Making Tiny Highlights and Reflections in Tattoos
The Difficulty in Inking Tattoo Highlights
The bold and elegant leaf tattoo you see above gains complexity due to the meticulously inked tiny beads of water on the leaves and stems. The intricacy of the leaf surfaces should be presented clearly, but make sure it does not sacrifice the clean lines of the overall tattoo composition.
The bold and elegant leaf tattoo you see above gains complexity due to the meticulously inked tiny beads of water on the leaves and stems. The intricacy of the leaf surfaces should be presented clearly, but make sure it does not sacrifice the clean lines of the overall tattoo composition.
Solving This Difficulty
Rest assured that the dewdrops will be thrown into sharp relief, provided the background is adequately dark. This means that you need not fear of using tattoo ink that’s deep and dark. Begin by creating a fairly detailed preliminary drawing. Since the shapes of the leaves are pretty simple and easy to ink around, masking them out is not necessary.
You should make an effort to truly capture the rich, mottled appearance of the background, and the best way to do that is by employing the ink-in-ink technique. Using your tattoo needles, gradually apply cerulean blue, Payne's gray and Hooker's green light onto the client’s skin, or a sheet of practice tattoo skin (if you’re under training) then blend those pigment softly.
A truly intense color should used here. The background needs to dry first, after which you can begin inking the leaves with one flat coloring. It's imperative that you leave a white border around the leaves, so do execute your work in a very careful manner. Mix a shade of green that’s just slightly darker and then begin inking the areas between the veins. The next step is to intensify the largest veins using orange-yellow tattoo ink. After that, you want to indicate the shadows in the upper left corner using rich dark green ink.
When it comes to rendering the stems, a really good approach is to leave the edges white - suggesting the dewdrops that cling to them. A fine needle is useful for performing this type of exacting work. As a final touch, ink in additional details such as little drops of yellow-ocher on the leaves, along with touches of brown and orange to indicate spots where the leaves are worn.
In the finished tattoo, you can see there are only three distinct values which are white, very dark blue and an intermediate green. Such coloring scheme seems simple enough, yet it genuinely enhances the grace as well as elegance of this leaf tattoo.
Recommended Exercise for Newbie Tattoo Artist
To create this type of detailed tattoo leaf complete with highlights and all, you will need a reference image. You can source for such image online or photograph it yourself. For the latter, you can try arranging a group of leaves or even an apple against a piece of dark fabric that won't reflect much light. I recommend you use velvet and corduroy.
Shine a strong light on the subject, take a photo of it and study the highlights that form. In your tattoo art, these highlights will have the lightest value, the cloth the darkest and the leaves or fruit an intermediate one. To show the highlights, apply some white colored tattoo ink.
Most amateur tattoo artists have little trouble when it comes to the application of light and intermediate values, but they're afraid to really use dark pigment. That's the challenging part. Focus on the background, making it quite a bit darker than you want it to be in the end. Never forget that tattoo ink dries several shades lighter than it looks before you brand it onto the skin.
The Difficulty in Rendering Reflections in Tattoos
Shine a strong light on the subject, take a photo of it and study the highlights that form. In your tattoo art, these highlights will have the lightest value, the cloth the darkest and the leaves or fruit an intermediate one. To show the highlights, apply some white colored tattoo ink.
Most amateur tattoo artists have little trouble when it comes to the application of light and intermediate values, but they're afraid to really use dark pigment. That's the challenging part. Focus on the background, making it quite a bit darker than you want it to be in the end. Never forget that tattoo ink dries several shades lighter than it looks before you brand it onto the skin.
The Difficulty in Rendering Reflections in Tattoos
Here’s another leaf tattoo with reflections rendered in. It’s a pretty decent looking tattoo, with leaves drawn in crisp detail and well defined. The patterns formed by the water however, are actually a little bit difficult to read. So the patterns should be the main focus here as they are responsible for pulling the overall look of the tattoo together.
Solving This Difficulty
The hardest part of this tattoo is of course, the water. So, your initial focus should be set on the water because if you fail to capture the power of the reflections and the ripples from the beginning, the end result will be poor. Try creating a preliminary tattoo drawing of this design and render the water last. I’m sure you’ll probably end up reworking the design repeatedly.
Since you'll be working around the leaves first, an accurate preliminary drawing helps significantly. After you've completed your preliminary sketch, try creating the design on a tattoo practice skin. Start by inking the area behind the leaves, then, going from light to dark, apply your colors onto the practice skin.
As you work the colors around, look out for the subtle patterns formed by the reflections. Also be on the lookout for the more dynamic patterns created by the rippling water. Simplifying the ripples will aid in heightening their bold sense of movement. You can see from the example on display below. Only three shades of blue are visible. Use strong tattoo needle techniques, but do not allow the ripples nullify the soft, blurred reflections that you've already established.
After the initial ink is dry, add some more for rendering the leaves, starting with flat colors, and then inking the texture. This is a vital step. The leaves must be packed with detail or they’ll look flat next to the intricate water.
Final Note:
The pale pastel leaves act as a foil for the strong swirling ripples of blue that run throughout the tattoo. Unlike the blue passages, which are rendered with dense pigment, the leaves are composed of delicate tattoo inks comprising of colors like blue, yellow, green, ocher and brown.
As a final step, their veins and textural details are added with slightly darker tattoo ink. Slash of red can be seen in the lower left corner. It is unexpected and serves more than merely setting off the pale leaves. The slash of red actually directs the eye toward the center of the tattoo.