still on it

I'm kind of proud that I'm actually still making posts on this blog. I think this one will make 35 so far. So, for some reason or another, I've been drawing a lot of owls, and I've gotten to tattoo a couple, which i have no complaints about. A friend of a friend named Mike was interested in getting a huge owl/tree forearm piece. So i drew a couple of things up for him, that can be seen below. He wanted skulls within the branch, so i did it kind of biomechish and threw some skulls/half skulls in there. I have also posted a three-eyed owl tatatatt that i did the other day. I'm still working on getting my tattoos to have that clean look, it's been a long hard road. I have to tell you that it's not as easy as it may sometimes look. It's definitely the hardest medium I have ever worked in.

Owls and Pylons Don't Mix

I don't really know why Chad wanted a street pylon with a face on it, but that's rad by me. He just asked me to do whatever I wanted. That never happens. It had to be quick, and since it was meant mainly to fill a spot, I used a Sharpie(Beau Guenin only uses Sharpie brand sharpie markers folks) to freehand it on the skin. This thing was a lot of fun to do, I reverted back to the usual shading scheme of warm with a cool lowlight. It worked out pretty well, not my worst tattoo, not my best but a lot of fun.

A couple weeks ago I posted on facebook that I really wanted to do an owl tattoo, and I got a couple of positive responses. After Ashley and I agreed on which sketch we were going to tattoo, she came in and got this on her inner arm. Also fun. You can't beat animals wearing people clothes. Just try it. You can't. It may be a while before post something new, what with the holidays and all. So merry christmas dudes.

The hand of God.

And now what may be my mostest best tattoo yet. My friend Amanda had the idea for this tattoo probably 2 years ago, and I had drawn it up for her, but she wasnt too crazy about it. It's a good thing, though, because when i look back now, that initial design really sucked compared to the one she got tattooed. So last year she had me redraw it and we kept talking about getting her in, and it finally happened last month sometime. I say it might be my best tattoo because a few of my peers( that I have a great amount of respect for) told me it was. It may or may not be, but either way, Amanda and I were both really happy with the way it turned out, I really want to do more stuff like this but I rarely get the opportunity to do so.

Egyptian Magician

I don't know why i put that as the title. I was listening to some old Jerky Boys this week and it's still funny. To me, at least. Wow. this last few weeks have been super slow, yet, i feel like i have made some improvements in my tattooing and in my art. I started using thicker liners and I feel like it has made my tattoos look a little more bold and solid, which I like. I have been studying Tim Biedron's tattoos quite a bit, and he does quite a bit of fine-lining for contours within the subject, and it gives his pieces such a great look. Therefore, I'm definitely keeping my tight 5 handy for that type of stuff. This all just thinking to myself, I suppose, on with the pictures! I finished this mermaid- and I got to tattoo a drawing of a wolf that I had done just for fun. Both on the same person, I might add. Thanks Robert.

blackngrey

uh, so here's a big tribal piece, which for some reason I actually took the time to design myself this time(normally I will just combine some styles from our tribal books cause i hate tribal). anyway, he said he didn't want it to be solid black which was music to my ears, so i shaded it out kind of bio-mechish instead. The cross piece was taken from someone's phone and not my original art, but i think it turned out ok anyway so I thought I'd post. I've been really blessed with business and getting to do large pieces lately. Thank you, Jesus.

Samurai final

I put in the second session on this samurai mask thingy yesterday. Another cool idea and the guy tipped me well. Can't ask for much more than that.

"Mer-MAN! mer-man."

So here's Michael's shield. He's a super nice guy and brought me some bangin cinnamon rolls as a nice surprise. Here'sthe start of Robert's mermaid, which I am very pumped about doing, and I have also posted the final drawing beside it. It's heavily influenced by Craig Driscoll, I'm pretty much his number one fan. And finally, here is what I think me be my first legit half-sleeves(almost done), Phil's tree. He wanted it half dead and half alive, gnarly at the bottom and smooth at the top. The girl on the island is art by Banksy, who you should know if you're into art whatsoever.

the daily grind

I do a lot of tattoos that I don't post simply because it's the same basic crap I do day after day. Hearts. Crosses. Tribal. Names. . . Well here is some of that "crap" that I'm not too pumped on as far as the subject matter goes, but still happy with how the tattoo came out: a free-handed tribal-biomechish tear-out, a traditionalish eagle cover-up. . . and a cherub. Awww. How cute.

Mermaid

Here's a few preliminary sketches for Robert's mermaid tattoo. I like the one that's swimming up toward the surface the best. I don't want it to look realistic, I'm going for more of a Craig Driscoll look with this one. Anyway, this is really early on in the process, but I'd just thought I'd share. I'm really excited to be able to do something custom like this.

OKTOBRE pt.2

So apparently you can only upload 5 pictures at a time, which is gay. Yeah, I said gay. So here's the other two or so photos I wasn't able to upload on the last post. This was a walk-in so I only had about a hour to draw it, and an hour to tattoo it. I've noticed I've been doing a lot of blue/pink color schemes lately, I need to try something else. Sometimes it just takes a while before you catch yourself doing the same things over and over.

OKTOBRE

More taaaats. I don't really have the time to scan in all the drawings and make a lot of remarks on any of these. uh, enjoy. there is some "bonus" stuff in here for those who have already seen some of these on the ole' facebook.

from drawing to tattoo. . .

What people don't normally see in the process of getting a tattoo is all the hours spent beforehand on R and D. Research and drawing(forgive the awful pun) is just as essential as the actual tattoo itself. Now, I'm not complaining about the time spent doing this, most of the time, I am rightfully compensated. I just want the general public to know that when they do get tattooed, they are paying for a lot more behind the scenes work than they are aware of. I typically do a lot of drawings, especially if it's a subject I'm not familiar with, and really only a few make it to the final round. Some people don't really have something really specific in mind as well, so if I have the time to, I will present them with two or three options. Such is the case with William's tattoo. He said he wanted a samurai helmet with some clouds/ windbars and maybe some cherry or lotus blossoms in the background. None of the rough sketches are posted here, but the three finished sketches, the final linework sketch, and the tattoo can be seen below. This is the first session, it will probably take one more to finish.

some more shoulder progress

I did some further work on Tobias yesterday, finishing off his shoulder cap. This is the result. Some of the pics didn't turn out so well, but you get the idea.