My attempt at a tiger

So I tried my hand at a tiger, give me your feedback...gently please.

This forum is great for getting feedback, I posted my first tiger on here a while ago and everybody was wonderful at helping me out!

http://www.facepaintforum.com/t8863-tiger-practice

I like it, I think perhaps make sure all of the stripes are pointing towards the centre of the face (someone suggested this to me) It draws the eye.

Also, try adding a black outline to the lower lip for some definition.

Good luck!

It looks great! For a lot of really useful tips you can check out Bekah's thread. Especially if you want a gig friendly design.
If you want it to be a more editorial design then my number one tip is take your time. You want confident strokes. If your hand is shaky or you aren't ready then wait, take a deep breath (or a few) and make a confident stroke.
Secondly, find your least favorite, most worn brush and smash it into your palm until its pretty much destroyed. For realistic fur, this will be your new favorite brush. After applying your base color use this brush to "scratch" the colors together using a wash. Use soft, short, whispy strokes.
Thirdly, remember thin-thick-thin for everything. It will make every stroke look good, even if its shaky.
However, everything is a trial and error thing. Not everything will work for you. This looks really good as is. Awesome job.

Like your brush tip, Kara.

Thanks!
I didn't want super smooth lines, I wanted them jagged, but they turned out kinda icky didn't they? I wanted the muzzle to be natural and not super outlined but it kinda turned out just a grayish orange. I used a rake brush I think to try to blend it and give it a fur like quality. I think I had seen cottoncandyclown use it on youtube for butterflies and liked it so well I went and bought one. My daughter is sick of me trying out tigers on her now.

Here are a few things I noticed...

I'd try to blend the white out a bit more, especially around the muzzle. I think it'd look better if you let the orange and white blend smoothly together for the muzzle, without that brown right against the white.

The nose placement is rather unusual, I've never seen a tiger with a nose BELOW the actual nose on the face! I think I prefer the nose placement to line up with the actual... human nose. It's hard to word that without it sounding weird.

As for the linework, that's something you just gotta practice to get right! Like others have said, thin-thick-thin looks good with tiger stripes. As for the lining around the eyes, save yourself the hassle of lining under the eyes. It's hard to do that without making a wobbly mess... and I think tiger eyes look great with just a quick swipe on the upper lid, or even ABOVE the eyelid line (which is great for kids who tend to open their eyes right after you do the eyeliner and make a big black mess on the eyelids... sigh!)

It's also very common to line the upper lip with black. It's quick to do and also completes the whole tiger look, I think.

And one more thing to practice is your dots! Pay attention to how you space them out around the muzzle. Take your time, don't just quicky put them all over the place... a little planning will make a much more professional-looking face.

I hope that helps! Check out Youtube for tiger tutorials, check out the wealth of tiger-related posts on the forum, and look at some pictures of REAL tigers too! Practice makes perfect - good luck!

Great design!! As far as the nose goes, it's a neat affect when the nose is placed below the real nose, but it would probably work better RIGHT underneath the nose with no space. Look at Kara's avatar. You want the nose to blend into the bottom of the real nose to make the real nose "dissapear". Maybe move the top outline of the tiger's nose up onto the bottom of the real nose. Make sense? good work! Keep going!

Tigers always challenge me, I am never satisfied with mine---that being said, I search out good photographs of them, and really study them, trying to incorporate new details I notice. It seems like a continual evolution.

The Wolfe Brothers have a great tiger with the nose below in their Extreme Face Painting Book and it looks fabulous but it depends on if you are getting ready for gigs or doing a portfolio piece.

I love Christina Davison tigers...similar to Mark Reids (because they work together) but I think they are more obtainable for me and have a softer look for gigs.

There's another thread about her (Amadazzle) but I think you can see her photos on Facebook too...Christina Kerr Davison

D.

Thanks everyone!

Denise-
Thanks for posting her name for facebook. I love her white tiger and her striping. That is what I was trying to do, obviously I failed. Her page gives me much inspiration!

i think you have a good start..I would also ck out some of mark reids books. and as the others have said..its just practice to get the look you want.

That's true, I learn by copying a design and then putting my twist on it. A lot of classical painters do that to learn technique. I love books like Pashur's and the Wolfe Brothers because when they break it down it doesn't seem impossible to do anymore and you learn techniques by following them that you can use in other easier paintings to give them the wow factor.

D.

That is so true. My daughter asked Santa (she's 10) for facepaints for Christmas. She bribes my 7yr son into being a victim, er model with chocolate. But she gets frustrated because she says she's not as good as I am. If only she knew how much mom truly sucked! LOL

Ummm... you know you don't really suck, right? The tiger you posted is better than the tiger I did for the first 2 years of painting. Oh, how I wish I had known about this forum 5 years ago when I was beginning!! This forum has some AMAZING artists and it's always discouraging to compare yourself, (and intimidating). You have to remind yourself that people don't post their "gig" pictures here. They post the stuff that takes them 10-15 minutes. The fact that there are things to improve on doesn't mean you aren't a great artist already. Here is the tiger I did back in the day. I thought it was so great!! (Honestly, so did the kids that got it.) You are lightyears ahead!

Oh Kat thank you! You are too sweet! LOL Some of my stuff, well it really is bad. At the funraiser I did for volunteering..well I am surprised anyone liked what I did there at the end. I had been painting for too long without a break and hadn't even realized it.
My son had gotten sick and I was just trying to hurry up and get home to him. (4 hours later. LOL)
I just find it fun to paint and make kids into something or someone else for a little while.

You're not bad at painting! I love the work on your gallery, especially the masks... I struggle with masks. Always remember, an artist is her own worst critique.

A lot of the time I really hate what I paint, but the kids that I've painted are still delighted! And the look on their faces makes it all worth it.

Thank you BekakCat, I wasn't fishing for compliments, honestly!
I know my level of expertise is way way way down there especially compared to Shannon and Perry and and and...LOL If only my child knew. I'm actually kind of glad she doesn't. She's blunt like I am, she would just say, mom you suck. LOL Bless her!