Click here to see this piece on... Instagram | DeviantArt | FurAffinity | Toyhouse
Click here to see various work-in-progress shots of this image in production

CANVAS: White, flat approximately 8x6 inch canvas on board; thrifted/un-labeled/unknown brand
MEDIUM: Satin Mod Poge Overcoat, FolkArt Dragonfly Glaze Violet-Blue-Green Shift (44383), a black Sharpie to scribble that crappy signature and several color shifting or solid color Acrylic Paints, specifically Liquitex Basics Transparent Mixing White (PW6), FolkArt Licorice (6373), FolkArt Silver Sterling (2631CA), FolkArt Color Shift Blue-Violet Flash (5133CA), and FolkArt Color Shift Aqua Flash (5130CA)

IA = Iron Artist. Click here to see my list of Iron Artist OCs

---

If you like and want to see more art of my character Wei, please give him a fav!

So when I first joined the furry fandom, I had a really hard time picking a single species for my fursona, but very few designs didn't feature a tiger somewhere in it's makeup. There were a few doodles that I latched onto for a day or two because I was thirteen and indecisive, but when I finally settled on an official character, Wei was born. That was way back, yeesh, 9 years ago, wow.

I would still have considered myself new to the fandom and I was definitely not very confident in my art at that time, particularly getting disappointed at my very first attempt at anthropomorphic characters. I was critical enough of my humanoid/fantasy characters when I drew them, so I dared not draw my feral OC when I had such a regal and elegant image of him in my head, but my friend who got me into all this furry fun offered to draw the hyperlinked 9 year old sketch when she got a tablet and wanted to practice on it (At the time Wei [and myself too] was presenting female and yet to be named hence the description - just ignore that lolz). SongDog actually is the talent behind most of his art and had an impact on his final design, of which has since remained 95% intact since the character's initial conception nearly a decade ago. Funnily enough, I have 10 commissions I've collected starting with that sketch back when I was a teenager and had little else to throw my money at (haha), but never once since joining the fandom have I attempted to draw Wei myself. I thought that was nuts! Such an old OC, such a classic as my first official fursona, so I was very eager to amend that!

Since overcoming my artsy anxieties more, I have found that drawing a tiger head is a very relaxing artistic exercise for me. If I don't know what to draw, I find myself compelled to draw a tiger face dead on just like Wei's here. So when my wife and I sat down to play with paint for the first time in a very long while and I had no idea what to put on the canvas, naturally I fell back on an old habit. I have another painting that I will certainly get to in time of another feral character, but Wei was a really calming start. Part of that is because his personality is incredibly laid back, pacifistic, and sugar sweet, but also just because paint is a really enjoyable medium to work with. Fun fact: I used to hate painting XD

Since taking this photo I have added a satin gloss to protect the whole piece and give it a nice added sheen, which is very attractive but doesn't photograph well. It's not perfect, and this painting definitely looks nicer in person, but you can get a good enough idea of the shiny shimmery iridescence all across various points on my Instagram share of the piece since it's got a variety of angles for you to see it from. That green-blue paint I used for his eyes and stripes and such is so dang pretty, man, it just shifts from green to blue seamlessly and looks EXACTLY like I've tried to display Wei's stripes for YEARS. Very, very happy with how those came out, particularly the eyes which are my favorite part of the whole piece!

Feel free to offer some constructive critique so that I can improve in the future! <<
Known flaws: I'm very novice with paint, so I didn't make a masterpiece here. His anatomy is [hopefully obviously] intentionally not entirely tiger - his tongue is forked and thin like a demon's, his ears are supposed to be more like a red fox's, and the "peacock" feather is intentionally fluffy...but not supposed to look that bad haha HATE my signature, never should have used a sharpie for that; mistakes were made.

---

To find links to all my online accounts, see my carrd:
https://ashestoashcraft.carrd.co/