26 April 2011

Sunny Days and Treats

I was working away on the newest tattoo design and thought it was about time I posted a little bit on my work process, just in case anyone is interested in how it all works.

It all starts with an email from a client who will let me know what they want and if they have any inspirational images etc to put me on the right track.
Then I do research, hunting the net for various images and ideas, I'll also take a lot of notes, some of which end up totally impossible to decipher!
I'll then do a load of (very) rough sketches.

My many notebooks that I need to keep track of notes and work






Some research & sketches




My box of supplies. When I'm working on a triskele or celtic inspired design I'll always have these books nearby for inspirtation.


From this point I'll start putting together a few finished designs to get ready to send to the client, usually I'll finish up between 5 & 8 designs for consideration.



These are the first few designs I did for Dan, he wanted a triskele with thorns and thicker lines than I usually work with. We're only on the first round so we'll see how it goes from there.

Thats pretty much how it goes - round and round til we get to a final design and I draw it all up in Illustrator, so I will post that side of the process when Dan and I have worked together to get the right design for him.

Here is another few sketches I did for previous clients:








I really enjoy working this way, I get to know my client a bit and we get the design 100% right to suit them. It's great, especially when the weather's been as nice as it has this week. I love sitting in the sun and thinking about designing, as long as I haven't been hit by a block!

I will eventually draw all my sketches up digitally, I just need to get commissions out the way first. I did some last night and added them to the website and this morning I got up nice and early and did some more work to the site. I added another gallery where folk can now see my designs for sale. I figured I had so many of them sitting in my sketchbooks unloved and not getting any attention, I should really "digitally remaster" them and sell them.

I'v been listening to Swan Lake and Adele recently to fuel my designing and arty thoughts, its been a real help ! Got lots of plans and ideas to start printing and selling my designs on bags and other things. For some advice in this adventure into the unknown I emailed the lovely ladies at Made In The Shade in Glasgow. I got a lovely reply from Carrie encouraging and inspiring me to keep going with my work, I've stuck it to the front of my workbook so I'll always read it as soon as I open it =D Thanks Carrie! You can visit their beautiful shop here. Lots of pretty things to buy to make you feel even happier in the sunny weather!

Thats all from me just now, Thanks for reading
Daisy*B


12 April 2011

Tattoo Geekery!

and its time for me to start getting my act together!

First lets get a few of tattoos out the way that I've found on the net and love. Apologies if I haven't mentioned who or where they came from, but just to clarify these images are not mine!
The theme for this little feature is Nerd tattoos/Fan Art. As a self confessed Nerd I felt the need to collect a few comic, movie and computer games images to show the devotion some folk have to their favourite passtimes! Here we go...


Duck hunt was an amazing game and always made me jealous of any of my friends who had the Nes http://youtu.be/x-daxzVxrQI




One thing I could never get my head round... special moves! I, I'm proud to say... am a button basher and as such was hated by my brother when it came to a game of Street Fighter, Mortal Combat or Tekken!


My favourite game of all time, Bioshock!


Moving on, some amazing comic fan art tattoos. Some of the colour used in these tattoos is incredible! Wonder Woman has to be my favourite...












And now for a tribute to Batman, my favourite comic character!










And other Batty Characters...







And the best villain of all...

This is just an amazing piece, the colour and resemblance is perfect!


And now for one of my favourites. I'm a massive fan of Lord of the Rings, both the movies and books. I also have an Evenstar tattoo myself, but this is just stunning!



Thats it for the tattoos folks. Now for a wee bit of blabbing :D From now on I will definitely be blogging here about all my work, not just tattoos. I've decided to this because I want to branch out with my tattoos and design work. I want to start screen printing my designs onto various products and to sell them and hopefully build a business out of it.
So from now on this blog will be where I post everything, my designs, my products and my experience and adventures into the world of starting my own business. Soon I hope to have a few things up online to sell and I've given myself until christmas/New Year to get some things together so I can make my way to a craft stall. I also hope to get more presence etc online and get working on it as much as I can to get myself out there and noticed. I just hope it works out!

Wish me luck and Thanks for reading
Daisy*B
xXx