The beautiful geisha pic above is a tattoo I did on the lovely Linda a while back - the tattoo was done over a few sittings - partly because it is so detailed, especially the kimono fabric, and partly despite the fact that Linda is something of a trooper, it really is no fun having your ribs tattooed!She'd booked herself in for an hour this morning - so we started on the background - which as you can see from the photo will be covered in pink sakura and possibly a few sumi grey branches - but not if that's going to look too busy.
The sakura look quite harsh because they've just been done, but the idea is that with their pink outlines they will 'sink' into the background once they settle down, leaving the geisha to remain in the foreground as the focus of attention.
This afternoon was spent doing a couple of hours on Michaels koi and maple sleeve. The first colour I put in this tattoo (in the maple leaves at the top) came out a little faint - but we've resolved that and the next lot of colour and shading in the koi have come out great - so it's onward and upward - just as koi should be!! I'll leave the maple leaves for a little while before skimming back over them to 'soup them up'!
I'm in the process of designing the inside of this half sleeve - with a large scrolling chrysanthemum flower and some loose petals floating in the water. The flower will be oranges into golds and yellows, sticking with the hot/autumnal colour palette against a background of sumi grey and black.
Talking of the background - I'm thinking of making it really dark - so the grey and orange koi, red and orange maple, and golden chrysanthemum will really stand out against it once it's all settled down.
Till tomorrow then - when we should be seeing a sakura geisha sleeve with fire and the aforementioned zombie ice cream!
