You've Got Blue On You

A good friend of mine, James, (hey I wonder if he reads this blog... Hi James!) has come to me for an entire sleeve! Boy oh boy, this is a huge project. I've taken on one other sleeve project and I believe I'm getting faster and James' idea requires less preparation between sessions so perhaps it will go faster. We will see, I'm not really sure what to expect as far as time commitment goes.

When I was initially approached with the design I was definitely intimidated. It is essentially a random series of paint spots and splatters in four or five different colors. This is a deceptive project because on paper, in photoshop, or in front of an easel it would be easy to accomplish but because this is a tattoo and I cannot splatter anything (yknow, having to use little tiny needles to scar the skin and what not) it becomes a bit of a challenge.

Trying to make outlines for the design was a feat. It had to be modified and I had to leave notes to myself within the stencil so that I didn't totally lose my mind. Every artist that works at the shop with me had something to say about this project. Most just hinting that I was crazy for taking it on and that they don't envy my position. One was especially helpful though, and did a good job of calming me down. I admit there was a moment when I confessed to him "I don't know if I'm going to be able to do this..." after my third failed attempt at reading the stencil I had just made. He looked at me with a confused face and said "What? Of course you can." and just that little bit of belief gave me the courage to further an attempt.

The image is of the progress we made in our first sitting. Not much to look at right now since I didn't even finish one color, but holy moley is that a ton of work. This much took about 4 hours including stenciling.