So in order to get on with the fun bit of painting, I enlarged the tiger onto a big canvas which I had primed with white emulsion a couple of days beforehand. This gives me a smooth surface to paint on and means I use less paint. Once the tiger was drawn out I put masking tape round the outline and painted in the background using acrylic paints.
Before that dried I used clingfilm or saranwrap to add some texture to the tacky paint.
When that dried I peeled away the masking tape and tomorrow I will add the tigers colours as a thin wash initially so that I can still see my pencil lines. I have to admit I am not a huge fan of acrylics and find them really 'draggy' on the brush, however they make a really good undercoat should I choose to finish the painting with oil paints. You can paint oils over acrylics but never acrylics over oils as the acrylic shrinks and you can get bumps and cracks.
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