Amur Tiger

Amur Tigers or Siberian Tigers are an endangered species with only about 500 left alive! 

Here are some cool facts about these majestic animals.

Acrylic on 8x10 canvas

This was a fun one. It was nice to get back to acrylic painting after fabric painting. I took a lot of time with this one. I was trying to achieve depth and airiness in the fur. I hope it has come through. 

Here are some step by step pictures showing the tiger sort of come to life.

               

First the outline on canvas

      

Then some background and more details on the face

Added some base colors

Some more details in the fur and the eyes are almost done. They look a little too big and bright at this point.

After a lot more details and small strokes in, the face is looking good. Here is a close up of just the face.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures! :)

Day of the Dead

This post couldn't have been done on a better day, since today is the Day of the Dead! For those of you who have never heard of this festival before, here is a nice read: Day of the Dead.

The sugar skulls are a work of art. There is so much art and history associated with it. The fascinating part is how something as eerie as a skull, can be turned into something so beautiful with art.

I made these shoes for a friend who loves skulls. :)

Step 1 was to get a good base coat on the shoes. I toyed with the idea of using acrylic paints v/s using fabric paints, just because I have so many more colors and shades of acrylic paints with me. But, after much research on the internet, I found out that acrylic paints on shoes will tend to crack with time. So, I stuck with the fabric paints.

Step 2 was to finalize on the design. I like to first sketch with pencil on paper to get an idea of size and placement. Then I sketched the same on the shoes.

Step 3 is the fun painting part. :)

Just the skull was looking dull so I added some black. Makes a big difference!

Painted the other shoe. I added blue hair to bring some color in. 

They make a lovely pair, don't they?? :)