We also wanted Tiger Queen to be a companion piece for our best-selling Bagheera design. We picture our customers wearing and loving both designs, so we decided to make this print more about the tiger herself. To achieve this, we omitted any plant motifs in favor of a stylized, repeating graphic of the tiger in two different positions. We love that this design feels more bold and graphic, and references traditional block prints but in a new, more modern form.
From Painting to Print
Like most of our prints, the Tiger Queen print started as a series of gouache paintings. Once the paintings are complete, we scan and digitize them in Photoshop, tweaking motifs, simplifying the number of colors, and creating interesting repeats.
“While I could work faster if I designed completely digitally, there’s a certain line quality and energy that doesn’t happen without brush and paint.” – Christiane, Designer
Amy and Christiane work together to finalize color choices and fine-tune the design: Do any facial expressions need changes? Does the repeat look good? Is the scale right?
Next, we start the editing process. We typically end up over-designing – creating more prints and colorways than we can actually produce ourselves! Amy and Christiane work together to make an initial edit, paring down print ideas into a more succinct presentation that we can show the rest of our team for feedback. Based on their suggestions, we make a few final adjustments.
The last step is sending the print to our partners in Jaipur, where they prep the print for screen printing, mix dyes and print fabric strike-offs for us to review. All of our prints are hand screen printed, and this artisanal process adds its own energy to the final print.
