Initial thoughts
The idea of “Angel and demon” appears at the moment I found this reference photo. Two tigers fight. One could be white with angel wings, the other could be black with demon snake tail. The feathered wings come from mythical creature Griffin. And the snake tail comes from another mythical creature Chimera.
Interesting thing is that you can put wings on all kinds of ordinary animals and they will instantly transform into mythical animals. It doesn’t have to be feathered wing, it can also be bony bat wings.
Digital sketch
In the beginning I was drawing this angel tiger pale yellow as in digital sketch. However when I apply the oil paint on canvas, it doesn’t look as expected. After all, I don’t want the tiger and it’s wings feel separated. So I change the color of the angel tiger to white with pale pink hue.
The demon tiger should be “black” ideally. However, dark blue with purple hint is easier to represent “evil”. If you watch enough movies you would find the bad guy always has color theme like blue with purple or purple with red. The good guy often has warm color theme such as light yellow, light orange or pink, golden yellow and so on. This is the general guideline when choosing color palette for angel and demon tigers.
Next, the direction of snake scale is reversed in sketch. I only notice that when I actually paint it on canvas. So I have to change the scale direction.
Summary
Late in 2022 I prepared 18 fantasy painting sketches so that I can paint continuously in 2023. This tiger version “Angel and demon” was the first sketch I made. But it’s physical canvas painting was the last to finish in all 18 fantasy paintings. At this point I can safely say that I complete half of 2023 goal. Now I can move on to new sketches and new ideas in next couple of months.
I have to admit that I like big cats. I am planning on another white tiger fantasy painting. Sometimes I need to remind myself to paint some canine to enrich my experience.
By the way, after all these years learning English, I finally understand why they called police dog department K9.
Ca(K)-Nine(9).
🤣
I hope you enjoy this post.