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!

C #08: Heart Tramper on Grapefruit 16/30

Kate wanted a tramp stamp design, so here one is. You'll notice that I did the sides differently. That's because I wasn't sure how I was liking the after-effects with the white highlights, so I left it alone on the past part so I could compare. Looking at it now, it doesn't look bad at all... But both are sweet.

C #07: 8-Bit Cecil on Grapefruit 15/30

Wow... I am now convinced that mixing colors is going to be a lot of work mastering. Poor Cecil... Looks a bit... dull. And he hasn't even had time to fade yet! Anyway, in getting varying shades of blue, I will definitely take more care in the future to mix them prior to using them. I basically mixed with the machine itself, and it probably still had pigments in there that made the colors gray a bit. Would this look better after the skin heals on a real person? I have no clue. At least he's adorable, though!

Oh, and by the way, the grapefruit is getting very squishy. Oranges seem to keep their firmness longer. I don't know whether the squishiness is better or worse. It's more skin-like, but it isn't holding color as well. I'll decide later what to use.

This was requested by my friend, Kuh.

C #06: Rain Kanji on Grapefruit 13/30

I noticed that a lot of kanjis (sp?) aren't filled in with solid black, but have this cool color effect. I gave it this try, but realized that I outlined everything, rather than only where necessary. I am SO glad I am making these mistakes on fruit, rather than my willing and wonderful donors.

C #05: Girl on Girl Design on Grapefruit 12/30

I got the inspiration to do this one after going to the Utah Pride Festival yesterday. It was so much fun, and we all felt a great aura of love. Plus, randomly enough, my MTC companion ran into me. He's now out of the closet! I was blown away and very excited for him. It was especially lucky, since he lives in Maine now, that we should run into each other. I used to think that seeing old friends was an act of the holy ghost, and that after denying the holy ghost, things like this wouldn't happen anymore. Lol.

Oh, and the symbol was hennaed on tons of people there, so Abi and I thought it was sweet. Girl on girl.

C #04: Red Heart with Zig Zag on Grapefruit 11/30

I tried doing the very same thing as the gray-shaded heart (not minutes after finishing it), but ran into trouble as I was doing so. First off, the gray heart was with an 8-point round needle, and turned out pretty nice, considering the lines you can see from the bit. This red heart, I used a 7-point flat. The flat configuration really wasn't good for an organic shape (especially not one of this size). Plus, the color didn't work well on the grapefruit. So I tried putting some red with some black and got this. It's not horrible, but not even close to what I had envisioned.

Very good learning experience. Flats are good for larger areas. Don't use them on small, curvy areas. Yet at the same time, rounds are good for shading, so long as you dilute the ink so the strokes don't show up so much.

C #03: Triangle Design on Orange 6/30

This symbol comes from a childhood club my friends and I had. I like how the whole thing came together. With the shading portions, I diluted the ink just a bit. You can see a bunch of splotches where I made sure I had the right value. .... don't think I should do that on a real person... Anyway, the only thing I might change it making the outlines just a bit darker. I'm glad the yellow shows up way better than the white does! Again, the contrast helps those parts stand out better as well.

C #02: Flower Wreath on Orange 5/30

 

Holy cow... My first speed bump in this challenge came today. I got this design from a flash page, like I have been so far, and got to outlining it and came into several problems. First off, the smallest needles I have are 3 round, which means that fine details are going to show up as way too thick. Second, I tried to use some solid white (no diluting today) and it looked awful. And third, I discovered that just outlining with the intended color makes the image have less contrast. Not a good thing.

I got on Superior today and ordered a set of 5 singles. Hopefully it will help me do smaller designs like this. I guess bigger is easier?

C #01: Blue Roses on Orange 4/30

Wow... this took forever. Now I know why they charge so much for these. They take a lot of energy! Anyway, the blue ink wasn't supposed to be green. I wasn't sure if it would change color with the orange's natural pigments or not. But alas, it did. the ink isn't at opaque as I thought. Actually, it was diluted, so with full strength, it may have a different result. I'll keep you posted.

Abi and I figured, based on square inches, that this would run for about $250 or more based on local shop prices. I'm thinking when I get clients, I'll start at half price until I get a reputation. Hell, I might just be doing favors for a while, anyway.