Girl & Tiger Cubs

Hey, that's not what I call, "Girl & Tiger Cubs". I still don't know what my commissioned painting will be entitled. I asked my very cool client Mike about it so I'm waiting for his response. Mike loves collecting original works of Audrey Kawasaki, Amy Sol, Fuco Ueda, Joas Ruas, Stella Im Hultberg, Tessar Lo & others. He is an owner of KMGMT and of course, a super sweet cat lover. Past few years ago, Mike came across my art from a friend & he was really awestruck. I'm so happy that Mike purchased some of my original Innocent Girls I & II pieces. He was also interested to commission me, so I added him to my commission list in 2010 year.

Last November 2011, I told Mike that I was excitedly ready to create a commissioned painting, he was quite happy! We shared ideas, opinions & suggestions with each other thru messages. He really wanted something a little darker, lunatic & mysterious like Fuco Ueda's art but he loves the Arrow Girls I've done. He also wanted something beautiful but damaged. He also asked me about his own three cats, " I just want to stress again that the tiger cubs should just resemble the cats & besides I would only want people to see the similarities once I pointed it out, so it should be subtle, if that's ok! thanks! " Aww, I adore his beautiful cats!

During our discussion about the concept, it was a little bit difficult to understand what he explained about "emotion / expression / body language" of a girl & 3 tiger cubs. I was a bit confused about something like a "complexity of emotion", which is important for my art. I made different poses / emotions of a girl & tiger cubs so I wanted to see what he preferred.

After he viewed my sketches and gave me another few good explanations / suggestions. He finally chose my other rough sketch, down in the bottom left, where she is kind of curled over & he likes that one a lot 'coz the arrows are given a lot of space to themselves. So I fully understood it. Honestly, I never get disappointed by his amazing suggestions, which means his creative mind improves my skills. I realize Mike is quite smart, creative & talented, glad I have learned from him. I revised my rough sketch & showed it to him... He already loves it.

Click to view this large picture.

Mike decided to prefer acrylic medium on wood. He said my 16" x20" inches painting is going between an original Audrey Kawasaki & Amy Sol which are both on wood. So I was extremely thrilled & excited to paint the final piece! Here are my progress shots.

When I painted it with acrylic, it reminded me of my former oil technique / semi-realism style. I stopped using oil paints since 2005, however, I'm not comfortable with the strong scent so I switched from oil to acrylic paint.

Whew, done! When I see her, I know how she feels.

Acrylic & Colored Pencil on Wood

16" x 20" inches

Click to view this large image.

Mike explained about this: She is more concerned for the animals well being than for her own... so kind of pitiful but overall protective of the innocent cubs.

I combined my current illustration + former realism styles into one, it looks quite different. I think this result went cool! Yey, my mission accomplished! Thank you very much for everything, Mike! I want to thank my fans for emailing me, much appreciated! When I'm free, I'll definitely reply to you all soon.

I'm deciding to sell this rough sketch on my BigCartel shop tomorrow. ( sold out already )

UPDATED: Oh! I forgot to tell you guys, my new prints "The Celebration of Ryujin" and "My Search for the Ghost Dragon" are now releasing on Gallery Nucleus! Please visit my Nucleus shop!