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Like a lot of people, my favorite area to see at the Detroit Zoo is the Amur Tiger exhibit. these big cats are spectacular with their orange fur, large bodies (they’re the largest members of the cat family!), and their glorious roar. My wife and I have been members of the zoo for a long time, which means we don’t have to have an entire day taken up with it. Since we can visit it often, we can enjoy it for just an hour or so and not feel cheated, especially since daily admissions aren't that cheap. But no matter how short our visit is, I always make a point to include the tigers.

I’ve taken up the zoo’s permission to do a couple plein air paintings when I was still new to it. After a first plein air visit to paint the guanacos, I was eager to return and paint the tigers. I recall that when I was setting up my French Easel, the tiger would watch me intently and slowly approach me. When I looked at him, he immediately stopped and crouched down to the ground so I couldn't see him. When I looked away to continue setting up my easdel and paints, I could see out of the corner of my eye that he would pop up again and take a slow step or two toward me again. I looked back at him and he's quickly stop again and crouch down so I couldn't see him. This happened 3 or 4 times and I thought, at first, that he was playing peek-a-boo with me. Then a second thought occurred to me — he was stalking me so he could attack me! I was very happy the zoo had a deep mote.

I spent the day happily painting the tiger, who quickly got bored of me and plopped down for a nap. To the right you can see the result of that painting. It's a 14" x 11" acrylic painting on cheap canvas. This was back in 2014 and I was still pretty new to plein air and knife painting. 

Looking at this first painting, I can see how dramatically my painting skills have improved since then. In fact, now I even teach acrylic painting classes. On the second week of the class, I usually do a quick demo painting. I try to get it done within a half hour. One of my demo paintings last year was of the tiger from the zoo.

By this point, the Detroit Zoo had built a new and larger enclosure for the tigers. When my wife and I saw the new enclosure for the first time last fall, I took a lot of reference photos. The tiger was beautiful and the tree foliage was in peak autumn colors. I printed out a favorite photo to take to class and showed them how I crop the image to simplify the scene and establish a focal point. Then I proceeded to do a quick painting within a half hour, allowing 90 minutes for the class to work on their own pieces.

This is the final painting. Considering how quickly I dashed this out, I was pretty happy with it. I had done demos of other paintings in acrylic before it, but this painting stuck in the back of my head. I wondered what it would be like to do this scene larger, on a nice canvas, in oils, and with my painting knives. I've done many landscapes that way, but not that many animals.

Last weekend, I went back to the acrylic painting, as well as the photo reference, and decided to finally do the larger version. I worked out a little different composition. Instead of the tiger leading your eye out of the painting (something I thought I'd try out but don't think succeeded in the acrylic painting), I placed the tiger on the left and used the curve of his body to help guide the eye. To assist the viewer's eye to move around the painting, I emphasized some bare rocky walking trail on the lower left and rocks around the grass.

Speaking of the grass, I think I repainted it about 3 or 4 times to get the colors I wanted. Since this was a studio piece for me, I didn’t feel like I was in a hurry to finish it. I enjoyed the time it took to paint it. For the tiger himself, I used my basic knife to block in the oranges and whites. Then I got out my small knife to paint in the details of the eye, the ears, the mouth, , and all the stripes.

I also enjoyed painting the leaves on top. I enjoyed applying thick paint all over, loosely and freely. As always, I had lively music playing to keep me from painting too stiffly. When I thought I was done, I asked my wife to take a look at it. She's very supportive and an honest critic. She gave it an immediate thumbs up, as is, so I called it done. She came up with its title of Predator.

Here’s the finished painting for you to see. This is a 24" x 24" oil on wraparound canvas painted solely with painting knives.