Something Citrus

So I finally got my ass back in gear and decided I should practice some more. I have been busy with work, prepping for hunting season, and remodeling the bathroom but needed to do some art and have been pissed at myself for watching television (Iron Chef, The Ultimate Fighter, Mythbusters, you know stuff that really matters).

Anyways I thought I would do my initials from the typography set that I just completed since I really like them. I will look at past blogs to see if I posted them, if not I will do it tomorrow. Since I'm lacking good transfer paper and suck I free handed the letters onto the grapefruit which wasn't so difficult in that I can't draw but my permanent markers kept drying up on me, there must have been a wax coating on the grapefruit, so that took longer than I was really planning.

I had an unexpected surprise working because one of my three machines went out, I used the chrome one that I thought was really chintzy and cheap looking. Even though it is heavier it turns out this thing kicks some major ass, love it in fact. I also need to send my other machine back and see if they will send me one that doesn't heat up to the point of burning my hand within 15 minutes.

First I outlined my shapes with a 9 round because the outlines are meant to be thicker, then I filled the solid black.


Then I changed my grip and needle to a 3 round and added the little diamond flourish insides the letters followed by adding the beveled edge. I really could decide if I wanted to stick to my type sets I made or not but decided to switch back to the 9 round and just started filling them with red, it looked better than I hoped but it still didn't quite feel finished so I added white pigment to the beveled edge to highlight it and make it stick out more.


I didn't use the photomerge in Photoshop so the letters don't exactly match up but they aren't different in size they all fit and flow like they should. I suppose the next thing I really need to start working on is nailing down this shading thing because flat filling ink is pretty easy.

Anyways since there is no beer or scotch in the house I'm going to have a healthy glass of water and ice my ankle, good night Forest Grove.

Tattoo Practice Skin vs. Grapefruit

Sounds like an epic battle...or not but I can now offer a little perspective on both, pros, cons, and personal preference. There are substantial differences between the two and I went into my testing thinking that practice skin would be far superior because it was supposes to mimic skin, but after testing both "products" I have come to a different conclusion.

Practice skin is manufactured by a few companies and mine came from MOM. Upon opening the package I found it to be a little rubbery but not nearly as flexible as I had hoped. The one cool thing about this is that you can rubber band it to sections of your body if they aren't too curvy so that you can simulate tattooing on a specific area which is a huge plus. As I started using it I noticed something right off the bat, the ink didn't seem to take very well (this could be my lack of experience and being a total newb), this bothered my greatly because I was having to overwork areas. One of my problems I think was after reading the Guy Aitchison manual he talked about running his machine at as low an ampage as possible so that he can make lots of passes over it. I had been working it at 6-8 but when I cranked it to the 10-12 range I found it going into the practice skin far easier.

Now for the grapefruit I didn't make a stencil to transfer, just freehanded a nautical star. One of the more inherant problems with grapefruit are their shape which makes stencil transferring pretty difficult...plus I suck at it still. I personally don't like the shape of the grapefruit because even for small designs it obscures your lines from your vision, it makes the process a little slower because you have to readjust so often. Despite these flaws, the ink goes into the grapefruit effortlessly... and even more so when you clean up your work you don't lose the ink as much.

The problem that I now face is which is more accurate? You can't practice your stretch on grapfruit but I'm pretty sure it's a more skin realistic surface, I'm going to continue working with both because I need to build up handstrength, and practice is practice but this is one of many reasons I am discovering I need to get into an internship fast, I have too many questions that my materials don't answer, and that other people won't help me with.