SeaHorse, Figure Drawing and my Favorite Helper Cat

Made it to figure drawing this week (yay!) Even though I haven’t had much time to work on personal projects, I still have been able to make it to class pretty consistently.

Here is what I left with this week:

                     

Some obligatory photos of my cat “helping” with one of my drawings… because this is the internet and one must always see lots of photos of cats being cute.

   

And lastly this drawing I made a while back and forgot to scan it. I was going to try to draw a SeaHorse wearing a Plague Mask for Starr… but the shape of the Plague Mask didn’t really work with the SeaHorse. It wasn’t different enough from the normal shape of the head/nose.

So instead I made a pseudo SteamPunk SeaHorse… and I do not claim to be any kind of SteamPunk authority, so if it is not authentic Steam Punk, please do not tell me why. Just pretend it is a poser SteamPunk SeaHorse that didn’t know any better.

Pretend this Says Something Clever

I don’t have anything clever to say tonight. Just some pictures of some of the things that I have been up to this week.

                                      This is what I worked on today. Mary was a trooper and got this all done in one sit.     

 

Couple More Random Word Drawings

I had fun making these and hope that you get a grin out of them.

Frank’s Sugar Skull PhotoShoot

Frank was nice enough to come back in and let me take healed photos of his tattoo. Despite my mediocre (at best) photography skills, I did manage to get some nice photos.

So here is Frank and his Sugar Skull tattoo. This piece is on his right side rib cage and was made using the Siverback tattoo inks. The tints to the rose and leaves are due to using the Silverback different tinted grays (Mold and Fresh) and are more noticeable in person.

Bike Art Book

Today is all about Steve. Bet you didn’t know when you woke up this morning that someone else would be blogging about you today.

Steve came to me with this project with a folder full of reference, scans, print outs & even a disk with the images stored on it. I have to admit that it wasn’t at first a project that I was thrilled about. Hard lines that cross the body, detailed gears and pieces that needed to all be accurate. It makes for a very technically difficult tattoo and can wind up looking very awkward on the body.

Steve and I went back and forth over what would work best and how the design could be modified. He brought me the actual gears (which I have now hung on my wall in the Greece shop) so that I could photograph them and get more accurate reference. Steve was incredibly patient while I struggled with getting the design to someplace where I was happy with it.

The tattoo was done in several sessions and wound up pretty cool in the end (well, as far “end” as it is now anyhow. I hear tell that we will be adding more to it eventually).

Somewhere along the line before the tattoo was finished completely I received an email in my spam folder that asked in I had any photos of bicycle tattoos. I wasn’t sure what it was all about – but I wrote back to them. Several cryptic emails later and months of nothing and today this arrived in the mail.

With Steve’s tattoo inside of it:

The artwork in the book is really incredible and I am sure that I will be spending several hours soaking it all in (whenever I get some free time).

Here are some photos of the tattoo all the way finished and healed:

If you are interested in getting your own copy of the book the info is here BIKE ART BOOK

It’s a great book, well printed and with a variety of super talented artists. Rather you are into bicycles or not, it’s still a great book (and I’m not just saying that because I am in it).

Making Stuff

I went through the photos on my camera today to pull off the figure drawing pictures and found that there were a bunch of other images on there that I hadn’t posted yet.

So here they are in no particular order

A tattoo for Debbie’s daughter. (named Amanda Zoe, but I am sure that you figured that part out already)

There is way too much going on in this tattoo to really appreciate here. If you see Laura next time she is in town, I’m sure she would love to show it off to you. 

and the sketches from figure drawing class. I arrived late this week and missed the gesture sketches at the beginning (I really don’t like being late anywhere… )

We added a bit more onto Sandy’s scrollies and have started to introduce color as well.  I was surprised to find this one still on the camera. It seems like forever ago that Sarah was here last – this is further progression on the design posted previously here. And lastly a color portrait of Jay’s daughter named KatieRose (which you can’t really see all of in one photo)  This was a huge treat for me as I do not often get to make color portraits. Most people are intimidated by the amount of time involved. Jay sat like a champ for this and I hope someday KatieRose appreciates what he went through for her.

Inside the Sketchbook

When my sketchpad is hanging around in an obvious place – people will often ask if they can look through it. In the old days when my sketchpad did double duty as a journal I wasn’t comfortable with that at all. These days I have much less angst (and tend to keep it safely tucked away better) so I don’t mind at all.

I just finished filling another one and today I will be starting in a brand new one that I received as a gift for Christmas.

I thought that I would share with you some of the random images that were inside of this one that were not for clients or paid projects. This is the side stuff. My little doodles and thought processes forming. Some I will explain and some you will have to ask about if you would like the rest of the story.

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This little guy was posted before.   I drew these little guys one day when I was working at the doctors office and a patient no showed.  This one was done for a watercolor painting that I made jackalope watercolor step by step     It’s a Safety Cone Monster          

New Year – New Painting and same ol’ Figure Drawing Class

Well except for the lights. Thats new. Steve had some modifications done to the lights in the studio and it is a HUGE improvement. It is so much easier to see the shadows and form now. It kind of felt like cheating.

Of course to counter the excitement of the new lights – there was a brand new huffer sitting next to me last night. Huffers are those students who feel the need to make audible sighs, harumphs, moans and huffs when either their drawing or the model’s behavior displeases them. I try to avoid sitting next to the huffers whenever possible.

I will look out for her in the future.

I don’t really celebrate New Years Eve. Being a non-drinker it seems like kind of a non-holiday (and when I was a drinker, I considered it amateur night). But on New Years Day I make a point of trying to do something that I would like to continue doing for the year. This year (as several of the last) it has been working on art. This year it was painting.

At Christmas time my daughter had mentioned this canvas. I had considered it abandoned and had no intention of finishing it. She didn’t know that and had commented on how it was one of her favorites and she was looking forward to seeing it finished.

I won’t sign a painting until I know that I am finished with it – so I painted the rest of this on New Years Day, but waited until the next morning to double check everything and sign it.

As we have well established, I am no photographer. These two photos were the best that I could get – and obviously they are radically different than each other. Between the two of them, hopefully you can get a general idea of what the painting looks like.

I left it in her room for her to find when she comes home again.

Hope you were able to do something wonderful through the Holidays. Best of everything to you.

 

It’s All Just “Stuff”

I have a lot of stuff.

If you ask my husband, he will tell you that I am a pack rat and have a lot of junk.

Same thing, different view. Most of the stuff that I have, I have hung on to because I am a collector. (My given name actually means gatherer, reaper, or harvester). Over the years I have collected things (Unicorns, Crystal Dragons, Angry Bunnies) but much more than things I collect stories and memories.

What looks like a completely random collection of “stuff” to other people is a collection of beautiful and happy memories to me.

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When I was little I spent time at my Grandma and Grandpas house like all kids do. My Grandma had a little stash of special toys for me that were kept in a cupboard in the office down low so that I could reach them. I liked to play with them at holidays when the cousins were there. Those were the toys for sharing.

Upstairs in the kitchen is was where I liked to hang out with Grandma and visit. She was in the kitchen doing stuff and so that was where I wanted to be too. I had a special chair with steps so I could be up high and feel a part of. Grandma had a series of shelves built in the wall where she kept her knick knacks. Her fun salt and pepper shakers, her collection of thimbles and a variety of other little goodies. Grandma and I would hang out in the kitchen and she would tell me the stories for every one of those things. They were just dust gatherers to my Grandpa I am sure, but Grandma would tell me who gave her every single one and when. The thimble my Dad mailed her – the little vase my mom bought for her. They all had stories.

My favorite was tucked away and I don’t know how many people even knew it was there.

There was a tiny little teapot that looked like a cottage. I don’t know if it could have ever actually been used for tea or not… but it was definitely cute. Inside of that was a couple of things, but the important one was a tiny crocheted tea cup (and saucer) that one of her friends from lodge made for her.

Inside of that snuggled in comfortably was the mink mouse.

To the best of my knowledge the mink mouse never had a name. But he had the best story of anything on the shelf. My favorite story. The one I asked Grandma to tell me all the time.

When he was very Small… my Uncle had decided that he wanted to buy my Grandma the best gift ever. Ever. In the whole world. I don’t know what the event or the occasion was. That part of the story has been lost. But I do know that what he ultimately decided was that my Grandma needed and deserved a mink coat. He didn’t care how much it was going to cost him. He busted out his whole change collection and talked my Grandpa into taking him to buy the coat. Now my Grandpa was always (to my knowledge) a very practical and logical sort of guy. I can’t imagine how my Uncle convinced him to take him to the store to shop for furs.
As I am sure that you can guess, the change jar did not contain sufficient funds for the Dream Coat.
The cheapest thing in the store was the mink mouse and the jar didn’t actually contain enough for that either. This news was hidden from my Uncle and Grandpa chipped in enough money to cover the difference between the precious jar and the gift.
Grandma was presented with the mink mouse.

She loved the mouse.

When I first discovered the mouse I loved him because he was cute. I came to love him because he represented so very much to me. A child’s innocence. Parental love. Gifts given from the heart and cherished. Secret memories tucked away in teapots but held tight in the heart.

Love.

When we closed up the house there were two things that I really wanted out of the house. I figured that there was no way I would get the mouse since I figured that he should go back to my Uncle. Turns out my Uncle was too little to really even remember the story. I wound up with the teapot, the crocheted teacup and the mink mouse.

To make sure I never lose the mouse he is tattooed on my leg with other things that represent my Grandma and Grandpa. They wouldn’t make any sense to anyone but me.

And some day all of my little treasures will go back to being just stuff. Some day my daughter will go through my things and wonder why the heck I would have kept such a little useless bit of the past. That’s okay. After all, it really is all just stuff.

It’s the love that matters.

Progression of a Design – Portrait of John Denaro

In an ideal world the photographs that we are brought for portraits are perfectly lit and in focus and show enough detail to make the tattooing process fairly simple.

Obviously (as we all know) we don’t live in an ideal world. Sometimes that perfect picture of your mom was taken in 1958 at a party – or your daughter never ever sat still when there was a camera near by – or your Grandfather just didn’t like having his photo taken. Whatever the case may be…. you may find yourself wanting to have a portrait done and not having adequate reference photos.

Jim brought me this photo to have a portrait made of his Dad.

Not exactly an ideal photo. The hand is completely washed out and the entire thing is low rez and therefor fuzzy. But it was such a cool photo and his Dad looks so animated that I agreed to work with it.

Some patience, some imagination, some knowledge of anatomy and a colored pencil yielded this

This made it easier for me to make the line drawing and familiarized me with the image better. Also it gave me an opportunity to experiment with the shadows before making it permanent on Jim’s back. Not a finished drawing to work directly from – but kind of a reference study to learn more about the photo and his Dad’s features.

 

Jim sat amazingly well for his first tattoo. We were able to finish completely all today. While yet again I was unable to get a really good photograph – here is one for y’all until Jim comes back for a healed photo.

I would also like to point out here that Jim and his sister brought us pizza. In case you are ever at a loss for how to make tattoo artists happy….bringing them food is always a good bet!

thank you both. I had a great time today and am looking forward to trying again to get better photos once it is healed.