6/12/17 - WHITE TIGER DRAWING

I started sketching from my photoshopped collage onto a large piece of textured paper with soft hand torn edges. I considered this format because I wanted the piece to sit on a raw background, the isolation and of decidedly composed pale tiger and column against an equally pale yet raw background. This then in the further white cube gallery space I think could be quite effective. Both archival and fine art in nature, I felt the thick roll of fine paper was better suited to this than unstretched canavas as it maintained its rigidity, and make the work feel innately more formal.
A stretched canvas, I feel wouldn't have been suitable, as for some reason in my head I felt like this piece needed to be flat against the wall, and uncovered. To put this work inside another cage within a canvas or frame I think would only contribute to the constraints humanity has already placed upon these genetic anomalies; I instead want people to connect with the work and it's rawness, to get up close and look at the details of expression. I imagine this piece displayed slightly above eye leyel, the tiger staring slightly beyond the eyes of the audience atop its alabaster pedestal like a kind of cynical achievement. Any barrier of a canvas edge would be constraining, and detract from the overexposed nature of the entire scene I wanted to construct. A very much manmade palette of sterility in the pursuit of beauty.

I was happy with how the sketch had turned out, apart form the face of my tiger. It still looked too similar to a domestic cat, and without the wide exaggerated features of a wildcat. This is exactly the challenge I enjoy so much with painting animals, althought this is obviously a cat, without being able to capture the spirit and majesty of the tiger it would simply not have the same ressonance and power. As you can see here I tried several times to completely rework the face, but was unable to capture exactly what I wanted, the right mix of intelligent curiosity and feral power which makes these cats so formidable. So I decided to sleep on it and return to the work later, allowing me to come back at it with a fresh hand and eye.