The 1st of Feb marked the beginning of the Year of the Tiger, so I decided to make a new plate. The tiger will be copper with painted black stripes.
With a 6×8″ blank and stencil design ready to go, I cut the stencil on my machine and transferred it onto the plate. I weed the black stripes out of the stencil and mask the rest of the plate to apply 2 coats of paint. Afterwards, I remove the background to prepare for reaction in the chamber.
I tried a two-tone background, giving a different texture for the ground on the lower part of the image than in the upper part. I imagine the tiger is walking in and out of shadows, and tried to reflect that in the background. I put the plate in the chamber to react and get its colours.
When it was time to remove the tiger, I brushed of the gravel, rinsed it clean, and let it dry before applying a clear coat.
Now I just have to weed-out the white stripes from the stencil, then clear coat it again. I think the contrast of the bare copper and black paint really pops.
All that is left is to install the hanger hardware and sign it on the back. I am glad that the image turned out well at this scale. I had to paint the pupil by hand and lost a couple tiny stripes, but had no other major issues. This small plate turned out just fine, so I’ll make a larger tiger before the year is out, I’m sure.
