Practice Tattoo Skin

I have a lot of mixed feelings about how this turned out, I think trying a design this complicated rather than just a simple shape to fill in was a dumb idea, not because I got frustrated with the tools, but being overambitious to start can sometimes lead to immense failure and worse yet can be so disheartening you give up.

I guess it turned out ok for the first time with me using a machine, obviously there is a lot of trial and error, even more so since you have to run the machine at a higher then you would on real skin. I was using a loose three round, and a tight 7 round, didn't really like the 7, but I think that also has to do with the machine because it got super hot in under 30 mins which probably means the capacitor is shot.

One problem I ran into over and over again is just reinforcing best practices, like keeping your hand at the propper 45 degree angle, to move the machine front to back so the needle is coming out of its groove, but the worst was that tattoo skin, or at least the MOM's brand sucks. Beyond running the machine higher, because it's so smooth and slick the stencil transfer was a bitch, it smudged every time I did it so I basically freehanded it all on there. Another huge thing that bothered me was that is didn't take the color worth a damn, what you are seeing of the yellow is more of a stain than the ink sitting in material, which probably means the black is doing the same thing it just is a stronger pigment.

That was pretty dissapointing just because I was excited to start working in color and shading, even though I don't have any magnums for shading there is no reason you shouldn't be able to do it with a round, and after reading the Guy Aitchison manual I believe that even more, needles are like brushs, they can do any job they just do it very differently. I'm fighting off a cold so I haven't had a chance to draw much this week, blog much, or get my portfolio completely together, so maybe I can get to all that stuff this week...oh and go buy some grapefruit.