Tiger and the Snake

This week I asked my artist Bex Parkin about her love of big cats. The big cats in Bex’s paintings are majestic and full of character. Clients love her work for the rich colour and high level of detail. We are excited to be working on Bex’s first children’s book - to be published in 2021. We can’t share details yet but read on to find out a little more about Bex and what inspires her love of big cats.

Tiger and the Snake © Bex Parkin

The big cats in your paintings are so majestic and full of character, you must really enjoy their pattern and form.

They have such presence and power and I love trying to capture this, particularly with their eyes. The silhouette and line of their body is so beautiful plus they live in jungles which I love painting too.  They have such presence and power and I love trying to capture this, particularly with their eyes. The silhouette and line of their body is so beautiful plus they live in jungles which I love painting too.  

Why do you love painting jungles?

The reason why I love painting jungles, flora and fauna is Simply a love of wildlife and nature. On a simplistic level, I enjoy creating leaf and flower shapes and to be able to fill the paper with their colour, texture and form . I prefer a highly decorative aesthetic in general anyway so that plus my over active imagination, there’s no place for minimal subject matter

I love your painting Tiger and the Snake - what media did you use?

I started off with a pencil sketch on watercolour paper which I then painted up using gouache. Some of the details were added with pencil crayon and neocolor crayons. Finally I transferred to my iPad and used Procreate to finish off and tweak 

The colours are so rich in this painting, how do you go about achieving such deep effects?

Gouache gives great colour density anyway but what brings the depth to this piece was when I put it on my iPad and played with the light effects. It’s so easy to create an atmosphere in a piece digitally and really gives you the chance to play around without worrying about the outcome.

You are incredibly prolific and work in a variety of styles. It must be quite challenging to come up with new ways of working. What do you do to relax?

I rarely relax is the quick answer which isn’t great for me I’m sure - I work long days and nights because my brain is constantly whirring with new ideas. If I do have a day off I still need to be inspired so a perfect day would by coffee, conversation and culture - I spend most weekends in London and always go to a museum or simply go for long walks looking at the architecture- I’m always thirsty for more visual references.

How would you describe your first year of working together?

Working with Jehane this past year has been a learning curve and an absolute joy. I have had to learn to share my many ideas and not be afraid of the feedback - a huge step for me as I am super critical of my art. Working in isolation as a freelancer can be difficult so having a friendly, artistic partner to bounce ideas off is crucial.

Jehane has a wonderful way of keeping my creative feet on the ground, making me look at my ideas through commercial eyes as well as artistic ones. We are quite similar in that we share a love and knowledge of all aspects of art and design so it’s fantastic  to have somebody who understands how an idea has developed. 

Bex Parkin

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