the tattoo we'll be doing is not only the biggest tattoo that he's had done, but the biggest thing i have personaly have ever dove into. the being said we're both pretty excited about it.
i forget the names of the parties involved but we will be putting the japanese story of a man killing a massive killer centipede at the request of the dragon king. hopefully in a blog down the line ill be able to find my links and post them here for you.
edit: here's one i found quick, scroll down and youll see the print.
http://www.kunisada.de/Kunisada-musha-e/mushae-3.htm
anyhow, this behemith will be from the top of Zachs shoulders all the way down to nearly the back of his knees, i think thats turtle back style if i recall correctly.
so were do you start on something like this? after scowering mine and my freinds referance material as well as the web i sat down and did a realy rough composition drawing in my sketch book trying to figure out were things should go. i dont have it handy but ill post a picture of that later as well. i know, im so un prepared to make this post :P
but after that was done i moved up to a not much larger sheet of tracing paper and started putting it together.
i realy like large tattoos that you can look at from aross the room if not the street and be able to read whats going on. so i drew it this smaller nearly 1/4 size figureing if it looked good at that size it would translate well into a bigger size. i feel like it i were to draw it larger right off the bat that i would get to detaily and end up making the 'across the room' view to muddy to read.
this is the first of those drawings.
trying to fill out the space i added a Kappa on the left thigh, it was a tough challenge to keep in mind while drawing that such a drastic shape change would be in the middle of the tattoo. unlike just flowing something from elbow up over the shoulder the transition from back thigh to butt cheek is a pretty drastic one. i figured that at this angle he would read as peaking out from under everything once tattooed.
at this point i was still trying to find more information on the story and had not yet find that a dragon was involved.
thinking that might look better, and though a kappa isnt an unreasonable thing to include in this image that the dragon is actualy mention so i thought id give it a shot. im glad i did as i think it looks much fuller and fells less like to much filler.
it just fits better.
i made some smaller photo copies and took some pens and markes to it trying out some differnt ideas. figureing itd be faster ata smaller size and i wouldnt ruin what down the road would have to turn into my line drawing.
after i had something i liked i went for it and blew it up to the correct size to realy get a good look at it.
next time i do this ill try to remember that we have a print preview function on our copy machine, itll make it way faster to piece all the bits together haha.
i then hung it on the wall in the drawing room, somewere i could look at it from a bit of distance and glance at it as i walked by everyday.
with a rainy afternoon to kill and some color ideas running threw my mind i thought id paint a lose representation of the tattoo to see how they played out.
not quite finished but at 2x3 ft you kinda get the idea
with our start date officialy a week from today i decided to get back to it and attack it like a high school english teacher. red ink style.
after having time to be away from it, away from being 3 inches from it drawing it at that. as well as showing the design to some friends for some outside thoughts i went back in with the marker and made some little changes and notes to myself on what needed work before it got put to skin.
i also losely shadded in some of the darker areas and drew in were some patterns and ect would bein the future to get a better idea of the feel of the piece.
and there we have it as it sits today.
in the coming days i will redraw nearly the entire samuria and fine tune the piece. i will also be faced with the task of making a stencil this huge!
check back in a week or so and hopefully ill have more for you!
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