Tiger Eyes Process

Ahh I do love my big cats <3

1 - Sketch, then using three colours underneath, roughly (And I mean roughly!) outlining standard colour, shadow and light.

2 - Adding in variation for tones on the orange, choosing a dull colour for the white part that will be in shade. Already you can see the 3d forms that are taking shape.

3 - Simple addition. Just adding in the stripes using a slate grey colour.

4 - Further detailing, mainly with the black parts. Moved the sketch layer to underneath now as can work ontop. I lower the opacity on my brush to about 75% so the colours can start blending a bit.

5 - Needed some contrast against the orange so I brought it a teal greenish blue for a background. Repeated this in the eyes, and then used this to add contrast with reflected colour on the shadows. Really simple shading here for the eyes but adding the highlights really makes them pop.

6 - Added a lot of texture here. I hate when pieces end up looking too clean! A bit of fur textures brushes and just general 'grungey' brushes on various layer modes to add some interest and break it up. Made the green/blue in the shadows stronger.

7 - My canvas was far too squashed, so expanded the right side. Increased saturation of the blue/green for more balance in the piece. More detailing, whiskers added - make sure these are on a seperate layer!

8 - Final touches. Increased canvas space again, then really played with highlights using an overlay layer to make things pop. I also added a faint 'canvas' textured effect.

See the finished piece here -