Something for the weekend 5

I've had this week off of work and like most times my body decided that I was due a head cold, which combined with the bad weather we've had in Brighton, means I got some drawing done.

I have a tricky cover-up to do next month and it was the perfect time to try and get my head around some ideas for it. The client has requested Shishi (Temple dog/Foo dogs) a male, female and a cub.
Below is sleeve I've done before but due to the cover-up and the client request, I wont be able to use as much colour in the new work.

The plan is to have the male at the top of the arm (his mouth is open) and the female and cub on the forearm.
These are rough sketch's that I will either stencil on and refine as I tattoo, or use as a reference and draw them straight on to the skin.

Finally with the rest of my time off I decided to do a smallish (A3) coloured image. I haven't drawn any snakes for a while so I went with that and peony. The initial sketch was drawn out with a 3h pencil and gone over with a fine line pen. It was then traced on to Bristol paper and coloured using copic markers.

The first doodle, the red pen is used to make additions and corrections.

Part way through colouring

The finished article, if I receive enough interest I may do prints of this.

Something for the weekend 4

This week is a proper look at the aceo/atc project that I'm working on. My wife introduced me to the idea, they seemed like the perfect way of finishing colour illustrations without the need for much space and most importantly time.

The cards themselves are pre-cut to these dimensions 63x88mm or 2.5x3.5".  For those that are interested, I'm using Copic markers, Staedtler Triplus fineliner pens for colours. With Uni pin fine line pens for black, sizes 0.1, 0.2.

The plan with the aceo's is to put them up for sale in the near future and eventually, when I have enough images, to collate them in a book of some sort.

I will also be sorting through some of my original drawings/sketch's, watercolours etc and putting them up for sale. I've decided it's high time they went to good homes rather than sitting in draws or folios. So keep an eye out for more information.

Finally this preparatory drawing of Fudo is for a Giclee print that will be sold at the Brighton Convention. I'm not sure how many I will have done, but I want to do a high quality edition, I think the size and the detail I intend to do on the piece deserve the extra time and money. Again more info when I have it.

Fudo leg sleeve finished

Finished this today, Fudo is one of my all time favourite Japanese images and I really enjoyed tattooing this :)
For those that are interested Fudo Myo is a 'good guy' follow this link for more information:
http://www.onmarkproductions.com/html/fudo.html

Something for the weekend 3

This month has seen the blog views reach 10,000, just wanted to say thanks for taking the time to check out my work.

As a way of marking the page count and showcasing my biggest tattoo to date, indeed my first completed bodysuit tattoo. I thought I'd share the pictures I took alone the way to completing the work.
I'd also like to thank my customer for sitting so well and having a great attitude to the process as a whole, it was a pleasure working with you. We worked out the suit was around 110/120 hours, the dedication required to see the project through from start to finish is something that few of us could manage and I'm grateful I was able to finish such a large project. Although there are plans to tattoo the lower legs int he future.

For those that are interested, the back and ribs portray Kintaro, the arms/chest are the '7 masks' (the 7th is the wearers face) and the legs are severed heads and the green creatures are Kappas.

The photos are taken between multiple sessions, but they show how we constructed the suit stage by stage. I hope you enjoy them.