How To Paint a Tiger | Acrylic Painting Tips

Hi guys, today I'm going to talk you through my process for painting this tiger in acrylic paints. I've already drawn out the basic lines of the tiger, so I start the painting by blocking in the dark stripes using black acrylic paint. After this, I use a flat brush to apply a thin wash of burnt umber paint. To achieve the thin wash, you just mix your paint with a little bit of water. I made sure that the black paint was dry before I applied the burnt umber wash. Because I was using acrylics, I only had to wait a few minutes. If I was using oil paints, I would have had to wait a lot longer for the paint to dry. I would actually probably start with the wash and then the black paint if I was using oil paints. For the background fur, I first tried to use an airbrush that I have. Unfortunately, I just couldn't get the level of control that I needed to paint the fur, so I switched back to an old round brush. Because this brush is frayed and split at the ends, it makes it a perfect tool for painting rough blurry fur. The technique I use for the blurred fur is really simple. I work from dark to light. I get some water on my brush and then mix it with the colour I want to use to make a thin wash. I then lightly dab off some of the excess paint onto a paper towel and then begin to paint the fur in short directional strokes. I wait a few minutes for each layer to dry and repeat with a slightly lighter colour. Because I'm using watered down paint, it's really easy to get that soft blurred look as the paint blends into the colour beneath it. I actually use the airbrush at this stage to apply a thin wash of orange to make the fur look a little bit brighter and less pale. I start the eye by reapplying the black paint, then I lay down a mix of raw umber and yellow ochre and build up each layer by adding little bits of white to my paint mix to make the and to establish the round shape of the eye. Next, I use a raw umber to glaze over the shadows cast by the eyelid. If you're painting realistic portraits, it's really important that you get the eyes and the shadows around the eyes looking right. For the highlights of the eye, I use a mix of black, blue and white to make a very grey blue colour. This is for the less bright highlights. For the brightest parts, I just add a bit more white to the mix. I never use pure white. For the nose, I always start by reapplying some black paint so I can match the colours properly. I use a bit of grey to add the parts of the nose and the shadows inside the nostrils, and then a mix of red, raw umber, blue and white for the darkest layers of the nose. I then work in more layers, adding a small amount of white and red as I go to lighten the paint and make it more pink. By using a small detail brush and painting dots with the lightest layer of paint, you can make the nose look dimpled and wet just like it would in real life. Next, I move on to the fur around the eyes. I start by using a small angled brush and adding some dark black furs for the base layer. I then build up the fur in more layers using a small detail brush, adding more white to the mix with each layer. I repeat this process for the area underneath the eye, black fur first, then layers of lighter fur on top. When it's dry, I work back over the top with thin washes of black and raw umber to add the shadows and some darker fur showing through. I do exactly the same for the fur between the eyes, starting off with black and then adding a darker layer of burnt umber. Then, using the small detail brush, I add the finer hairs using a mix of raw sienna, burnt sienna and white. I use a glazing technique, washing layers of burnt sienna to make the fur appear more orange. For the snout, because it's a much larger area, I use the round brush to add a dark layer of burnt umber paint. I then use the angled brush using a mix of raw umber and yellow ochre to build up the first layer of fur. I then use the detail brush to build up the layers using various combinations of burnt sienna, yellow ochre and white. At this point, I pay a lot of attention to the direction that the fur is pointing. I make sure to follow the form of the nose and study my reference photo very closely to make the painting as accurate as possible. The tip of the tiger's nose has a touch of white, so I first add a layer of dark grey fur, then, using the detail brush, add layers of light grey fur around the tip of the nose. The muzzle is the hardest part for me. This is where you have to pay the most attention. I start by adding a layer of black fur. It's really important that you let some of this fur show through in the finished painting to make it look more realistic. Again, I work from dark to light, building up a yellowy grey to a very light grey colour. Remember, never use pure white. I make sure to vary the general direction of the fur at this point to add a bit more interest and to also make sure that the hairs follow the round form of the muzzle. If you do the hairs in all the same direction, at all the same straight lines, you won't get that realistic shape and form that the tiger has in real life. I use very similar colours for the chin, starting with dark grey and building up the lighter hairs using the angled brush. For the orange fur underneath the chin, I don't need this to be very detailed, so I'm using a thin wash of colour and the old round brush to make sure the fur looks soft. I'm using burnt umber and burnt sienna and white for this step. A little tip for tigers, when you've added in the colours, I always go back over the edges of the stripes with a detailed brush, adding individual wispy black hairs to the stripes, overlapping them with the fur behind it, and blending the edges together. The ear follows the same process as the rest of the face. I started with a dark black wash, then burnt umber, and then I used a detailed brush with mixes of raw sienna, burnt sienna, and white for the details. For the fur around the face, it's very important that you don't put your brush marks too close together. Make sure to leave gaps between each strand to add a more realistic look to your fur. As I build up the layers of fur, I sometimes add glazes of thin watered down paint to change the colours or add shadows. If you're going to do this, you have to make sure that your painting is 100% dry. If it isn't, the paint underneath will smudge and you'll ruin your painting. To make the black stripes look a little more realistic, I add small hairs with the detailed brush. I start with a mix of blue, black and white to create a dark blue grey colour, and add some fine hairs to the dark stripes. This helps to make the stripes look more 3D and less flat. After this, I add a small bit of white paint to my mix to make a slightly lighter blue grey colour. I add more fine hairs to the stripes that will be lit up by the surrounding light. This really helps to emphasise the form of a tiger and show where the sunlight is hitting. The final touches are the whiskers. For this step, I use a sword liner. There are two ways to go when painting whiskers. You can either do them very quickly, which is great to give the impression of whiskers, but for this painting, I want to match the reference photo much more closely, so a slow and controlled approach to painting the whiskers gives a much better outcome. Make sure to start your whiskers in the right place. Don't just plonk them randomly on the muzzle, and once you've put in your white whiskers, it's a good idea to glaze some shadows where multiple whiskers overlap, and where the whiskers join the face, which will make it look much more realistic. I hope this video has been helpful to your own painting. If you enjoyed it, please give the video a like and let us know in the comments. As always, thank you for watching, and remember to subscribe to Studio Wildlife for more wildlife art tips.