The Tattar

My dad occasionally makes custom guitars, and he recently gave me two Stratocaster bodies to design. I’ve started working on the first one, which is going to be a tattooed guitar body, going along the theme of rock n' roll. I mean, really, what’s rock n’ roll without sex, drugs, and a butt-load of tattoos?

Here's a picture of one of the Stratocaster bodies. I'll have to trace them a little bit later; I'm definitely happy to have the actual bodies so I know the scale I'm working with. I also need to figure out how big the pick guard will be and how much of the body it will cover.

I made out some sketches to give me some idea of placement. The one thing I love about tattoos is the randomness of it, there's something appealing to the sporadic arrangement of multiple tattoos. Part of my concept is to draw first and arrange later to create the affect, but there are certain elements I want in specific places so I need to save those areas.

Here's one of my first tattoo designs. I'm going to draw on different types of paper and add lots of texture to give them a worn look. I want to see the variations in hand and line weight to emphasize age and a range of artists, so some may have bleeding, fading colors and lines, et cetera.

I'm really looking forward to this. Rarely do I see my own work in a physical, tangible form, let alone applied to something functional, and it will be a unique experience to actually hold my artwork once it's finished. Right now I'm not worrying about the hard part (getting the prints on the guitar), but I'm sure that will be a whole problem in itself.

Baroque Wallpapers

I just made some wallpapers for fun, and most of them are in tile format so they should be pretty compatible with anyone's desktop. Click on the image, click the "All Sizes" button in the left hand corner above the image, click the "Download the Large Size" button in the left hand corner of the image, and then save the image. I also learned from this experiment the largest image you can download from Flickr is 1024 x 645 pixels, which is relatively small. I guess the lesson is that you can actually upload some pretty small images to Flickr and use less of your monthly memory with the same results as uploading gigantic images (There were a few months where I used 14% of my memory on three images).

Also, I have a new Twitter account. I will be updating rather frequently so please stop by and check it out!

Girl on Bicycle Unfinished Drawing

All right, all right, I've been a little lazy recently. I started this drawing about two months ago and I still haven't finished the damn thing. I'm mostly focusing on promoting myself the best way I can and believe me, it's terribly confusing and complicated, and it's definitely time consuming. Also, I don't really have many art classes my last semester so I'm spending most of my time reading, writing, and trying to find jobs in the area. Talk about scary!

However, I have realized I have a number of pieces to work on and a number to scan in (including my monotypes), so you will still see a relatively large amount of posts from me. I'm also going to start blogging about artists, upcoming movies and galleries, and posting topics that I feel are necessary to discuss as an illustrator. Please feel free to comment with your opinions!

Back to the drawing, I still haven't figured out what I would like for the background. Any suggestions?

Penelope Dullaghan

"Lip Balm Addiction" by Penelope Dullaghan

Communication Arts Magazine recently published an article on Penelope Dullaghan, creator of illustrationfriday.com. Her illustrations have the this wonderful textural and loose quality, and seem more like extensions of process than finalized work. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about her illustration collection as a whole, but she does have a number of really strong pieces (such as the image shown above). Click the image and sift through her Flickr account; it's definitely worth your time.