Tiger's Story

Early Life

His parents noticed something unusual about Tiger at 3 months, where he would stare at cartoons in a trance-like state (hyperfocus).
When Tiger did not respond to his name at 18 months, the Regional Center in Eureka, CA diagnosed him with autism.
While in trance-like states, his therapists would comment that Tiger was in "Tigerland".
At the age of 5, his father noticed him using a reference model while drawing, so his parents gave him a large white board and markers, and Tiger began drawing all day/night.
First he obsessed over numbers and letters (hyperlexia). He would draw the alphabet in various fonts, including balloon font, and then began making animals/pictures out of the letters.
Soon Tiger was drawing characters from his favorite apps and books, especially Clifford.
Tiger created The Autistic Tiger (TAT) character at age 6 because....if you're name is Tiger and you draw, you draw Tigers. He also developed his distinctive signature at this time.
During COVID at age 7, his parents moved to Celebration, FL so Tiger could attend school and further his art career.

2021

In FEB, while in 2nd grade, Tiger won 3 Blue Ribbons competing against middle school competition at the Osceola County Fair.
Tiger Mickey Mouse on WKMG-TV Channel 6 (Orlando).
After his TV appearance, his parents started Youtube and Instagram channels for him.
In summer 2021, the art teacher at his new school, Mrs. Bohn, suggested exhibiting Tiger's art at Megacon (the 3rd largest comic-con in the USA) when Tiger was only 8.
Up until this point, Tiger was drawing in a animation cel style with Sharpies (no pencil) on cardstock, creating bold outlines that he would color with markers.

2022

In April, his parents suggested he try a sketch style with multi-liners and Tiger took to it immediately.There was a dramatic step-change in his drawing complexity.
In May, during chance meeting between Tiger's dad and Dirk Wunderlich (Disney Kinkade Artist), Dirk suggest Tiger read the book "Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" to help Tiger with Faces and Detail. Chapter 4 was drawing upside down. So, in June his parents asked Tiger to draw Mickey Mouse upside down, and to their amazement, he did it easily.
To minimize scaling and centering issues with drawing upside down, Tiger began doing preliminary sketches in pencil.
Tiger had an admissions interview with Ringling College (Sarasota, FL) in June. Ringling gave lots of career advice, including adding a giant screen TV to his booth so that people at comic-cons could see him draw upside down because "nobody is going to believe it".
Tiger debuted his upside down drawings at Miami Supercon in July. During this comic-con, 24 people cried in his booth when they saw what he was doing.
In October, Tiger made his New York Comic-con debut at age 9. During NYCC, Tiger was interviewed by ABC News, which was aired nationwide. Then Tiger drew Bugs Bunny upside down LIVE in Times Square.
Tiger debuted The Autistic Tiger Art Challenge at NYCC to much success.
After NYCC, Scott, a caricature artist at Magic Kingdom, suggested Tiger draw a caricature. He drew Mick Jagger that night. When presented with the drawing the next day, Scott was in disbelief.
Tiger's parents consulted Tiger's mentors (Tom Richmond and Stephen Silver) whether Tiger should attend the International Society of Caricature Artists convention in Orlando, which was 2 weeks after he drew Mick. At ISCA, Tiger learned how to draw the same character in many different styles.

2023

In January, Tiger made his LIVE TV debut when he drew on the WDWNT TV show for 90 minutes.
At House of Mouse Expo, Tiger began filming reaction videos with fans, artists and celebrities.
in JAN-FEB Tiger met 86 artists at the Epcot Festival of the Arts, including Jarrod Maruyama, who knew Tiger by sight, saying "I know this guy. This is Tiger and he draws upside down".
In February, Tiger won Blue Ribbons at the Florida State Fair in Original Cartooning for his Animation Cel of The Autistic Tiger and in Cultural Icons for his Caricature of Mick Jagger.
In February, Tiger's logo shirts began selling at Walmart stores nationwide, a project with Autism Speaks.
In FEB/MAR, Tiger's 'Mickey Face Off' drawing went viral, gaining 4.4 million views on Instagram and gaining 55,000 followers.
In March, Tiger began drawing TAT on exotic cars, such as Lamborghinis, Ferraris and McLarens.
Tiger appeared with US Rep. Darren Soto at Megacon in Celebraiton of Autism Awareness Day.
NBC News ran a national interview with Tiger for Autism Awareness Day/Month.
Tiger has been taking on more complex drawings, especially those by Alex Garcia, Matt Gondek and Nychos.
In May, Tiger began painting pop characters in acrylics.

FUN FACTS

Tiger has 2 shih tzu therapy dogs: Rocket and Sunshine.
Tiger's mother (Jenjira) is from Thailand and Tiger can speak limited Thai, including his nighttime prayer.
Tiger is not named after Tiger Woods, though they both have Thai moms. Tiger's mom was a zookeeper in Thailand and loves animals.
In Thailand, Tiger is known as "seua noi", which means little Tiger.
Tiger's first ribbon in art was a 2nd place ribbon in his special kindergarten class in Newtown, PA, which made his parents ask "what did the other kid draw?" Later, Tiger's teacher sent home a note telling his parents not to draw Tiger's pictures for him.
Tiger loves to play Rock-Paper-Scissors. If you play him, please keep playing until he wins. His parents use it as a re-directing technique to calm Tiger down.
Tiger became much more calm after starting to draw. We are huge advocates for art therapy, though Tiger never had formal art therapy classes.
Tiger taught himself to swim, make balloon animals, do any art project, make animations, etc. by watching YouTube videos.

OTHER

Tiger primarily draws ink on cardstock, but also works with pencils, origami, watercolors, animations, iPad apps, 3D constructions, mixed media and acrylic paint.
Tiger draws with Copic Multi-liners and colors with Copic Sketch Markers. He currently uses Liquitex Sofy Body Acrylics on canvas board.
Tiger has received non-monetary support from Expo, Sharpie, Liquitex, RSVLTS, Alex Garcia, Matt Gondek and others.