Peony

Big peony to balance the big chrysanthemum we did on the other shoulder.

She wanted something a bit fancier, so that's where we're going with it.  Only "constraint" was matching the overall silhouette of the chrysanthemum.  

I really love these flowers and could honestly be happy doing one a day for the rest of my career.  There are so many endless tweaks and folds you can play with, overall shape variations, leaf style etc.

For something that can seem so simple, you'd be surprised at how much it can take to wrap your head around it...

Tiger Sleeve

Finally on to the color!

This seems to be a pretty exciting milestone for folks getting larger Japanese style work.  They patiently endure all those sessions of nothing but black and grey for what seems like forever and eventually get rewarded with some color.

I love doing the solid dark background (honestly probably more than color), but its relationship with some bright color is really what makes this stuff work...

I'm really glad he reminded me that he wanted the white tips at the last minute.  I don't always do it, but I love the look (100% inspired by and derived from Horitoshi 1).  It takes a little more time to get all those white streaks cut into the color just so, but I feel that it's a perfect balance of strength and finesse.

Two more flowers to go, then bamboo and tigers...

Sirens

I think we're pretty much done on this one.

Did a little skin tone shading and layered in a little more grey here and there, icing on the cake kind of session.

It was fun to do something fairly different (stylistically) and be much more free in my approach.

Next up for him we'll be dropping down to the leg and doing something pretty large and involved that I'm very much looking forward to.  He's an artist himself and his vibe blends right in at the studio, so bi monthly appointments for the rest of the year should be enjoyable and very productive.  Stay tuned...

Dragon Backpiece

For some reason, the most common question I've been getting a lot of lately is "so, doing a bunch of dragon tattoos this year"?

I know it's year of the dragon and all, but I didn't really think too much about it until recently.  When asked that question I'd say there was no correlation between the Chinese zodiac and tattoo trends, but I might be wrong about this year.  Seems like I've actually had quite a few dragon projects in the pipeline (although I guess they were really scheduled in the year of the rabbit)...

This one I'm pretty excited about and feeling good after the first session.  He's been talking about covering up the old tattoo on his shoulder for a long time and when he finally made some appointments he said he just wanted to go with a huge dragon...perfect.

Immediately my feeling was to do a looser drawing style and misty dark shading, kind of inspired by this look:

I feel like this has the potential to be a very strong piece, and done in a way that I've always wanted to do.  The next session we'll outline the rest of the body, swooping down through the lower back and down the left buttock and thigh...

Dragon

Finished up the scales and started the shading this session.  All of the scales were outlined in a light grey, with the idea being that when they're shaded in you won't really notice the line work, just the scales.  I think it emphasizes the patterning effect and just gives them a cool slightly more dimensional feel.  

It's amazing how long this modest little section took, but all those little scales and spaces take time.  I could have just done larger scales and cut down on some time, but this was the proper proportion in my opinion.  He's into as much time as we need to make it look as good as possible, and I really appreciate that.  It's always nice to work with someone who really values your time and understands what it takes to make a really good tattoo...

Body Suit

Looks like we're back in outline mode for a while.  Although it can be a bit more intense for both of us, I think it's a healthy change of pace.  After just shading for so long it took me a minute to clear out the cobwebs and start creating some new images and figure out where this is all headed (I've got a pretty good idea, so it's really about putting in the time at the drawing table and lots of hours drawing on him with markers).

Not many pleasant areas got tattooed this session.  Lots of upper and inner thigh, mixed with some back of the knee action.  I know it's some rough territory for him, but he's so dedicated to this project and excited at seeing the progress, that he's soldiering through (not to mention all that he's already been through and gotten done, this is just another day at the office).

Think I'll be outlining the rest of this leg next time, then over to the other one to line it all out.  Fish, rocks, lotus, dragonflies, and who knows what else might pop up...

Karashishi and Peonies

It's been a few days since we did this second session, but I've been going non stop and not really able to slow down and sort out my thoughts and look through pictures.

The second day we drew on and outlined all the background (I love that he wanted all clouds and was really connecting with the very dense, black heavy look) and were able to shade a pretty sizable chunk.  At one point I thought I might be able to shade it all in one sitting, but that was a bit of a misinterpretation on my part.  Once you really get into all those tight spaces the time really adds up.  The strength and beauty of this style background is how rich and dark it is, with all those clean little strips of negative space in between.  You need to take great care in making them perfect and even and it certainly isn't something to be rushed.

For his first tattoo he did fantastic.  That is a lot of work for anyone to get in two back to back sessions, but to have never been through it before, but know what you want and go for it is truly admirable.

I believe he's back in a month for two more days and I'm feeling pretty good that we'll be making some serious headway...