Inspired!

Just got back from vacation, or as I like to call it, my "reset". Lately I've been really getting into mandalas, dot work, & geometric patterns. I'll be sure to post some soon!

Setbacks

I've had a few setbacks getting the new site made, so there's still no projected launch date. more soon...

New site!

I've been slacking on my writing because I've been super busy, & have just started working on my new website! Stay tuned...

The cave

PROCESS- Coverup Biomech Part1

A gentleman named Angel came in to the shop last week & asked me if I could do a coverup of an existing tattoo. He said he didn't care so much what it was, just as long as the old tattoo would be gone. I looked at his arm & said wow! That's going to be a tricky coverup! I took some pictures & started working on it in Photoshop. As you can see from the photos below, I did a sketch layer in red, then a cleaner line layer in black, then several color layers to experiment with shading,volume, lighting, etc... It's quick & messy, but it's just a concept at this point. Total time so far-3 hours. More to come...

PROCESS- Space study

I have several tattoos coming up that will have an outer space nebula kind of theme to them, so I decided to experiment a little in photoshop to see what would look cool. I started by making a custom cloud brush. Then by painting on several separate layers, I got what you see here. I decided to throw in a few meteors too just to see what they'd look like. Obviously doing something in Photoshop is nothing like tattooing, but I'd rather experiment on the computer than on someone's skin!

MUSIC - Soooo important!

  I just put up the Voivod post & thought it would be good to talk about music & how important I find it to be in the creative process. I feel it kind of sets the mood for the piece I'm working on. I personally have to have music playing while I'm drawing or doing whatever, & I like to listen to music without vocals, like movie or game scores. Other times I listen to music that I think is somehow related to what I'm working on, like industrial for Biomech, metal for skulls, etc..
Here's a list of some of my favorite drawing music:

• Distance- My Demons
• Inon Zur- Crysis (game soundtrack)
• Kevin Riepl- Gears of war soundtrack
• Steve Jablonsky- Gears of War 2 & 3 soundtrack
• Amon Tobin- Chaos Theory: Splinter Cell 3 soundtrack,  Chaos Theory Remixed
• Rom Di Prisco- Unreal Tournament 3 soundtrack
• Niacin- Time Crunch
• The Mystic Krewe of Clearlight
• Combichrist- What the fuck is wrong with you people
• Chimp Spanner- At the Dream's Edge, Imperium Vorago
• Frontline Assembly- Air Mech, Improvised.Electronic.Device, Hard Wired, Implode, Tactical Neural Implant

MUSIC - Voi Vod - target earth

Voivod is back! One of my favorite bands from the 80's is back with a new album that makes up for everything they did since "Nothingface". Check out this summary I found online...

Voivod is back with its 13th studio album, Target Earth. The legendary Quebec prog metal band will release the album on Jan. 22.
This year is Voivod’s 30th anniversary, and the band is marking the occasion by moving forward. Much of its history has been marked by shuffled lineups, including five bass players, and losing members to injury and tragedy. In recent years, the band has existed as a sort of tribute to guitarist Denis “Piggy” D’Amour, who died in 2005. The three surviving original members, singer Denis “Snake” Belanger, bassist Jean -Yves “Blacky” Theriault and Michel “Away” Langevin, along with new guitarist Daniel “Chewy” Mongrain, recorded and performed music based on D’Amour’s unfinished demos.

On Target Earth, the band takes a step forward with new music and virtuosic arrangements, but keeps the familiar Voivod sci-fi metal.

PROCESS - 3D biomech

I just got my new Cintiq 24UX at the beginning of the year, & I've been chomping at the bit to do something for myself on it ever since. I've been doing plenty on it for work, designing tattoos & such, but no personal stuff, so last Sunday I set aside some time to work on a personal project. (I need to do that more)
Instead of painting something in Photoshop, I decided I'd do something in Zbrush, a 3D modeling program I've been messing around with for a couple years off & on. Zbrush is a sculpting program that uses a pressure sensitive tablet to manipulate the surface of what I'm "sculpting" in a natural way. The Cintiq is perfect for this, & before you know it, I was making some whacky sci-fi lookin' Biomech! Fun, fun, fun! After about two hours, I had what you see here. After looking at it, I decided It would probably look pretty bitchin' as a tattoo, so I rendered it with a decent white texture and the put it in Photoshop, where I put it on a picture of someone's arm. I like it! I posted it on Facebook, & now it looks like I'll be tattooing it on somebody! (Stay tuned!) After that I did a multi-pass (yea, yea, she knows it's a multi-pass!) render to get some cool lighting on it just to see what I could do with it. I can't wait to do more...

PROCESS - filigree

Original sketch done over tracing of arm, finished Illustrator image, & finished tattoo!

THE CAVE

The cave is my room at home where I create. I finally have the perfect set up! This is not only an office, but also a retreat. I have tons of toys, statues, & art books here to inspire me, as well as separate areas for drawing, building, computer, Xbox, etc... I feel it's important to have a good comfortable place to do your thing, where you can close the door on the world and have your music playing, or maybe even a movie on. When I'm drawing, I like to have music on, & with my double screen setup, it's easy to even put on Netflix & listen to a documentary or comedian as well as have reference pictures up. I find its kind of difficult for me to draw at the shop, as there are so many distractions. This is my retreat.
Check it out...

PROCESS - Window Skull

PROCESS

  For those of you interested in what exactly goes into the creation of a custom tattoo, allow me to shed some light on the subject!

My client for this tattoo is a firefighter who wanted a tattoo of his kids looking out a window, seeing destruction, & also wanted to incorporate some skulls, or something similar. I thought it would be cool to portray them as the shining light in a world of destruction, so the design had to have some light rays too.

The first thing I do is trace the photo of the children in  Sketchbook pro using a Cintiq tablet (love it), then I begin sketching in the same program until I get something I like. Why sketch in the computer you ask? Well, I for one don't like using real erasers! The undo button is much more to my liking. Also, I will use separate layers to work on separate elements of the design, that way I can change something without affecting the rest of the design. I do this sketch on layers above a photo of the tracing I took of the clients arm during our consult (seen in red).  I decided it would be cool & different to put the widow & kids inside the skull, & have them be the source of the light.  Total time for this step: 1.5 hours.  Behold... a really rough sketch!

 

Next, I printed the sketch out, and traced it with a pencil on tracing paper. If I want to try any ideas at this stage, I do them on the back side of the paper. Sometimes I will do my final outline in Adobe Illustrator, but sometimes I prefer going analog! 

Total time for this step: 1/2 hour

Here's the finished sketch...

 

I had a little extra time, so I decided to do a rough light study to get an idea of what it would look like. I scanned the line drawing back into the computer & opened it in Adobe Photoshop. I proceeded to do a quick shadows & highlights kind of coloring. 

Time for this step: 1 hour

 Here it is....

The tattoo took 3 hours.

Here is the finished tattoo!

 Total time: 6 hours

Creative juices

Time to do some creative expression!

Being a fan of well thought-out insightful books or just well done photo journals, I thought it would be cool to create my own, having it be an insight to my creative process, as well as my feelings on the task at hand, verbalizing (or typing) my thoughts to share with the world. Why would I do this? Why not! I talk to people every day about a myriad of topics, all of which I have an opinion on, so why not put it down for everybody to enjoy? 

  Some may not agree with what I say, or my methods, but that's fine. I'm not doing this as a debate forum, but I'd love to hear what people have to say about whatever randomness I'm spewing at the moment!

  I think including drawings, snapshots, & fancy photos will also be a way for me to indulge my other creative musings, which might actually help me continue writing! I've tried to keep a journal to a limited degree before, but found it excessively drab writing about myself for only myself to read. Not that I think I'm so interesting that everyone will want to read all about what I think is cool, or how I do things, I just know that I personally enjoy the insight so infrequently offered by people I find interesting! 

   So here goes, for whomever may be interested... Enjoy.