Looking for images of carnassials

Working on the mouth of the tiger. Now searching for reference of the carnassial 

In a tigers mouth.

I am becoming very intimate with the mouth of a growling tiger.

 Though the foam armature gives me a base for the sculpture there is still a great deal of sculpting to do. Because the sculpture is in pieces. I can work with the head of the tiger on a comfortable table instead of while balancing on a ladder.

Searching through reference of tigers I find myself becoming intimate with the snarl and growl of a tiger.  Of course their are several looks of a tiger with their mouth open, some give me reference of the teeth and tongue but there is a great deal of difference between a yawn, growl, snarl, and roar.

The foam is carved to add more detail 

We have a tiger in the studio- in pieces

The two crates are unloaded with the lift gate

This morning, after we cleaned out some space to receive the sculpture, we awaited for  Acts International Crating . The guys were troopers, they helped us take the crates apart and unload the many puzzle pieces. This weekend we begin to assemble the bases and the bottom portion of the sculpture. I'm thankful the head is not on the body, as I will begin to put some details in the head this weekend. That will be much easier as it sits on the table than if it were up in the air.

Is that a tiger peaking out? 

I was curious, how does this compare to the Prairie View A & M
Panther.  Well you can see the clay head that I saved it is on top
of the filing cabinet on the left.  The Grambling tiger is on the
right and overpowers that panther.  

An artist in the mouth of a tiger.  So much work to do here, but
these milled armatures sure do help. They give me a good base.
I can't wait to get my hands on this head.  That is my weekend
goal.  Sculpting a tiger head.  Funny, if you took a picture of me
while I am doing it I am sure you will find that I snarl as I work. 

The other parts of the lower portion of the tiger are temporarily
stored on the studio porch.  The rest of the tiger is in the garage.
Best to get some of this puzzle put together before bringing
other pieces out here. 

Tiger energy

Where does the inspiration come from?  I am surprised that I feel a tremendous amount of tiger energy as of late.  It comes from the most unusual place, you see last Saturday my daughter had her first baby. I thought it was very strange. For several  months before the baby was born I began to feel like a mother tiger protecting her cub. Don't mess with my kid durring this pregnancy/delivery. I could feel my claws coming out any time someone tried to. So, durring the beginning of this project, I feel a tremendous amount of tiger energy.

The tiger is in Houston!

I ran to the shipping company today to look at the crates that hold all of the many, many pieces of the tiger. It finally arrived in Houston. This is what I found. So this is what a tiger in boxes looks like. Tomorrow it arrives at the studio and we begin to put the entire thing together. Remember that we have been working on this sculpture as a digital model and have sent it out to a milling company to be enlarged. Now this blog will begin to get busy. Keep watching, as their are more posts to come.

A tiger in boxes.  Many, many pieces will be put together
to sculpt the Grambling State Tiger. I look a little overwhelmed.  

I'm so thrilled that Acts International Crating has helped me with getting these from Idaho. A wonderful shipping company. Ask for Lace if you need to ship something somewhere.  She will also be shipping the Neil Armstrong Sculpture to Moscow for me.

No problem.  

We have a tracking number... A tiger in pieces from... Idaho?

The head of the Tiger in foam.
That is a 3 foot pallet on the
floor. 

I'm thrilled to have been approached by a new vendor for this project.  This vendor enlarges my tiger sculpture that sits n a virtual world in my computer and enlarges it to  the size that I need it in the real world.  It comes to me as a foam armature.  I'll still do lots of carving and sculpting on the piece, but having this enlargement process in foam, expedites the processes considerably.

The vendor and I  have been going back and forth for the last 5 weeks, looking at digital files, changing them, comparing notes, searching for the best way to create the Grambling State Tiger. When they started milling it out they kept saying. "My word this is a big sculpture."  I believe I heard someone say, "I think this is the biggest sculpture of a cat climbing on rocks in the USA." I'm not sure if this is true, but I'm sure I will be repeating the sentiment, "my this is a big sculpture"  when the milled foam armature gets to me.

We have decided to sculpt the tiger
in the studio in two pieces. It is just much safer
for our team.  This image shows how it will be
divided up. 

 I'm happy to say that our foam armature is on its way to us from Idaho.   I expect the arrival to be Friday or this weekend, at the latest. The new vendor did send me a few photographs  as they were putting the many pieces together in their own shop.   Yes, the tiger is in many pieces. It will be like a puzzle for us to put them together. Will be sure to show you how our team looks as they figure out what goes where!