Lessons in ropes

Lessons in Ropes

oil on wood, left handed

24" x  24"

I wanted to post it this morning..

The next few days hopefully I will remember to post pictures of my left-handed paintings that are still kicking around. One a day sounds good? To refresh, I did these in March while my right arm was in a cast and I could not tattoo. Then at the end there was an art show the day before the cast came off. So nice to have time to paint. I explored a lot of new ideas in these paintings. Anyway -

The Desire to be a Morning Person

oil and graphite on wood

24" x 24"

Winding up

I have a couple of newer photos of an in-progress art nouveau inspired tattoo to share - The piece incorporates a bunch of local flower varieties, including: gladiolus, magnolias, swamp iris, camellia, and azalea.

It's a particularly labor intensive piece - and I'm trying to keep it simple! Execution wise that is. At this point we are somewhere in the middle stage, probably just past the middle. The middle stage is many hours long you see... but after the middle hump things really start to take shape. The overall look of this piece is going to change either the next sitting or the one after, once I go over the background again. You will see!

and since we we're going on about works in progress, I'll just throw in a few better pics of the scuba diver. Enjoy!

We just have his elbow left, and some bit here and there. Can't wait.

Joey the Dog, Marsh Grass, Poker FDL, Family Crest

A lot to post about this week! In addition to getting a good healed photo of Joey the Dog (it can sometimes be difficult with people's schedules, but definitely my favorite way of documenting my work), I also have a couple of one-sitting zappers to share - I'm always glad when there's time enough to get a piece to a finished state in one sitting. The only downside to the one-sitting tattoos is I don't usually get to get healed photos if the client is from out of town. I think most of my regular clients understand the advantages of a healed photo though, so that's not typically a problem.

Anyway - first up - let's do Joey the Dog. The client's request was a portrait of her dog in a suit, very old-fashioned-like. I had her bring the dog by so I could get an idea of its temperment and also if there were any specific markings I might be missing in the photos. I also shot my own photos to make sure I got all the angles and info I needed. It was sooooooo much fun. Animal portraits are far easier for me - I still won't tattoo human portraits! (Not yet anyway). I would like to get in one more session to tighten up the background and heighten the contrast in key places.

I'm trying out the watermark thing. I don't have photoshop at the moment so I must apologize - it's not how I would prefer to do it. I think I would prefer to use a symbol instead.

This poker-inspired fleur de lis is on a cool guy. We went with the heart suit, which is fun because it includes the queen of hearts and also the suicide king, ha! I used real Bicycle brand cards as reference, but of course had to alter the designs to make it tattooable. In the process I had the hands of the characters break the squareness of the cards, which I think helps visually. The black poker chip is valued at $100, though we mostly chose it since it is a predominantly black and grey tattoo.

The next few images are on a girl who has a very interesting string of jobs under her belt. She's a native New Orleanian, but has had the opportunity to travel to some awesome places. The particular plant that we tattooed on her is based on the dominant marsh grass that protects the Louisiana coast from hurricanes and which was also devastated by the now year-old oil spill. She got it as a protector/memorial symbol. 

We had started the following family crest soon after I got out of my cast, so we broke it up into two sittings to make it easier to manage. Most of it was completed the first sitting though, with only the helmet and banner/name remaining for the second. Simple, but fancy. Also his first tattoo and he sat awesome.

That's it for the moment. I've got a bunch of stuff on the burners including the Second Story Gallery Inaugural Group Exhibit!!! The Second Story Gallery (SSG) is a new co/op in the Healing Center Bldg. on St. Claude St. (in the Marigny), of which I am a founding member. I will post more in-depth info on that in a soon-to-be post. This turned out to be a pretty long one! 

Anyway, everyone have a great rest of the week. Cheers.

Special Seahorse Specimen

I've been back to work for three days now - today will make it my fourth - and my wrist is feeling waaaay better than I thought. Especially while tattooing. And that's awesome.

On Tuesday I got to work on a really fun piece on a fun client, whose tip of a giant sack of various coffees kept me going during my tightly-budgeted-recovery in my cast, when I wasn't able to work. We did some more coloring on his forearm, which depicts an old-timey scuba diver/scientist being attacked by an octopus while trying to grab a specimen jar in which he's captured a seahorse. Much fun!

Left-Handed Art and Show

I've been back at work three days now, but before we get into that I just realized I never posted photos of the Left-Handed artwork I made. While I was holed up in my house for a month with my right arm in a cast I was training my left hand, finishing as many drawings and paintings as I could. The day before my arm came out of the cast I had an art show at my house, exhibiting the ten pieces (four drawings, one collage, and five paintings).

Today I'm only going to post the pieces that sold, as other ones sell I'll post those, and then on a rainy day I'll post all ten in the entirety.  Almost all of the drawings sold at the opening, and a few people expressed interest in some of the paintings. So we'll see what happens to those.

Self Portrait in Cast (sneezing)

8.5x11

pencil, gouache, ink, tattoo ink, coffee on bristol

Lefty's Lament

8.5x11

color pencil, ink, charcoal on paper

Righty & Righty in a cast

8.5x11

collage on paper *left-handed cuts

Skull-Splint Peel

19x22

charcoal, coffee on paper

Tony's Hand

This post is sort of a mash up in the timeline of events. We'd started this tattoo - on Hell or High Water's distinguished owner, Tony Barton's hand - one day, before both of our appointments showed up, but then kept getting interrupted by people coming in, deliveries, etc. Just like how the commas kept interrupting the smooth flow of that last sentence. Haha. So anyway, I'd wanted to do one single photo spread so I waited a few weeks later till we actually finished it. Enjoy!

The design is a complimentary scene to go along with his other hand, done by Donn Davis several years ago, of an eyeball, a wing, and a broken pencil. Here we have a paintbrush and an eye, with waves to go with the sleeve background and some scales and leaves for effect.

This is where we'd stopped the first time...  and of course no time for breaks, right to work we both went.

And then a few weeks later, touch ups here and there, and presto - here it is complete!

Lefty to bat

Well, I've been meaning to post on here since it happened, but found myself drawn into other things... namely how to generate income, and then also how to enjoy the silence. About three weeks ago I broke a bone in my wrist - actually it's my radius so it's part of my arm - and haven't been able to tattoo or draw since! Well that's not exactly true. I mean I can't tattoo, but I've been drawing and painting with my left hand. And I've been making lamps! Things are looking bright.

So typing is a bit of a pain too. Which is also why I've neglected a post or two. This one's a bit wordy and there's no photos (but there will be later!).

But painting has been... eye opening in a sense. To go from not doing ANY painting for a year to only painting with your Non-Dominant hand - it's daunting at first to say the least. But I am more and more pleased with the results. So there may be more of them in the future! With the right hand! Or both!

I'll be posting some peeks at the work in a few days - I'll also be having a show of these valuable monstrosities before my arm gets out of the cast (you can laugh). If I sell anything it is going towards my bills... and food...

What's been telling in doing these paintings is that I regained something of a voice that I'd lost with painting. I ran out of things to say so I put down the brush. Tattooing everyday and drawing for my appointments kept me more than preoccupied and I guess I was more conceptually drained than I thought... but my broken arm has given me time to replenished some of that extra energy I suppose. Part of me is really grateful for this opportunity, though it's unfortunate that it is also costing me a bunch of money in medical bills.

As an update, I've pretty much booked April solid with my appointments that were previously scheduled in March... sorry guys! I'm more than surprised and thankful that all my clients, who have taken the news of my broken arm with more understanding than I ever expected, are successfully rescheduled. It's very humbling. I tried to organize everyone bearing in mind that it may be difficult to jump right in to the longer sessions. So if you were wondering, that's what I was trying to figure out. Thanks to all of you for your patience and support!!