Lily and swirls

[TexasPT]

So today I did my very first complete tattoo on someone else. From bare ankle to finished product.

I still need to work on building lines. The “swirls” are not as clean as I think they should be. Overall I’m pretty happy with how everything went on this one. I think I thanked her for letting me tattoo than she thanked me for tattooing her. She couldn’t stop smiling when we were done…and that was nice.
Mark

[KitchenWizard]

The lily looks fantastic, but the swirls and starts could definitely do with a little ‘tightening’… Looking good though, how long did it take to do?

[TexasPT]

It probably took about an hour and a half…give or take. Finished the lily quickly but then she wanted to add swirls. Took us a while to come up with swirls she liked so we drew…erased…drew…erased. :)

Good practice for sure and another great area for me to work on more. Lining it my biggest challenge when the lines are over two inches or so…that seems to be where I run into trouble. I think I need to “Plan ahead” with where my hand is going to glide to make it more consistent.

Thanks for feedback, Kitchen. It actually helps a lot to hear your (and others) opinions and input.

Mark

[KitchenWizard]

@TexasPT wrote:

It probably took about an hour and a half…give or take. Finished the lily quickly but then she wanted to add swirls. Took us a while to come up with swirls she liked so we drew…erased…drew…erased. :)

Good practice for sure and another great area for me to work on more. Lining it my biggest challenge when the lines are over two inches or so…that seems to be where I run into trouble. I think I need to “Plan ahead” with where my hand is going to glide to make it more consistent.

Thanks for feedback, Kitchen. It actually helps a lot to hear your (and others) opinions and input.

Mark

Wow, you definitely work fast :D If that’s the speed you routinely work at (and I know you’ve said you’ve been trying to slow down) I’d actually suggest seeing how you get on with cut-back machines. As they run faster, they might be better suited to your style, and be able to ‘keep up’ with you better than you slowing down to accommodate the performance of the machine :) Always happy to help where I can :)

[TexasPT]

I know it covers it in the book…but maybe I’m unclear.

My liner has a “notch” where the front binding screw goes. I actually run the front binding post about half-way between the left and right side of the hole. I also run a short “liner” spring…wouldn’t this be considered cutback?

To get a shader as a cutback would you just run a shorter front spring on it or do you physically have to have the front binding post further back? I thought you had to run longer front springs. I say “had”…there are no rules. I can make the shader run faster…but what I’m trying to avoid is making it hit harder. This last tattoo it was almost spooky because you could barely hear the hit on the front coil…and it seemed like it stopped all together almost when the needle was in the skin. The ink still went in nice and smooth…that blew my mind.

Edit: did some googling and I think I’m up to speed. I’m going to run a shorter, stiffer front spring with my softer rear and shorten the throw…we’ll see what happens.

[KitchenWizard]

@TexasPT wrote:

I know it covers it in the book…but maybe I’m unclear.

My liner has a “notch” where the front binding screw goes. I actually run the front binding post about half-way between the left and right side of the hole. I also run a short “liner” spring…wouldn’t this be considered cutback?

To get a shader as a cutback would you just run a shorter front spring on it or do you physically have to have the front binding post further back? I thought you had to run longer front springs. I say “had”…there are no rules. I can make the shader run faster…but what I’m trying to avoid is making it hit harder. This last tattoo it was almost spooky because you could barely hear the hit on the front coil…and it seemed like it stopped all together almost when the needle was in the skin. The ink still went in nice and smooth…that blew my mind.

Edit: did some googling and I think I’m up to speed. I’m going to run a shorter, stiffer front spring with my softer rear and shorten the throw…we’ll see what happens.

From what I can understand, the positioning of the contact screw is much lower down compared to a regular machine, with the screw point making contact at a point on the front spring which lines up with the middle of the front coil I tried adjusting my liner to behave like a cutback, but it didn’t seem too happy about it, so I just reset it to it’s usual configuration :D I would love to try one though, and I think given your working speed, I think you would work well with one :) I know people say to slow down to get in clean lines, but I think that there’s only so much a person can slow down, and if the machine is still not ‘keeping up’ with the artist’s hand, then it’s time for a faster machine :)

[TexasPT]

That is about what I got out of my reading too. Yesterday I took apart the shading machine and replaced the long .18g front spring with a shorter .20 spring. I was able to run it a bit faster but the hit stayed soft and I kept a short throw to smooth stuff out. I decided to rework the bird on my thigh because it came out very light and the blending wasn’t at all what I wanted it to be. I figured I’d fix rather than start new stuff if I could. The picture isn’t the best but I was able to blend a little more, add some highlights, and get my saturation much better than it has been. All while running the machine very soft.

[KitchenWizard]

@TexasPT wrote:

That is about what I got out of my reading too. Yesterday I took apart the shading machine and replaced the long .18g front spring with a shorter .20 spring. I was able to run it a bit faster but the hit stayed soft and I kept a short throw to smooth stuff out. I decided to rework the bird on my thigh because it came out very light and the blending wasn’t at all what I wanted it to be. I figured I’d fix rather than start new stuff if I could. The picture isn’t the best but I was able to blend a little more, add some highlights, and get my saturation much better than it has been. All while running the machine very soft.

Did you adjust the position of the contact screw as well? From what I read, that is one of the defining features of a cut-back :) Nice work on the blending, it’s looking really good :)

[TexasPT]

contact screw is fixed on my shading machine but with the shorter spring I can get 90* onto the spring. With the longer spring it was more like 45*.

[xDreamerx]

consider adding some scroll leaf designs to the blocking scroll line work you got there. It will change the perception of the line work being so thick. Pieces like that need to have areas that are single stroke thickness and clean. It gives it that classy look when you have some fine line work done with swirl line work. Thats my suggestion to tune it up with what you got there.

Other than that I think its a decent piece and shows your potential. I like the color arrangement you chose, well done. Darken and blend and you’ll be set. Nice work man. keep posting your progress.

[Author]

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