tattoo design
The requirement for this project was to create a tattoo design for a peer. The peer wrote a list of ten nouns, ten adjectives, and ten verbs, and I then chose three of them to base a tattoo off of. Additionally, the final design was required to have three or more colors included.
brainstorming
thumbnail sketches
My brainstorming began with asking my peer what words they felt drawn to the most. Following this, I asked if there was a specific placement or specific colors they had in mind for the final tattoo. Once we settled on a few ideas and that the location of the tattoo would be their upper arm, I began my sketching process. Because they had no firm ideas, I found myself pairing together the words I found the most interesting. I shared the twelve sketches I had done, and once they chose their favorite design and offered further insight, it was time to begin sketching.
process
final sketch
Once I moved from paper to tablet, this tattoo was drawn entirely in Adobe Fresco. I used the pencil brush to create my sketch because of the natural, free-flowing feel of the texture. The one thing that aided me most at this point were reference pictures of the cardinal. Due to the fact that I have little experience with drawing birds, it took me multiple tries until I was satisfied with the anatomy as well as the aesthetic aspects of it.
linework
The linework was done with the Belgian comics brush. In all of my digital art, I prefer a gritty and textured brush over clean, vectoresque brushes. I find that it is much easier to loosen up and create movement in my art with brushes that are not so perfect. I focused on maintaining thicker lines for the most important aspects of the piece, while smaller details were penned in with a smaller size.
flat colors
I began coloring by blocking in my flat colors with the same Belgian comics brush. I wanted to achieve a Neotraditional style, but found it difficult to authentically recreate it when there was a lack of a true blur brush in the program. To circumvent this, I used a soft brush to fill in darker areas before blending out the edges by lowering the opacity and using the base color. The shading was done much the same way, although I used harder edges on the mountains. When creating highlights, I also used a harder-edged brush to create contrast with the soft, feathery shadows.
evolution of work
This was my first experience with designing a tattoo for someone other than myself, and also the first time that I attempted to recreate a traditional tattoo style. It was a challenge to put together ideas from the list of words that had been given, but this project made me realize the value in working with a client. If it had not been for the input of my peer, I do not believe that the final product would have turned out nearly as well.
