Tigers and B-1s : 2014-04

I was commissioned to do a painting for a friend's change of command. He's a B-1 pilot and his squadron was the Tigers of the 37th Bomb Squadron. Animals are always an interesting subject for me. They can look really good, or they can look like cartoons.

 

These are two of the sketches I made using markers and some watercolor. The paper I used is low quality and so watercolor doesn't really act or look the same but it serves its purpose. For example, I probably wouldn't use perspective looking directly at the tiger because I couldn't find a good spot for the B-1.

This is the finished painting. I was most happy with the Indian ink in the fur. Colors are important to squadrons since they're highly recognizable so I wanted to add them. I decided on a presenting them in something like a scarf - also indicative of flying units. By the way, the B-1 was tricky. It has no (or few) straight lines and that presents a challenge. In the end, my friend really liked the painting and that is always the best feedback.

For reference, this is their patch.

Poon sent me a shot of the framed painting...I do appreciate when people do that.

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