Intermediate Tattooing Tricks Series 2
Tattooing Complex Geometric Patterns
Capturing the beauty of these patterns is just part of the problem. You'll also want to depict the interplay between the raindrops and the web, and achieve a sense of depth.
Solution
With a complicated tattoo art concept like this one, it's essential that you find a consistent approach before you begin to ink your client’s skin. Figure out how the needles have fallen. You'll want to ink those on the bottom—the darkest ones—before you move close to the surface.
Mask out the lightest needles, and then develop the dark background. When you begin to tattoo the complex background, you’ll quickly discover that it's impossible to depict everything that you see, so concentrate on rich color.
Keep the darkest areas near the corners of the tattoo. In the center, use cool, muted tones. For the intermediate values—the orange-brown needles beneath the very lightest ones—use titanium dioxide tattoo inks as their opacity provides a strong contrast to the transparent quality of the needles resting onto.
Work loosely, constantly following the pattern that the needles form. Next, remove the masking material and lay in the lightest needles. Start with pale colors, gradually adding detail. Finally, broken dabs of bright white chromium tattoo ink suggest the shimmering raindrops that rest on top of the web.
NOTE
Solution
With a complicated tattoo art concept like this one, it's essential that you find a consistent approach before you begin to ink your client’s skin. Figure out how the needles have fallen. You'll want to ink those on the bottom—the darkest ones—before you move close to the surface.
Mask out the lightest needles, and then develop the dark background. When you begin to tattoo the complex background, you’ll quickly discover that it's impossible to depict everything that you see, so concentrate on rich color.
Keep the darkest areas near the corners of the tattoo. In the center, use cool, muted tones. For the intermediate values—the orange-brown needles beneath the very lightest ones—use titanium dioxide tattoo inks as their opacity provides a strong contrast to the transparent quality of the needles resting onto.
Work loosely, constantly following the pattern that the needles form. Next, remove the masking material and lay in the lightest needles. Start with pale colors, gradually adding detail. Finally, broken dabs of bright white chromium tattoo ink suggest the shimmering raindrops that rest on top of the web.
NOTE
Observe how the complex layering of darks and lights works in this tattoo design. The brightly colored needles that were masked out first spring into focus; inked with clear, brilliant green and yellow, they rest on top of the orangish-brown needles rendered in gouache. At the very bottom, the murky deep brown successfully conveys a feeling of depth.
Tattooing a Complicated Design Based on Photo References
Sometimes there's so much happening in a tattoo design based on a complicated photo reference that you don't know quite where to begin. That's true here—there's an overcast sky, radiant fail foliage, and the water.
Solution
Complicated designs like this are easiest to handle using a conventional light-to-dark approach. Ink the sky first, then the background and foreground.
Step One
When a scene is this complex, sketch it extremely carefully before proceeding with the actual tattoo, indicating all the major parts of the composition. Since the cool, overcast sky is so important in establishing mood, set it down first. Ink the entire sky, and then begin at the top with the lightest areas.
Add blue near the tree tops while the other colors are still fresh. Next, after the sky ink colors have dried, ink in the light orange trees and set down a mauve coloring behind them to suggest the distant landscape.
Step Two
As you begin to introduce darker values, try using a lot of mauve and gray for tattooing shadows and details — these colors strongly suggest the smoky quality of an overcast day. After the middle values are laid down, ink the dark green trees near the water.
Step Three
Before you start inking the river and the reflections in the water, add detail and texture to the trees using your tattoo machine. Look closely at the values you’ve established; often you find an area you've neglected that seems too light or too dark.
Here, for example, the mass of trees on the right was too light. Darkening them helps balance the rest of the tattoo.
Complicated designs like this are easiest to handle using a conventional light-to-dark approach. Ink the sky first, then the background and foreground.
Step One
When a scene is this complex, sketch it extremely carefully before proceeding with the actual tattoo, indicating all the major parts of the composition. Since the cool, overcast sky is so important in establishing mood, set it down first. Ink the entire sky, and then begin at the top with the lightest areas.
Add blue near the tree tops while the other colors are still fresh. Next, after the sky ink colors have dried, ink in the light orange trees and set down a mauve coloring behind them to suggest the distant landscape.
Step Two
As you begin to introduce darker values, try using a lot of mauve and gray for tattooing shadows and details — these colors strongly suggest the smoky quality of an overcast day. After the middle values are laid down, ink the dark green trees near the water.
Step Three
Before you start inking the river and the reflections in the water, add detail and texture to the trees using your tattoo machine. Look closely at the values you’ve established; often you find an area you've neglected that seems too light or too dark.
Here, for example, the mass of trees on the right was too light. Darkening them helps balance the rest of the tattoo.
Finished Tattoo
Almost everything that makes this tattoo work happens in its final stages. Look at the tattoo and the photograph of the scene shown below to see how important your interpretation of subject is.
Almost everything that makes this tattoo work happens in its final stages. Look at the tattoo and the photograph of the scene shown below to see how important your interpretation of subject is.
In the photograph, the water is really pretty much the same color throughout, but if you ink it with a uniform colors, you’re going to weigh your tattoo down.
Instead, try and figure out what the tattoo needs to keep it alive. Here a lot of skin area is left exposed. This not only sharpens the perspective the neutral area zooms back toward the horizon—but it also suggest show the sun and water interact.
To indicate the areas of water to the left and right of the white area, use a ink-in-ink technique, laying down a smoky colored ink first. Then, while the skin is still tight, ink in the reflections. Finally, in the lower left comer ink in the branches of the dead wood.
Assignment
The way you handle water can determine how a finished tattoo looks, even when it's just a minor element in a composition. To discover its power, select a scene where the water is almost incidental, such as a quiet stream surrounded by groups of trees.
First, ink the landscape as literally as possible. Next, render everything except the water in the same fashion: then begin to play around with your treatment of the stream. Use several approaches, experimenting with the different effects.
Instead, try and figure out what the tattoo needs to keep it alive. Here a lot of skin area is left exposed. This not only sharpens the perspective the neutral area zooms back toward the horizon—but it also suggest show the sun and water interact.
To indicate the areas of water to the left and right of the white area, use a ink-in-ink technique, laying down a smoky colored ink first. Then, while the skin is still tight, ink in the reflections. Finally, in the lower left comer ink in the branches of the dead wood.
Assignment
The way you handle water can determine how a finished tattoo looks, even when it's just a minor element in a composition. To discover its power, select a scene where the water is almost incidental, such as a quiet stream surrounded by groups of trees.
First, ink the landscape as literally as possible. Next, render everything except the water in the same fashion: then begin to play around with your treatment of the stream. Use several approaches, experimenting with the different effects.
Tattooing Intricate Macro Patterns
It takes a lot of curiosity and creativity to detect the myriad patterns that lie in minute objects, and a bold touch to ink them like the giants they really are.
Solution
It's all too easy to become tense and tight when you're tattooing something tiny. To stay loose, a comprehensive preliminary tattoo sketch is essential. Take a lot of time drawing the outlines of the needles before you begin to produce the actual tattoo. Work on a large sheet of paper and magnify your subject several times.
You'll never be able to tattoo around the complex pattern formed by these needles, so mask them out when you've completed your sketch. The needles are so lively that you'll want to downplay the background—use a carbon black ink. Clean the skin area properly, and then drop in ultramarine and yellow ocher, working the ink over the surface of the paper.
Once you've removed the masking tattoo stencil, begin to ink the needles. Here they're rendered in yellow ocher, cadmium orange, and Hooker’s green, with just enough white areas left clean to suggest the frost.
Solution
It's all too easy to become tense and tight when you're tattooing something tiny. To stay loose, a comprehensive preliminary tattoo sketch is essential. Take a lot of time drawing the outlines of the needles before you begin to produce the actual tattoo. Work on a large sheet of paper and magnify your subject several times.
You'll never be able to tattoo around the complex pattern formed by these needles, so mask them out when you've completed your sketch. The needles are so lively that you'll want to downplay the background—use a carbon black ink. Clean the skin area properly, and then drop in ultramarine and yellow ocher, working the ink over the surface of the paper.
Once you've removed the masking tattoo stencil, begin to ink the needles. Here they're rendered in yellow ocher, cadmium orange, and Hooker’s green, with just enough white areas left clean to suggest the frost.
In some places, the client’s fair skin may seem too brilliant, and may even detract from the power of the needles. Use cerulean blue tattoo ink to tone down the discordant areas.