#atigerwithoutstripes

 Way back in 2014 I painted this painting and titled it Stripes for Tiger. At the time I was working on building my illustration portfolio and trying to come up with ideas that I could expand into full-fledged picture books. I figured this poor tiger had a story to tell so I started working on some follow up images to see if the rest of the story would appear.

I scribbled out a few scenes where I thought the story might go - mostly really generic, over-dramatic things that didn’t spark much. But, there was one I sort of liked - one of a baby tiger. It didn’t quite seem like the same tiger as the first painting I did, but I decided to try that image as the start of the story, whatever that story might turn into.

I’m extremely excited to announce that my first published book is coming out in March! A Tiger Without Stripes is a modern fable about soul-searching and self-acceptance told through the eyes of a tiger searching for her stripes. Each week leading up to the launch I’ll be posting some of the process work that went into bringing this story to life. I’m going to call them Tiger Tuesdays because alliteration is fun :p

Tiger Tuesday: Launch day, hurray, hurray!! 🎉🎉🎉

It was so thrilling to finally see this book in the flesh and get to hold it in my hands! Thank you all for coming with me on this look back on my book making process - I hope you enjoyed seeing some of the behind-the-scenes work on A Tiger Without Stripes and I hope you’ll consider picking up a copy for yourself! 

To celebrate the launch of my first book and as a thank you to those who have supported my work, I will be giving away 40 hand-painted artist trading cards to people who have preordered. To be entered in the drawings, just message me a screenshot of your preorder confirmation. Starting next week I will be randomly picking 5 winners every Friday until the launch 🎉

Your name will stay in the drawing for each week, so the earlier you order, the more chances you’ll get! Thank you guys again for all your support - can’t wait to send these little tigers to their new owners!

Congratulations @kupoknots @crayonolay @rulueashk @pam.wilkerson and @longoriamarty - you’re the winners of this week’s art card drawing! Please send me an address where you would like your card to be sent 🎉🎉