Smiling Guy

I wanted to draw a guy smiling, so I looked in the IKEA catalog and found a great model to caricaturize.

Star in Negative Space

This was an accident. I was just sitting there, minding my own business when all the sudden THIS popped on to my paper.

Stipple Self-Portrait

This was from looking at my camera phone, using black and red Sharpe markers.

Card Image

Ultros - Sketched

What an annoying recurring villain. But kinda cute in a way...

Fruit Challenge Complete!

I have graduated! I have been wanting to move on to skin for some time now, considering how different the textures of the fruit and human skin are. That day has finally arrived, and I'm stoked. This is going to kick ass, and I will be posting the results of each of my awesome volunteers on this blog so I can keep organizing my work. The only thing I need now is a camera that can take close-ups, since my phone hasn't been perfect for it. Wish me luck!

B #10: Dice on Grapefruit 30/30

Can you tell I just wanted to finish? Haha, I have an appointment with a guy today for my first skin work. And I had to finish my fruit challenge first, so here is a pair of dice with a ribbon saying, "dice." Hope you're happy! I am!

A #10: Strength Kanji on Grapefruit 29/30

Title says it all. These solid figures are the easiest, for sure. Still, I'm glad I practiced the three types!

B #09: Flower and Leaves on Grapefruit 28/30

I love doing these flowers. Even though flash can be found anywhere in the world, it's still sweet. I'm not saying I'll ever get anything on me that's going to be on millions of other people, but I definitely don't look down on it at this point.

A #09: Tribal Navel on Grapefruit 27/30

This was fun. I drew the design on the fruit with a pen (which is standard procedure now, since the stencil paper does NOT work on fruit surfaces or the wax they coat them with). I inked the outlines with black, using a 5 round needle and filled everything in with my brown ink. What was surprising was that even though I shook the ink before dropping it into the cap, it looks so light! If you look closely, you can see a few dots that I colored with the brown without outlines, and it's just a little bit darker than the skin of the fruit to begin with. I guess if you're looking for a tattoo color that wouldn't be noticeable from a distance, yet still has a unique feel to it, use brown.

A #08: Copyright Symbol on Grapefruit 26/30

The tattoo says it all. This grapefruit is now copyrighted, and may not be copied without prior consent under penalty of law!

Kick ass.

B #08: Firy Skull on Orange 25/30

I have been dying to do some major shading projects. I got this design off of Google Images. the fun part about it was that I didn't need much of a stencil. Just the basic skull shape, really. Then the shading began and I was able t go at it, having fun blending those needles around. I really like where this is going!

B #07: Celtic Knot on Orange 24/30

I was using a design for this one, but ended up making my own twist to it. Rather than let it look like a complete and carefully crafted Celtic knot, I kind of took the fragments and braided them together on the right side. Just kind of fun.

A #07: Tire Tracks on Orange 23/30

I've been wanting to do some tracks for a while. I hope that some day, someone will want to get something like this on their back or something. It was a bit tedious, though. I want to make larger stuff... So tired of small-point and minute details. It kind of hurts my hands.

A #06: Tribal Frog on Orange 22/30

Got this design off of google. Tribals are so much easier than other designs... But man, they take a lot more ink. I got sprayed in the eye during this one!

C #10: Heart with Butterflies on Orange 21/30

Well this one had a surprise. I'm not sure if skin will act this way or not (I think not), but when I went through and shaded everything lightly with black ink, I was setting the base value so that the colored inks would darken where necessary. However, when I went over them with the red and blue inks, it lightened up the black ink to the value of the red and blue! Now, I have been told that you should start with black and work your way up the values going lighter. Therefore, the inks must be mostly translucent. I'm thinking that this attempt acted this way because the orange holds on to everything on top, rather than letting you just see through it. Anyway, not bad for my final color practice! I am sure that I have learned all I can from coloring oranges. (Hilarious.) The rest must be from trial and error on human tests.

... I am considering giving myself a testing area of my own skin that resembles the marks on all printed materials that show what colors of inks are printed on the product. You know what I'm talking about? That way, I would know what they would do and could even use it to show clients what to expect, if needed. Not sure yet, but it might be cool.

C #09: Purple Flower on Orange 20/30

Love this one. Love it! I had to make my own purple by mixing the red and blue inks. It worked well. I know that in the photo, you can't see the color so much as the value, but it's there. I swear.
The black lines on the sides give it a great complete look, too. Abi wants this one now!

A #05: Flower and Vine on Orange 19/30

Small one. I used the single again for outlines and small corners, but filled in the rest with a 3 round. Pretty cool!

B #06: Ribbon Ribbon on Grapefruit 18/30

A ribbon. It says, "Ribbon," on it.I love it, but might not give it a drop shadow next time. Now that I have done a few shadows behind the designs, I am seeing that it is only necessary for a few of them. Some, like this, I think would look better without it. The razor wire, as well. Anyway, the top of this ribbon was with a single, as was the lettering. Both this and the skull were shaded with an 8-round.

B #05: Skull on Grapefruit 17/30

I took this design from the box to my tattooing machine. I thought I'd best get SOME practice with a skull, so wallah! This was also my first time using a single (only one needle on the bit). I used it for the finer details like the teeth and marks on the skull itself and it worked out really great!