Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Kali's Skull

     So I know it's been a minute since I've updated, so here goes. Business has been slowing down (as per this season) so I've been doing what I can to get my friends in the shop to do some portfolio pieces, and working on artwork. For some reason I've been in some sort of block lately... haven't been inspired to paint until just recently.

    On a good note, Kali came in yesterday to finish her skull! Very excited about this one. I still want to go back into the skull and smooth it out some more... still need to work on that. When I get a touchup session in with her I will also take really good pics... I want this one in my book! She's a trooper for letting me so done fun stuff on her... Kudos to Kali!


     This was a cool walkin while I was working at No Ka Oi this past saturday... she got this image from a children's book cover, where there's a figure flying in the sky being followed by a canadian goose. We sort of hodge-podged this together, just added the goose and figure. Hope to see her back for more background and such....


     Cross done in nj... again still need to work on my shading. Linework is getting easier by the day, however shading will take some time to master... Looks like I need to tune my machines as well!
     Small bird
     Lettering and zodiac symbol
     Another walkin in NJ... he brought in this symbol that he wanted in the middle of the sun... After some revisions we found something that he was happy with, and here we are.









    Back of the neck- always a challenge! this was a mother/daughter bonding tattoo, they each got the same thing, same place.

    Until next time.... I will have more smooth shading! practice practice practice! I still can't believe a year has passed already!

Thursday, September 15, 2011

End of the first year

     I just want to start off by saying that today is the one year anniversary of me starting to tattoo! I tattooed my first "client" out in Hawaii last year on this day. Kinda weird that it went by as fast as it did.... I'm very happy to be finally doing what I've worked so hard for, and I plan on doing this for the rest of my life.

    So in honor of this, I figured the first image should be this cupcake I started last night on a friend. She just turned 21 (in case you can't read) haha so I gave her this as a bday gift. It went in her inner arm and we unfortunately didn't get to finish it, which is ok... I want to see how it heals up and make any adjustments to the color once it's healed, and add some more detail to the sprinkles. Tried my hand at some realism, hopefully i'll get more opportunities like this one. Kudos to Lauren! I'll post better pics once it's done.

     This was an interesting one. She walked in, this was her first tattoo (if I remember correctly) She brought in this image which was pretty straight-forward. I set up for her and she also had a weird request... she wanted a little smiley face on her toe. I wasn't sure why until she took off her sock and there it was! two little toenails! kinda weird n all, but after seeing the nails like that, they make two little eyes and the smile completed the picture. Such a fun lil tattoo, even though it probably won't stay.
     TOE SMILE!
     Got to add onto the eyeball tattoo this week. He wanted to do some polynesian type stuff around it with some color. I haven't done much of this style, so I thought it would be a good time to try it out and start with two segments. I did some sketches, let him choose what he liked, then went to draw on him. This is the sketch phase.......
     After finishing the linework and shading I'm overall happy with it, however after getting some feedback I think I would like to thicken up some of the lines in the upper portion, but we will see how it heals. I would like to sit down with my friends who are good at tattooing this type of stuff and get their opinion on how they would approach this when I go to add on.... will keep you posted on this.










    The lettering walked into NJ... his first tattoo. Super nice guy. Hope to see him back for more work.

    This one made my slow Monday!!! My good friend Parker let me do this on him! Boxing cock! We didn't get to finish it as it's in a very sensitive area and it was getting late. Very fun tattoo and it was inspired by this Adam Shields flash we have here at the shop. I really like how he does his eagles/birds and so did Parker, so we used that for reference (mainly the face) and then redrew the rest. I will post more when we get to finish this! So excited! Thanks Parker!!!!  

    Until the next post...... don't let the rain get ya down!

Sunday, September 4, 2011

busy week!

    The hurricane may have scared people away over the weekend, but they all seemed to come in this week... which is a good thing!

    I got to see my friend Simon on Friday... got to work on the tiger I started about a month ago... the pics aren't the greatest but they're good for now until it's healed and I can get better pics. Took my time on this one... had alot of fun with the colors and shading and really stoked to get this one in my portfolio. Kudos to Simon!!!

    After the Tiger this walked in! I hadn't done a hanya yet so what a perfect night to do one! got to play around more with these new red inks Bobby mixed... really pleased with them!
    This came in earlier on in the day.... much easier tattooing this area second time around... the first time i tattooed this area was when I first got back from hawaii, and really struggled with it. after some time staying away from this area and working in other places, I felt more comfortable trying it again.
    Cute lettering walk in earlier in the day.

    This was another fun one! My roommate has been talking about strawberry/skullberries on her foot, so we decided to stay late one night and get it started! Can't wait to color this one in. Like I said before I really enjoy tattooing feet for some reason, and want to get better at them... not the greatest photos, but for now theyll do.


    This koi walked into NJ earlier last week, he only wanted an outline for now since that was more in his budget for that day... He picked an awesome one from our Mosher reference file so I used that... I could have done the scales more perfect... the tail isn't the best.


    This walked in the same day in NJ... he only wanted half of it colored which I thought was a little strange, however it's going on him so what he says goes.... I hope to see him again for the other half... got to work on my greywash and stone texture which was fun. I want to get more work like this....



    Yesterday I worked at the portside shop and got two walkins... both tattoos went on the same guy! He came in earlier for the ambigram thing on his arm, then came back hours later for another one... score! Has some more fun with stone lettering on his leg and got to practice with the ambigram, never done one before.



     Until next time.....

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