Bathing tiger

A bathing tiger painted in bright colours including yellow, pink, blue, purple, cream and white.
Media: Digital.

Tigers have always been one of my favourite big cats, and has been featured in my work a few times. For this image though I knew it would be perfect because it’s stripy markings allow me to pick a contrasting colour for the stripes, and make it stand out a bit more. I also wanted to put the tiger in an environment we don’t usually consider them to be in, as I recall watching a National Geographic documentary where a tiger stepped into a pond to have a bath and a rest. That’s always stuck with me, as we’re so used to thinking that all cats, domesticated and wild, all hate water.

For a little while I’ve been wanting to change up my colour palette, of course my limited colour palette art challenge, Huely, has allowed me to do that, and introduced this really bright colour palette. From the get go I knew that it would be perfect for animals with quite recognisable markings, which includes this lovely bathing tiger, but also a curious giraffe, and a cheetah.

If you like this image and want it on your wall, it is available as a print. It’s also available on t-shirts, as stickers and more in my TeePublic shop.