some works from the archives.

These are the more popular things I’ve made available as prints over the last few years. They’re not all my own personal favorite pieces, but they’ve gotten the most attention and love from you guys. I think collecting them together here might give me some clues about what you all like so much, maybe.

Also I won’t be posting for a few days as we’ll be celebrating solstice here, but I’ll be back right after, on the 23rd. xox

“Down with the Ship”
This was a piece of tattoo flash I did as part of a series, and people really seem to like the sideways lighthouse in it. I did it at 11×14″ in watercolor, and did the linework with a nib pen and ink. The original sold and the prints have sold a lot too, I don’t often draw ships but I think I did a decent job on this one. You can still get some sizes of prints of this, here.

vjhbh

 

“Einstein”

I did a little contest on my facebook asking people to tell me the funniest story about someone falling down. My friend Tiny told a great story, and was the winner. The prize was a portrait of anyone famous they liked, they’d get to keep the original art. He chose Einstein, and man was he fun to draw. Lots of people seem to like this one. I tried to give him nice gentle eyes. Yes, there are still prints of him. I did this one at 8×12″ in colored pencil.

ein

 

“Red Highway”

The original of this, I gave to a collector of my work. It was a 10×13″ watercolor. Of all the landscapes I’ve done, people seem to be most interested in this one. Maybe it’s all that hot dawn cloud color. I’m not sure.

reda

 

“Dahlia with Dice”

Of all my still life work, this one gets the most attention. Maybe it’s the format, that high vertical? It was originally a 12×16″ watercolor painting. The prints of this one are popular and I’ve made a few handmade runs of it, as well as the open edition prints.

EPSON MFP image

 

“River Otter”

A lot of you guys love the animal totem series, and this guy is the crowd favorite. He’s a little more simple than some of the others, so I think a lot of people just really, really like otters. Colored pencil on handmade tinted paper, 8×12″.

ott

 

“Weeping Doll”

I’ve done handpainted prints of her. The original sold as soon as it was finished. I’ve redone the entire image twice and both reproductions by hand sold immediately. And the open edition prints…people really like this beat-up old doll. She’s pretty melacholy. It’s originally a 10×13″ watercolor on hotpress.

EPSON MFP image

 

Then, there’s “Shy Owl”. The most popular of them all. Due to the buyer of the original schmoozing me out of open edition printing, (I was an idiot and won’t be doing that so cheaply ever, EVER again) there are only cards available of this guy. Every print I did make of it, that limited amount, sold instantly. People email me asking for a print all the time. I’d be at least a few hundred dollars richer if I’d never said I’d only make a few prints of him.
An expensive lesson.

I'll never give up my reproduction rights so cheaply ever ever again.

I’ll never give up my reproduction rights so cheaply ever ever again.

 

process photos, owl and quince.

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tattoos from seattle in september! (and other things)

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11951279_10153168436387712_1654153991962033826_n 11914899_10153166643642712_1010910694078209739_n 11986475_10153168436562712_4580262192042195960_n12003186_10153191402517712_507195012565086690_n11988676_10153190363882712_6277351227102608234_n

seriously I take a lot of notes. there's also reference images you brought me, loose doodles that get abandoned because they won't fit right, and all the other people's packets of this stuff piled nearby so I can do each drawing in order.

finished massive flash sheets, ear weights from this month.

22x30" sheet of flash for tattoos, I did this to bring to the evergreen convention.

22×30″ sheet of flash for tattoos, I did this to bring to the evergreen convention.

22x30" sheet of flash for tattoos, I did this to bring to the evergreen convention.

22×30″ sheet of flash for tattoos, I did this to bring to the evergreen convention.

new set, these are for sale at laughing buddha in seattle. 7/16" saba wood with oak and nut dangling on silk wrapping.

new set, these are for sale at laughing buddha in seattle. 7/16″ saba wood with oak and nut dangling on silk wrapping.

set I'm working on- 1/2" saba wood with glass, oak, and maple beads, silk threadwrapping, and copper-wrapped hand polished agates.

set I’m working on- 1/2″ saba wood with glass, oak, and maple beads, silk threadwrapping, and copper-wrapped hand polished agates.

on any given tuesday

DSC_0430Sometimes I like the small, simple tattoos the best.
I also did some more painting today.
Now I’m off for a week- I’ll be posting a few articles and some art, too.

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making gigantic sheets of flash.

1959412_10152705788832712_1722891796360266568_nSince I’ll be working a convention in early March, I’ve been going through all my unused sketches, drawings, tattoo flash collection, and sketchpads and assembling some big sheets of flash to bring along. I want to make it possible for people to look around at a bunch of things and pick something; to let people be spontaneous, and to give them ideas. So I’ve been doing this rather than putting a ton of smaller drawings in books to flip through.

These big sheets are pretty common in tattooing. We call them porkchop sets or pick and sticks, flash wallpaper. When a tattoo artist wants to do a bunch of small-to-medium sized things in a short time, they’ll often be using a sheet like this for people to choose a design from. You can see them pretty often when shops do a friday the 13th sale, or events similar to that.

(if you like something you see, hit me up at the evergreen convention. I’ll have these with me and be ready to roll! or email me, too.)

six free pages to color!

EPSON MFP imageIn the spirit of giving, here are some print-size images for you guys to download and color! These are imperfect scans of six pages from the Horrors; I figured a lot of folks have bought the book and many more would probably love to just color in a few pages.  Click any image to find a full-sized version for printing.

(although you’re missing out on 22 other creatures, and the text that goes with them all!You can get the full book here if you’d like the complete experience.) Enjoy, and feel free to share!

mandorlas

I prefer this shape to the commonly-seen circular mandala art. These are for clients, please don’t steal them/get them tattooed, ask your artist to draw one that’s different, just for you.

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15 books that will change the way you tattoo (for the better)

owlbooksThere are a lot of great books on art out there, and I’m bound to miss a lot in my list. These are just books I have found incredibly helpful in my work, and which I refer to often.

These are not books of reference images (although I did come up in the time before google images took over, and every shop had its own reference library on site…I still can’t part with all those books!)

These are, instead, books about art in general, about art techniques, or about being an artist that I think apply very well to tattooing. If you have favorites that I do not list, please add a comment and link me to them! I read voraciously and love to find new sources of knowledge.

At least a few of these are free on kindle/ebooks, most are cheap, one or two are pricey, all are available and not rare.

 

An artist is not paid for his labor but for his vision.
To say to the painter that Nature is to be taken as she is, is to say to the player that he may sit on the piano.
~J. M. Whistler

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The Horrors, page 14: The Ilomba

EPSON MFP image

 

 

Ilomba is a sea snake with destructive powers in the mythology of the Lozi people of Zambia. It is provided by a witch doctor. Usually it is fed with eggs and porridge in the morning. It takes on the identity of the person that owns it. If it is killed, the owner feels the pain, and then dies. If the owner dies, it dies. The only way it can be destroyed is through the witch doctor.

~wikipedia

 It appears as a regular seasnake to normal people but on the desired target it has the head of it’s creator. …The eyes of the Ilomba paralyses the victim with fear and bites it sucking the blood and devouring its soul that makes the Ilomba double in size. The sorcerer or witchdoctor collects these souls to use as zombies.

http://fuckyeahafricanmythology.tumblr.com

The ilomba comes from Zambia, but is known here and there throughout Africa. It looks like a normal snake to most people. Only its victim sees its true nature. It’s made by a sorceror, whose face it will have when it attacks. It not only sucks the blood from its victim, but also their soul.

In this image a woman walks through a group of snakes, one of which is the ilomba. The fact that snakes are common in Zambia makes this tale all the more frightening- at any time you could be right next to one of these creatures and not even know it. Like many other monsters in mythology, it hides in plain sight. The ilomba may be created by a sorceror, but it is not ruled by one. The person who makes an ilomba must feed it, by directing it to other people to devour them. Without blood or souls, the ilomba turns on its creator, killing them both. And if an Ilomba is killed, its creator also dies.

(All this and more about the ilomba, in my book!)

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