whats new?

eh not a whole lot. shops been busy, i've been tire, and the ground has been white!

actually pretty happy about the white, id be getting tired off all the dead tan and brown colors :S

but as thats been happening ive been trying to send photos to photobucket regularly so when its time to make a post ive got at least something to mindlessly put up ;)



been painting a bunch...



Rancor!



hot rod!

i think ive been averaging three at a time? either way feels good to be busy :)



started this as well, check the link to the right "tattoos i do" for more on all that :)



and a little teaser to get you to go over there if you hadnt already clicked ;)



i also went to omaha



to see her :)




we went ice skating :) ill post video eventually :)

progress

so what to do on a day alone at the studio with the day turning cloudy and your drawings all finished up?

blog update of course!



first off is the original rough sketch for Zachs back that i left out of the last post.



and post my last update this is what i got to work on, i took my refined image and sized it up to actual size. this time using my print preview screen so i wouldnt waste quite so much paper in making such a large print.



after trimming them to avoid an excessive amount of overlap i fed each section threw the thermofax machine. using up nearly 8 full sheets in the process. its a BIG tattoo.


i trimmed it all up and sat it out in order so i would be easyer to put on the following day. with that many pieces saving any amount of time is welcome.

i had gone back and forth between putting it on all seperate or as one massive sheet and landed on both! i lined up and tapped the majority of the samurai, horse, and clouds together an then applied the rest in segments. which realy worked out the best as some of the lower bits needed tweaking to fit his anotomy better any how and would have ended up being torn off the larger sheet anyways had i gone that way.



stuck it on and drew a little more on, he has a pre existing tattoo on his right upper arm with clouds and lightening that is unfinished. so i decided to pull in that lightening and ect into the back to make it all come together.



and here is the progress after the first sitting!



a good six and a half hours of actual tattoo time, not a bad sitting.



we got almost everything i wanted to get lined done other then the very top back ground work that we will start in on next time. you can see it drawn on in the stenciled on photo.




and of course you know it goes lower then the belt, but ill just give you a 'sneak peak' until its more along.

we have about another week and half real time before our second sitting so can expect a third instalment in as much time :) i plan to line in all the upper back background we didnt get to and get all of that layer filled in with black and gray.

and i suppose thats enough for one update, see you again soon :)

here we go...

alright so i figured it'd been a while since id blogged the process/progress on any project. that in mind i thought id follow along with Zach's new piece we are starting thursday.

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!