Celtic Cross Tattoo

 

I've  been wanting to draw a Celtic cross tattoo for a while now so tonight I mustered up the courage to give it a shot. First I used a compass and a ruler to mark out the shape of the cross. That was the easy bit.

At this point, I thought the 'industrial' look of the pencil guide lines looked pretty cool in and of themselves and that I might try another cross later that takes on this type of look, just for something a bit more original than the Celtic style cross.

I penned in the lines, freehand. I was pretty happy with my pen control for it. Only a few wobbles here and there. Then I began the Celtic knots in the cross. The first one (the biggest one) I tried to use a compass to help guide the shape of the lines, but I don't think it really helped. The knot doesn't "flow" like it should.

I drew the next Celtic knot free-hand, and once I was happy with it, I penned it in. Then I used tracing paper to copy the knot for the other 2 times. Then I did a similar thing with the knots in the circle as well.

 

And lastly, I filled in the black and shaded the knots. I started using the fine liner pen that I had used for the outline to fill in the black inside the knot where the pen looks slightly different, but the pen was scraping up the surface of the paper so I switched pens to use a more felt-tipped pen. Then I used a 2B pencil to fill in the circle, and shade the Celtic Knot work.

I'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Although, now my back is killing me from being hunched over the page, drawing, for so long. I think I need to work on my posture while I'm drawing if I hope to ever make a career out of drawing or tattooing for long periods of time.

I'm on holidays now. So my goal is to do one drawing every day! (We'll see how that goes).

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Faith in Progress

Here's another go at the Faith tattoo that I started the other day. I decided to take photos as I went this time to show you the progress of how the drawing came together.

I started with a few lines to keep the letters a little more uniform. Then I drew the letter 'i' as it is in the middle of the word 'Faith' and also that it's the base for all the other letters to work from. Then I traced the 'i' and used the stencil to place the back line for the 'a' and for the bottom of the 't' so it would be evenly spaced.

Then I sketched in the body of the 'a' and found the right height of the 't'. Then using tracing paper, I copied the 't' to start the 'h' then had a few goes at drawing a curly line to cross the 't' and join onto the 'h'.

Then came the 'F'. I started with the body of the letter, and then sketched in the curly lines all around it. As you can see by the rubbed out lines, it took a few goes to get it the way I wanted. Then once I was happy with the formation, and the thickness of the lines, I attacked it with a fine line pen.

Again, I carefully drew around the outside of the entire word, rather than outlining each individual letter. This worked really well where my pencil work was clear, but was a bit more challenging in the areas that weren't as clear, more rushed and sketchy looking.

Lastly I shaded the top and bottom of each letter with a 2B pencil, blending it in and leaving the middle of each letter white to give it a shiny effect. I couldn't decide where to dot the 'i', so I left the dot out. Next time I would extend the cross of the 't' a bit more, to leave room for the dot above it.

Things for me to work on:

* more precise thickness of the lines in pencil work

* more precise pen work using a steadier hand

* curlier curls

Thanks for stopping by.

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Gotta have faith

Had another quick draw tonight. Nothing special. Couldn't really get into the mood. But I'm on holidays soon and hopefully I'll be drawing (nearly) every day! I'm gonna set up my home art studio, ready to draw, paint, tattoo and play my guitar.

So anyway... I'm going to practice a little bit of script writing in the mean time because it doesn't take so long to draw in one sitting as a portrait does. I copied the general idea for this Faith tattoo out of a magazine. The guy had it as a chest tattoo, spread right across his chest. My version is slightly smaller (about 3 inches long), a bit less complicated and a bit more wonky. I didn't use guides or tracing paper to ensure that all the letters were similar size/shape because I was just really wanting to draw *something* and to draw it now!

For this particular drawing, I tried outlining around the outside edge of the entire word, rather than each individual letter. I think it creates a pretty good effect when you shade it a little bit. I'm going to have another go at re-drawing this one, later, I think. Even up the letters a bit, use a guide to make it neater and more accurate, make the swirls more swirl-like and natural looking, and do it BIGGER so I can fit in more detail and maybe some sort of images in the background. Actually I just had the image in my head of the word sprouting up like a tree, from a seed, with cute little birds coming to rest in it's branches... a la Matthew 13:31-32. Hmm... maybe a project for tomorrow.

Will Turner

I've begun the next installment of my Curse of the Black Pearl sleeve. Mr Will Turner, hanging dramatically from some rigging, wind in his hair, pistol in his hand and facial hair in places. Doing such a small drawing is proving to be difficult (it probably appears life-size on your computer screen... but not your iPhone, obviously) as there's no space to get the shading to blend - not to mention my pencils are blunt and I can't find a sharpener anywhere. So I'm calling it a night. But I figured I would show the progress of the picture bit by bit as I complete it, keep it fresh.

I won't be doing Movember this year, but if YOU are please let me know so I can support you with it!

Now, if I've been waiting for the opportune moment to head to bed... this is it.
Goodnight!

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Owl

I flicked through a tattoo magazine as I was sipping my whiskey and coke tonight, and saw a nice owl tattoo. I have been meaning to do an owl for a long time. Not sure why. I just like them I guess. So I decided to copy the tattoo in the magazine for starters. I didn't want to stay up all night drawing, so it's a moderately quick sketch. I also ran out of page, so the proportions are a bit off... but least it's given me a few ideas on what I might do with an owl tattoo myself.

My poor little boy has a stuffy nose and it keeps waking him up. He's just woken up again, so I better go help him back to sleep. Goodnight everyone!

Love doesn't make the world go round.

I asked my beautiful wife what she'd like me to draw tonight, and she said something with a Kombi in a cartoon-ish style. So I dusted off my pencils (although there were a few missing... hmm...) and started drawing. Here's the results.

I'm looking forward to getting back into a bit more drawing again. I haven't really done any at all this year, with having a newborn (who is already 6 months old!!) in the house. But now that things have settled down nicely, I hope to get a little bit of drawing in on a regular basis.

Adios Amigos

The Pearl

"You've seen a ship with black sails that's crewed by the damned, and captained by a man so evil that Hell itself spat him back out?" Here`s a practice o' th' Black Pearl while I plan ou' th' `Pirates o' th' Caribbean` sleeve. Nay sure if I will go wi' this particular image tho. I be really more imaginin' th' pearl wi' th' black sails blowin' in th' wind an' waves breakin' in fore o' th' ship. Savvy? I guess I`ll be havin' t' hunt around fer a better image t' use. Quite happy wi' this particular drawin' tho.

Drawn wi' 2B pencil an' pen. I be happy wi' how th' water turned ou', but nay as happy wi' th' clouds an' mist. Th' rear mast be supposed t' look like 'tis comin' through th' mist, but 't didna turn ou' quite as I be hopin'. Oh well. Thar`s always next time.

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A pistol with one shot

The beginnings of a full sleeve I am designing... any guesses what the theme is?

And if you need it, here's another hint:

That's right, I'm designing a Pirates of the Caribbean themed sleeve. I have it all worked out in my head. It's gonna look cool. These two drawings are just some practice ones. I decided that I would stick to "Curse of the Black Pearl" for the images, rather than combining all the movies. It's going to feature the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow, the pirate's coins, the pistol with one shot, and possibly a few other trinkets from the movie.  Still trying to decide whether to do it in colour or black and grey. I am leaning more toward black and grey tho.

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Bengal Tiger

I pulled out my colouring pencils tonight and decided to try my hand at another tiger, using this photograph as a reference. That is all.

Tavi Script

Can you believe that my son, Tavi, is 3 months old already!? Where did the time go? I've had this onesie sitting around for 3 months waiting to draw on it, but I haven't really had a chance. But I'm on holidays this week, so I had a day to myself to play my guitar, draw a logo for a friend and draw a picture for Tavi.


His name is based on a font called "Blackletter Shadow". I like this particular script because it is a bit more modern than the Old English type script fonts.

The picture on the back of the onesie is based on a traditional Harley Davidson logo I saw once, with a few personalised touches.

Once I've washed the onesie, I'll post another photo of him wearing it :) Hopefully it will fit him for a few more weeks before he grows out of it. If he does, I'll just simply have to draw him another one.

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Naketa Script

It's been a while since I've done any drawing. Starting a new school year kinda takes up a lot of time and head space. But it was my niece's birthday, so I took the opportunity to draw her name in script for her birthday card. And here was the result.

 

My amazing wife also sewed me a pencil roll for valentines day. Jane is getting really good at sewing. It's kinda like a pencil case, except there's an individual pocket for each pencil. When you want to draw you simply unroll it and all your pencils are laid out nice. And then you roll it up when you're done. It's awesome! Up until now, my pencils have been living in an old Whitmans chocolates box but they are feeling much more cozy now. Thanks my love ;-)

And just to show off how amazing my wife really is, here's a photo of the doll Jane made for Naketa for her birthday. Talk about talent!

Hopefully I'll start doing some more drawing again soon. In a few more weeks, I'll have the best, cutest, most adorable little model sleeping in the crib next to our bed, ready to draw. I'll be taking a few weeks off work when he arrives, so I'll hopefully get some time to do some drawings of him then :)

New Year... New directions

Happy New Year to everyone out there! Hope you had an awesome night last night, and were not regretting it this morning. Jane and I went into Mooloolaba for new years eve. We sat down on the beach watching the fireworks, and also saw Josh Pyke play. We had a really great (and really late) night.

Anyhow, here's the last of the portraits that I've drawn so far. This one was commissioned by my friend's daughter as a Christmas present for her Dad. It was probably my favourite one to draw so far because, being such a close up photo, I could put so much detail into it. If you want a portrait drawn, please email me at summertimeink@gmail.com for a price list.