Mirroring painting on canvas and tattoos

Posted on Tue, November 05, 2019

As a veteran painter who also works on skin (or the other way around, depending on your perspective) I am often seeking ways to create a look in my tattoos that mirrors what I do on canvas, while at the same time retaining the bold graphic clarity that makes a strong tattoo read well. In the space mech piece pictured, my client asked for something full colored but with a natural look. My color schemes in recent years have tended more toward those so-called "grown-up colors"- that is, the spectrum of more subtle earthy tones which more accurately reflect what life is usually like in the natural world rather than a kaleidoscope of crazy bold colors. With such pieces, readability is a key part of my strategy, since it's easy to get lost in rendering like a painter and to lose sight of the need for overall compositional clarity. By carefully reserving some colors for only the background or foreground, I was easily able to assign higher priority to the foreground so that it separates clearly from the atmospheric background. You can read more about my design strategy for this piece in the Priority chapter of your ReinventingTheTattoo.com subscription... and don't forget to check out the new Contrast seminar which has just been added, free to all subscribers. #tattoo #education #tattooeducation #spacemech #biomech #artclass #tattooseminar