Keone's owl part 3

So I despite his healing issues with the background, I had Keone come in last night to get some work done on the body of the owl before I leave Hawaii for a while. We were able to finish the branch entirely, and start shading the rest of the body. I didn't finish the head, I want to see how the grey heals and add alot more texture next time. This one was so much fun and I got to play around with different types of shaders to get different results.

I'm glad we got some of the body done, that way hes not walking around with an empty owl for a year.


I leave for Philly in two days... SO ready to get back to Philly and get my life on track. New residence, new schedule. NO MORE SALES! So excited.

I have a plumeria coming in today and I'm doing huge polynesian letters across this guy's back, another friend that Noah recruited for me :) Will post more later.

ALOHA

Parrot tattoo

So last night I got to finish Kris' parrot tattoo on his leg. We worked on him for about 2.5-3 hours. I got to experiment with some color blending and doing alot of color work. Overall I really like how it came out. I know hes going to have to get one more session on this in the future but it's done enough for now considering after I leave the island I won't be seeing him for a while.

New tattoos

So yesterday I was called into work and ended up getting a few small ones. Here's the first. All those swirls really made me sweat!

It's sort of a treble clef and initials hidden in there. This woman came to Hawaii for a wedding and wanted something to remember her trip.

This was a mother-daughter combo that had appointments. Stolfi tattooed the daughter and I got the Mom. She was super nice and let me do what I wanted for the exception of the color combination. VERY specific. One flower for each child. I've decided that I really like tattooing feet. :)

So I bet you're wondering why I havent posted any updates on Keone's owl... Well he came in and had alot of trouble with the healing. So now he has to wait :( 

Tonight I'm tattooing Kris's leg again... hopefully gonna finish that Parrot tattoo! So excited!

Until next time...
ALOHA

new tattoos

So yesterday the handprint came in.... this was his first tattoo and he wanted his daughter's name with the print. The name was 14 letters long!!!! Hawaiian name obviously. We stuck with black and grey for this one.

This just walked in today, a young woman wanted her son's name on her shoulder. This is what we came up with.

Tonight at 5 I have Keone for the last session on his owl tattoo.

More to come!
ALOHA

some new stuff from the past week

Sorry it's been a week since my last post. I had strep throat and spent the last 5 days recovering.

So these last few tattoos were done in areas that I haven't really worked before (except one) and definitely was intimidated doing them. It was certainly a struggle, however I think that after these experiences I feel a little more confident in what I need to work on to make my linework better.

This woman came in late last week and Stolfi was about to do it then something else walked in that I'm not ready to do, so he did that one and gave this design to me. After redrawing it a bit the client (a young woman) and I came up with this. She wanted alot of color in an area that I've only tattooed once. This was a great experience in stretching.... and how to deal with a person that doesn't sit well at all! Looking back on this there are alot of things that I would have done differently. I'm not going to list all of them but it was so weird trying to blend all of these colors into an area that was so sensitive and she wouldn't stop moving it was very frustrating. After 2 hours she couldn't sit anymore so it knew she had it with me so we ended there. I wanted to blend white into the background but that didn't happen. Overall I would have done this differently, however the linework came out ok and I was relatively happy with the grey.

Anyway enough about that. yesterday was a good day. This girl came in and wanted her first tattoo which was a crown with gemini under it. Other than a few lines that were a bit wobbly this came out ok.

My biggest problem with this one is that she wanted it upside down. I think that if she put it the other way I would have noticed a few things.

 After the crown a bit later a group of three guys came in, all wanting one of these captains wheels somewhere on their body. Stolfi did one of the guys on his hand, the other was in this guys ditch (right here), and the last one on his thigh. The ditch was weird, his skin puffed up so quickly and was all wrinkly.

 This one on the thigh was fun too however his skin right there was so stretchy and awkward.

In summation this week was very challenging, but I think that after these couple of weird stretching areas I am stoked to learn something new.... everyday is a challenge but so worth the wait.

I have a handprint coming in tomorrow....

Will post pics
Aloha

Keone's owl

So I got to work on Keone's owl the other night... we managed to finish the entire background and I am really excited that I think I am finally getting the hang of grey shading. He bled ALOT that night as well... kinda weird tattooing while they're bleeding so badly.

I will post more pics when I get a chance....

ALOHA

first sugar skull

so last night this walked in... a woman who lives here wanted the islands on her back in color...

This one was alot of fun because she let me use my judgement to color. She was super nice and eventually wants to add a wave behind the design.

This walked in last night as well.... a young couple each wanting matching sugar skulls with different flowers. I did the smaller one on the girl and Stolfi tattooed the boyfriend. This one was such a challenge and she was a bleeder! I hope to get a better pic of this one day without the spade bleeding out like that. I learned alot from this one, mainly about inks and how to tell the difference between inks that go right into the skin, and inks that don't do so well.... like the blue in the spade. I must have tried packing in that blue at least 3 times before Bill had me change colors. The last blue flew right in... I hope that spot heals up ok... I haven't had too much experience working with alot of color yet so this was fun and a learning experience for me. Everything went well with the linework and the black shading... the color I need to work on.

Overall it was a really good day, and I know how I would like to do this next time.

I'm working on Keone's owl tonight coloring background... more pics to come!

Busy Busy

 So I got to tattoo my coworker/friend Kris the other day... He wanted a parrot with the banner and a rose, so he let me design it how I wanted. I'm really excited about this one, it's the second largest design I've done so far, and had alot of fun with different liners. It's really strange working around the achilles tendon... it was like tattooing a lizard skin or something. More to come on this after I start the shading. The plan is to make this in full color.

The next day a military kid came in and wanted some lettering on his inner arm. This one was great practice for fields of grey shading, and got to play around with more line weight and drop shadows. While I was working on this I noticed that my shading wasn't going in as smoothly as I had hoped. Good thing Bill walks in during this one and helped me out and told me to SLOW DOWN! I seem to want to do things fast.... gotta always tell myself to slow the hell down and of course as soon as I did, the shading smoothed out much better. Overall lining this one went ALOT better than the first inner bicep I tattooed, and got the thumbs up from Bill on the final outcome. Next time I think I'm going to omit the halo around the lettering, even though that's what the kid wanted. Bill had a good point about framing the design in the sense that if he wanted to add anything around this later on, it would be difficult to blend other designs into this one. Definitely storing that info for later.

This one came in last night. I was able to apply the shading techniques I learned from the lettering to this design. He chose a Hardy dragon from our reference and I changed it a bit. He wanted to change the claws... and overall I think I did an ok job except for the bottom claw. I think I could have done better with that one. I had alot of fun with this and it was the guy's first tattoo.

I don't tattoo again until tomorrow. Working sales tonight. I have an appointment tmrw night for a small hibiscus and plumeria on the ankle, and then Keone comes in for shading on his owl Wednesday.

Until next time....

ALOHA

woot woot

So yesterday I was able to get a walk-in... small dragonfly on the shoulder. This woman picked this off the wall, but she let me improve on it.

It was fun to experiment with using grey lines for the wings to make them more transparent. I wish she would have let me put a drop shadow on it... it would have really made it pop.









So Keone came in last night to start his owl! This is my biggest piece so far...

This was the most fun I have ever had tattooing... Keone was nice enough to let me tattoo him again... for his second tattoo. It was nice to experiment with all different types of needles for this one, lining in grey and really figuring out a game plan for how I was this to come out. Bill sat with me the entire time and helped me along. After we finished the linework Keone had to go home so next Wednesday hes going to come back to start shading the background.

This is the sketch I did for him, so you can get an idea of how I want it to look when it's all finished. All black and grey. So excited about this tattoo! More to come when the linework heals.

Here's another view of the linework. Half the stencil was still on there so its a bit hard to see, especially in the face.

I'll post more of my thoughts on this tomorrow, I just wanted to get this uploaded so everyone can see.

ALOHA