Shades of Grey

So I found a bunch of drawings that I had misplaced and before I scanned them in I thought I would step out of my comfort zone and tattoo something with a fair amount of detail as well as try my hand at shading tonight. The design is a civil war era revolver, they are probably the coolest old pistols and the flash one I drew is amazing, but I didn't include all of the filigree in tonight's practice, maybe another day?

The first step was making my carbon copy stencil, I thought I would get some more practice with that because I am having such a hard time since I lack a good transfer paper. Since I used normal printer paper you have to make a lot of passes to get solid lines, and you can only use it on something flat like this.

Obviously that sucks, big time, I cleaned up a couple lines but since I had the picture next to me I know what it's supposed to look like so the lines were more like guides.

Next I did all of my outlines working right to left so I'm not smudging away the stencil. I was working with a 3 round and even when my hand is super steady and fluid the lines have a little wiggle to them still, less than they use to, but more than I really like. I also noticed when looking at the picture I have forgotten a few little details and put them in after the photo.


One thing I was thinking about is that the shading will hide some of the lines or blend into them so the lines on the interior were less of a problem if they weren't completely smooth, but the outer edge of the whole gun would be an issue so with the three round I made tiny circular motions over the existing outermost outlines to thicken it up and it helps make it pop a little too.


I didn't take enough photos of the shading process because I was just in the zone and getting tired which is a shame because I think that progression would have been nice to see. Basically I switched to my nine round and used a flick of the wrist from the needle being down to forward and out decreasing the pressure as it flicks away. The initial shading is lighter than I wanted to I continued to make passes over it and build them up until the were more like I wanted. In certain areas I make a thick black pass with no flicking motion to make the shadow deeper. I forgot that this tattoo skin doesn't take color well, but I tried to do a wooden handle, it's not bad, not great though.

Recapping the even I have to say I'm pretty proud of how this came out, it was the first time I tried shading and it turned out pretty good, a convincing gun metal finish for the most part. I'm not satisfied with it because there are shadows that need darkened, and it definitely needs the filigree so I think I will have to revisit it. I also have to get some better transfer paper or just because awesome at free handing everything onto people. When I have some extra money I really need to purchase some of the shading magnums because I think I'm going to get a much better and smoother gradation with them. Time to scan in some art, post it and the typography tomorrow, good night Forest Grove.