From the Archives: Winged Skull

Here's some recent sketch play from Adobe Illustrator.  I discovered a beautiful thing called the blob brush tool.  It allows for much more organic vector images.  It's a beautiful thing.

{Digital Images created in Adobe Illustrator}

 

From the Archives: Wounded Heart

Here's a quick sketch from an old sketchbook.  I used Sharpie and a ball point on this one.  I think I was at work when I did it.  If cleaned up and redrawn, I think this would make a decent tattoo design.

{Sharpie and ball point pen}

Tattoo: Vinnie's Celtic Bear

This final tattoo design, I created for my friend Vinnie.  Initially It was designed for his left arm, but he is considering having it placed on his back between his shoulders.  Time will tell.  He wanted a bear in profile surrounded by Celtic knotwork that was made of stone and covered in lichen.  The first bear image I created was almost a three quarter view, but Vinnie was concerned that it would be difficult to read as a bear once it was translated onto his skin.  I created the second bear image you see above to solve that problem.

Tattoo: Worlds Within

Here we have an echo of sleeping Vishnu and a visual record of a time of personal recuperation.  The black and white piece was Originally posted on Wind of the Gods, but I refurbished it with fresh color for the Asheville Tattoo Festival.  Hmph - I just noticed a Mayan glyph quality to this image. I may have to explore this square construction more.

Tattoo: Krampus as Mescalito

Originally drawn for a Featured Creature post, here were have an image of Krampus transformed into the consciousness expanding Mescalito.  When I started adding color to this piece, I began with red skin.  I didn't care for that direction and wasn't sure where to head next, but when I accidentally inverted the red layer to green in Photoshop it set me on the right path.  I'm very satisfied with the intensity of the finished image here and will probably be creating more Mescalito images soon.  :-)

Tattoo: Skull worm

Tattoo: Valknut

I was attracted to drawing the the Valknut initially because of the design aspects, but I've always had an interest in Norse imagery and mythology.  I also enjoy celtic knotwork so that was how I approached this piece.  However, looking at some of the history of this symbol, I may do another piece of the Valknut as the Borromean rings.

Tattoo: Batman Throwing Star

Here's a tattoo I created for a friend last year.  He wanted to reproduce one of Batman's throwing stars from the Christian Bale Batman movies.  He wasn't sure about the size he wanted the finished image to be, so I created it in Adobe illustrator for lossless scaling.

Tattoo: Man in the Moon

Drawn in 2001, here is a man in the moon image refurbished and toned for a tattoo design.  This piece was Originally posted on Trail of Breadcrumbs.  I removed the background for a cleaner more easily reproducible image.  When I was adding tones, I had initially given the image a cast of color, but upon reflection I chose to use only the black and white tones.  With only the black and white tones, if anyone wanted to add color later a variety of color choices could be made.  With each of the Tattoo images I am posting this week, I'm including the original line drawing so that tones or color can be addressed separately from line work in the tattoo process, if necessary.

2nd Annual Asheville Tattoo Festival, March 14-17

Later next week, the city of Asheville, North Carolina will be celebrating it's Second Annual Tattoo Festival.  Check out their website for a full listing of the festivities and information on the cool guests coming.

Featured Creature: Three Tongue

Here we have the first Featured Creature of the 2013, a creepy little three tongued spikey demon.  I suspect he is a demon of lying or maybe gossip.  I dunno.  He's not telling me he just keeps making these horrible snorting noises.

Featured Creature: Snake Demon

Here we have a raging horned snake demon.  This creepy crawly was created using the Purple / Yellow technique.  At first I was a little trepidatious of adding tones to this piece.  The stark black and white wanted to remain so, but as I began working on it, I tried a bit of hand toning with the airbrush tool in Photoshop and it all made sense.  The more detailed shading added a quality to it that reminded me of graphite drawing. As always, a nod here to the genius of H. R. Giger.

Featured Creature: Krampus Head

I know I said I had nothing for Krampusnacht this year, but this little guy kept bugging me until I broke out the paper and pen.  Gruss Vom Krampus!

Featured Creature: The Devil in the Moon

Here we a Devil Man in the Moon and the first color piece for the Featured Creature.  I have always been fond of man in the moon images.  Here I'm combining that with a little Coop devil flavoring.

Featured Creature: From Beyond

Here we have some slithery dreadful thing from beyond.  Special thanks as always to good ol' H.P.L. for showing us the way.  My initial thought after finishing this was that it would make a great dark tattoo design, but I couldn't get this one done on myself.  I can't be creeped out by my own skin.  Nope, not gonna do it!

Featured Creature: Devil's Head

Another horned headed monster this week for the second installment of Featured Creature, but a few more steps towards a darker demonic tone.  Somewhere between a satyr and a werewolf I think.  Once again, the background tone was added in photoshop post scanning to give give the image a little more punch.


{Sharpie and Uni-ball Vision Elite Pen, tone added in Adobe Photoshop}

Featured Creature: Satyr's Head

I've been feeling lately that I haven't been spending nearly enough time drawing by hand and I've been fearful of losing my drawing chops (as it were).  Beginning this week and hereafter, I will be posting a new sketch of some dark creature or other.  Satyrs, Ghosts, Zombies, Demons, you name it.  They will all be crawling out of the recesses of my mind to haunt and frighten. All will be hand drawn with pencil, pen, and sharpie.  By the end of it all I hope to post a veritable army of monsters.  Welcome to my first Featured Creature!

Micki's Tattoo Designs

Some tattoo designs for my friend Micki.  She's a big fan of Hellraiser and Pinhead.  Once these have been 'made flesh' as it were, I'll post updates.

{Digital images created in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Indesign}

From the Archives: Skull Tattoo

A Tattoo design that never got used.  Grey added for a little contrast in Photoshop.  Inspired by H.R. Giger, but only mildly.  :-)

{Sharpie, Tone added in Photoshop}