Tiki Girl

Here’s my final acrylic painting of Tiki Girl. I am quite happy how it turned out because I wanted to combine a stylised figure with some realism. The major changes I made were to the background and the wooden Tiki carving.

The yellow-orange sun burst (see my final colour rough below) overpowered the whole image so it was toned down to a more subtle sunset. I added some cool blues to further recede the background.

I also redesigned the Tiki carving to be less angular. That area was first painted with a dark tone (mix Burnt Umber and Ultramarine Blue) and then the form was highlighted with Burnt Sienna using a scrubbing technique with a dry brush.

Once the painting was complete it was sealed with acrylic binder medium and two coats of gloss varnish.

Tiki Girl: Acrylic on canvas. 30cm x 40cm (12″ x 16″).

My final colour rough. Here’s a more polished version of the same Tiki Girl sketch with the black line work cleaned up. Coloured and painted in Photoshop. (Above)

I am submitting a painting to a local art show next month. Have played around with various subjects but finally settled on this Tiki inspired pin-up girl. Here are some preliminary sketches and a colour rough. The final painting will be acrylics on canvas, 30cm x 40cm.