Tattoo Color Studies

Here are a few quick color studies I've done for a couple of tattoos. My whole color scheme is mostly orange and blue with yellows, pinks, and reds. I want them to be bright but not overbearing, and I feel like a couple of these seem too solid rather than flat and tattoo-like. I guess the best thing to do is create separate textures for each and use those to create the color schemes, so that will be the next step in the process. So far, my favorite is the gun, but again it is too overwhelming and hard for the eye to handle due to the vibration between the orange and blue. I'll have to tone it down. More to come soon!

Also, I've been playing around with Flickr and uploading images in one big file instead of blogging all of them and then editing them into one post. I don't want to hog up room on follower's reading lists. I'll get the hang of it!

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.

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?

Portfolios

These are my portfolios created for Sterling's class. The box has really grown on me, but I need to scrap the bags. I'll make a pop top for the box and post it when I'm finished.

Color Study Number Two

Wow, I just found out through my friend Caitlin how to use Flickr to blog artwork! This is amazing, I LOVE IT. The one problem I had was the colors were getting messed up and a lot of my detail was lost. Look at the difference, seriously! Flickr, how I love you. You're amazing.

Color Study

Here's a color study I did for a drawing I'm working on right now (You can see my sketch below). It's really complicated and I sort of wanted to take a break from drawing and see how I could use color and experiment a bit. This was actually kind of hard, but I did learn how to incorporate some of the underlying textures and I'm very excited to finish!

A Good Sketch

Lately I've been pondering process: how does an artist make a picture? I decided the simplest way for anyone to learn about process is to experiment, and I've been doing just that. While I haven't found an exact process that really works for me, I've learned a lot from it. That's the great thing about this whole experience, that I've learned something simply by playing around and trying new things.

Above are a couple of sketches I've done recently with watercolor, inks, and acyrlics.