detail onto a tiny piece of paper and I feel it has really improved my watercolour painting. Also because I'm quite an impatient painter and hate waiting for paint to dry, I find that when I'm doing a large watercolour painting I try and work on about 10 ACEO's at the same time. By the time I have put a layer of paint on every painting the first one will have dried and I can start all over again!

So far I have sold 401 of these mini paintings with tigers and cats proving the most popular and the majority going to the USA! 

A few examples of my tiger ACEO's, I'm rapidly running out of titles for these!

Most of my ACEO's I sell on Ebay or Etsy and its a really good feeling when people come back for more and have a little collection of my mini artworks!

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