Guilded Tiger Work in Progress Finished.

"GILDED TIGER"
12" X12"
Acrylics and Gold
on canvas


Part I
The beginning:

As most of those of you know, I love incorporating Metal Leaf

Gold/silver/copper and any other bling into my art.
To achieve this without loosing the integrity of the painting is not always easy.

Too much in the wrong place, and it looses what I call dignity.
Metals work wonderfully in Abstracts.
You can shape and form them and enhance it with paint.

But to do an actual painting incorporating (In this case) Copper  leaf is very hard.
That is what I am now trying to do.

I will document my progress here, and if the finished work looks good 

(meaning not tacky!),
I will keep it, otherwise into the burn barrel and off with it!
I started out with a sketch of a Tiger in the snow behind a stand of trees
Blocked out everything but the animal and gilded it.
It then looked like this.....

This photo was taken @ night so it is darker and less representative of the actual appearance.
Being that it is all I have of this stage I have to use it.

Part II

I then (with the help from Goldens tech service), painted a full layer of Gac200 over the whole canvas.
Then waited two days for 

it to dry fully.
(Insert twiddling thumbs and checking "it"  fingerprints on the canvas here)
The Gac200 provided  a base for paint to adhere to when I painted the stripes on the Animal.
(Metal leaf is not the best substrate for Acrylics.)

I ended up at this stage:

This is a pretty good indication of what the actual painting looks like now.


Part III

Now I am going to paint in the rest of the canvas.....
Not in snow as originally intended but in a forest like setting.
I have to paint the underbelly and features of the tiger in a cream.

With advise and suggestions from Diane, I will use interference paint mixed with my cream base.
(Thanks "Dee")
So, for now that is it, I should be finished blocking in the greenery tonight.
Wish me luck.

Well, I coloured the background in a mottled dark  and light green....This way I will have complete coverage when I begin painting in the foliage.
Looks kinda strange, but it will really make a difference.
This will give you an idea of where this is going.
Now for the detail painting, probably the tree trunks first.


Part IV

Well, here we go again, seems this painting is taking more time drying than in painting :).
I am now going to work in the tree trunks (Birch) and begin to lighten them and detail them before I work in the foliage.
So be patient with me as I watch the paint dry.
(Never a fun thing to do at the best of times)

"till the next up-date
Hi all, been a while, but have been working painstaking on the tree trunks.They are such an integral part of the painting that they have to be realistic.
Here is where I am at now, I will get the tree trunks done to this point, and then shade/highlight them all at the same time.
Hope you see this (so far) as a positive move.
Remember clicking on the picture gives an enlarged view.
Comment/Critiquess most welcome



Part V

Well, a slow process, but productive, I have all the trees roughed in and am now working on the foreground.
From this point on I will be attempting to refine the painting with the details to make it look like the Tiger is just viewed quickly as it silently moves through the trees and brush.
I will add rocks to the lower Left and foilage to the lower left, the trees will have to be finished and the complete background reworked.

so the real work begins now.

Part VI
Finale

Finally done, this was a very hard painting to do.  The problems the metal leaf (Copper) Posed were quite unique.
I had to place the leaf on the shape and then cover the gilding with Gac100 (Goldens) so I could paint on the stripes.
Yesterday I got to the final stages of the greenery in the foreground, and completed that!
Here is a detail photo of part of  that section;

The end result has a slight mist lowering down over the Cat as it moves Stealthily through the Birch Trees.

"STEALTH"
Acrylics & mixed media on canvas
12" X 12"

Thanks for following the composition and creation of this work.
I appreciate all of your input.
Comments & Critiques always welcome.
If you are not a member of Blogger just sign your name so I can approve the post.
~~Kathleen