sparrow
work in progress…
basic lettering for tattoos, script
I do not know enough about lettering to call myself any kind of expert.
seriously. (check out some of my art with lettering in it for verification of that)
I am sometimes shaky, I am often confused by fonts, and although I have done thousands of tattoos with text in them, I still struggle with the forms and shapes. I owe the little I DO know about lettering to B.J. Betts, who is well-known in tattooing as a real expert on this stuff- he has some books out, if you are a professional tattoo artist you should keep your eyes peeled for them and buy them. (but if you work in a shop or have been around a while you already own all his stuff…)
I learned to do lettering before I ever heard of his work- the way I learned was through calligraphy, and through sign painting. A combination of those things and Betts’s work has formed my meager abilities.
Here’s a walk through on drawing this stuff. If you’re a tattooer you will naturally make the proper adjustments to the text as you go in order to make it applicable to skin, so I won’t be explaining the precise tech needed for that. If you just want to add a tattoo to a painting, a drawing, if you are not a tattoo artist you can use this how-to to make script lettering … or if you are doodling reference for your tattoo artist to build you a tattoo from, you can do this to give them an idea of what you’re after.
This is a step-by-step for script, cursive lettering in a slanted style in which the letters are connected.
I will post a separate one for block or stylized lettering next.
My tools:
Liquid acrylic ink,
fountain pen
(with round nib- just what I prefer)
colored pencil
(for beginning sketch/marking symmetry)
standard black #2 pencil
tracing paper, paper that is easy for ink lines
(I am using a scrap of srches hotpress here)
The rest of the steps, after the jump.
time-lapse painting
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YSrNNQ9kkAg&w=420&h=315]time lapse video- this is older but still fun to see.
ok, ok. The story of Ed Kemper (with his mother).
- In art, morbid art, pictures, stuff for sale, true stories,
Ed Kemper was a large man. He spent most of his life in very small spaces.
He was, unlike many killers, more than willing to openly discuss both his crimes and his feelings about them. Unlike most, he did not pretend to innocence or argue his liability. He also spoke freely about the urges he felt, and their origins.
“When I see a pretty girl walking down the street, I think two things: one part of me wants to take her home, be real nice and treat her right; the other part wonders what her head would look like on a stick.”
He was fifteen when he killed his grandparents. He said that he had killed his grandmother “to see what it felt like”; also, he was angry at them because they had taken away his rifle. Most killers will try to justify a crime, by giving reasons they think anyone might have done it. Kemper quite openly admitted that curiosity about killing, and simple anger, were his main reasons for the killing. He then killed his grandfather, as well, most likely to prevent retribution or further punishment. It was also a way for him to leave the living situation, as he disliked living with them.
“…my grandmother who thought she had more balls than any man and was constantly emasculating me and my grandfather to prove it. I couldn’t please her. It was like being in jail. I became a walking time bomb and I finally blew. “
He was imprisoned for these killings until he was 21. During his confinement, he was diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic and tested with a fairly high IQ. He was an intelligent person- but his mind was a bit broken. Whether the diagnosis of PS was accurate or not (diagnostics at that time did not recognize sociopathy or ASPD as proper diagnoses) could be questioned. (He is currently being treated for paranoid schizophrenia.)
He went to live with his mother when he was released.
This was probably a bad idea.
yay!
- In art, clients, events, morbid art, motivation, oregon living, other media, pictures,
one of my most adorable clients is sitting half across the room in front of me, listening to the band. “tonight’s about Anji Marth, that’s her decadent decay on the walls! it gives me a hardon, does it give you one?!” the singer on stage yells.
my cute, perky, completely normal client turns around beaming, and in the silent pause shouts in a wee, happy voice- “I LOVE TO FUCK DEAD PEOPLE!”
at an earlier moment in the evening, a jolly young man with absolutely no warning fell flat from his chair onto his back, cracking his head flatly, and lying completely unresponsive in the center of the table area. “is he dead?” someone asked. people gathered around, cradling his head, talking at him. someone has died at my art opening! visions of infamy danced wildly before my eyes until he arose, bleary. he was led to a safer chair and left with friends shortly afterward, crushing my daydreams.
I had a conversation with electro hippies in fluorescent green fur hats about craft fairs, moderation in party times, and mentoring the young in a scene. I spoke with a woman who has done the Saturday market for 34 years running and who enjoyed the contrast between my work and the landscape artist next door. I also spoke intently to a man with a fear of spiders, a man who was in love with “galore” (the boar head mount) and a woman who was fascinated and repelled but wanted to know all about bone processing.
I had a great night. I also saw some old friends long missing from my real life, spent a bit of time with a good old friend I miss every day. and of course, enjoyed the gentlemanly presence and aplomb of Hawkins.
all in all, except for my crankiness from fatigue, an excellent night.
my work will be on display all month at the speakeasy. I’ll be back there on the 9th to bring a few more prints and listen to the excellent Mendozza … thanks everyone who helped make tonight happen and everyone who came out to support or buy my work.
get your own tree from me!
I’m doing commission trees right now, if you’ve liked the trees I’ve been posting.
email me at resonanteye at gmail dot com, to get one!
You pick the colors (up to 3) and the species, and whether you want roots,trunk, or branches to be the focus of the artwork. The one pictured here is a pink and grey oak…with the trunk the main focus. right now I’ll do a 9×12″ for under a hundred dollars- larger sizes, or full sized trees, may be more.
I’m looking forward to making these; I love drawing trees.
morning glory show over!
thanks to everyone that bought some art! I’ll be listing the pieces that didn’t sell yet over on etsy today, so if you saw something you liked but didn’t get it, you might get a second chance.
here’s a few pictures of them, to tide you over until I post some more bones and things.
some flowers
- In art, artwork, other media, pictures,
prismacolor/tinted paper
tattoo pictures tomorrow!
harpy
- In art, caveman art, pictures,
There’s a story that goes with these, maybe sometime I’ll post it here. For now, I’ll just put up a picture of the progress on this one.
my daily routine.
I have two separate routines for work. it depends whether I am having a tattoo-studio day or a home-studio day.
if I’m working at the shop, I wake around ten or eleven and lay around like a slug until it’s time to rush to work. I arrive, drink coffee, plan out my hours. talk to clients. clean my inks off or monkey with a machine until “real work” shows up. I leave right after the shop closes for the day. I usually don’t do any other art on these days; working on commission is draining (satisfying though!)
if I’m not going in to the shop, I wake up late, noon or one. I have coffee and laze around a little.then eat, and start looking over the mess I left the previous day. usually I will have something drying and ready to be worked over a little more. so I pick up where I left off. at some point I’ll reach a moment where everything is tacky. then I start something new…I work a little, stop and stare. smoke, have a sandwich and more coffee.
a lot of times I’ll just get in the car and go exploring, searching for objects or supplies, detritus. things that make me feel creative. it’s a lot of walking along the river or the side of the road.
I work until very late at night when I’m doing my own art. I’ll stay up until the birds are talking. sometimes I work all night and into the next day. coffee is my friend. this happens a lot more in the winter. I tend to have a very hard time waking up in the mornings, it’s always been that way.
of course I spend about two months each year “on the road”; I can’t call it a vacation because I usually am tattooing just about that whole time- I don’t like not working anyway. but when I travel I have no routine at all, and when I return it takes me a while to get back in rhythm with my schedules and routines at home.
