I’m getting some ink done of a cartoonish pre-amp tube (12ax7 for those guitarists out there) with wings…
It’s getting done on my lower leg starting from about my ankle going up about 12.5cm (~5ish inches)
I’ve settled on one of three “styles” for the wings –
Sort of “down”
Sort of “straight”
Sort of “up”
I’ve done a few mockups on my leg where its going, i’ve almost ruled out the “up” one – it pushes the size of the tatt too big vertically… its not a bad size horizontally, I dont really want it to wrap right around my calf… a bit past the middle front and back wouldnt be bad…
The good thing about the down version is it fills up my calf nicely… but im not sure if i can get the detail remain purely coz the canvas is too full…
going by the golden ratio it should be about 6ish cm wide – I can fit both the straight out and down nicely into this size…
Thoughts?
Hi personally for a calf I would go for the down drop wings which can be reduced without too much detail loss if size is an issue.
The up wings would require a wrap to make to do them justice (which you do not want) and the small straight ones always seem a little cartoony or feminine to me (this is just a personal taste thing).
Good luck with the ink.
Take Care
Matthew
The up wings would require a wrap to make to do them justice (which you do not want) and the small straight ones always seem a little cartoony or feminine to me (this is just a personal taste thing).
Good luck with the ink.
Take Care
Matthew
Heya Matthew…
Perhaps I should have said I didnt want to overcrowd the area rather than the detail loss comment… but i agree the down dropping appeal most…
Colouring is the other dilemma I’m facing… The main part of the valve will be quite red with glowing orange shading coming away from the main filaments… i want the glass sections of the valve to be greyscale shaded in a 3-d like effect unsure what to do with the wings… i’m not keen on the reddish tints to the wings images i posted above as i think that it will blend too much with the main parts…
ideas?
Cheers
Hey mate,
The only reason the wings have that reddish taint is because the photos were taken shortly after the tattoo was done. Nearly all new black and grey tattoos have a reddish-brown tinge to them due to the abuse (lost for a better word) of the skin.
As for the amp, I’m not too sure what it looks like. I’ve got a guitar collection myself and a pretty sweet amp, but I haven’t played professionally for quite a while now.
The only reason the wings have that reddish taint is because the photos were taken shortly after the tattoo was done. Nearly all new black and grey tattoos have a reddish-brown tinge to them due to the abuse (lost for a better word) of the skin.
As for the amp, I’m not too sure what it looks like. I’ve got a guitar collection myself and a pretty sweet amp, but I haven’t played professionally for quite a while now.
I know that the red taint is there coz they’re fresh… my original thought was to have the valve’s glow radiate onto them – so they would kinda look like that…
pics of the valve below (should have put this in the first one sorry)
The silvered top shown in the linked image wont really be that evident as i want the backside of the top to have a bit of shading to show the 3-d tubular / conical form of it… also its not really going to be that lifelike – imagine that crossed with a cartoony vibe like this sparkplug i found on outlaw tattoo
my scanner is stuffed otherwise i would have posted up a few of my roughs… ill scan and post it up went i get to work tomorrow morning… — better idea apologies for the poor photo and poor sketch but –
i like the idea of calf wings, bit like that greek god, with the golden wings on his shoes, personally my favourite wing design isnt included in your top three, i like more of a battleaxe-head design with the starting point, centered and the wings going up as much as they are going down,
Hermes?
onto the other bit – battleaxe-head – can you please elaborate on this? got any pics? this sounds good for what i want to get out of this… i’ve also started to consider more of a tattered worn leather-y gargoyle-esque set of wings…
My artist Zoe has delayed the tatt until the 20th of Feb – needs more drawing time with some of the additional ideas i’ve come up with and found online… we have a catch up end of next week to go over some ideas she is working on and to see if i come up with anything else…
I have had a moment of clarity and have developed a plan so cunning i could put a tail on it and call it a weasel! Unfortunately i can draw / photochop to save myself but I now have some alarmingly good reference material for my design including an MRI cat scanny dealie as below
Originally the main reason for the wings around the valve is that I wanted something that I could have to blend into future leg work also in the interim it makes it more of a 1/2 leg rather than just a single little tatt floating on my leg… The replacement item for the wings is some halo-eqsue beams of light as below… What are these called? i couldnt find a heap of clear examples of what i meant… my googlefu failed me…
so the rest of the re-evaluated design will be – (main part remains relatively unchanged but there are 3 details still up for grabs…)
note – this is the MRI shot – main parts will be black / greyscale…
First thing up for grabs is the logo –
Once again the TAD will be replaced by ROJ – and the rest of the writing will be ignored
OR
The little black logo in the bottom left hand corner is a hamfisted re-working of the original RCA logo – meant to say ROJ but i suck at that sort of thing…
and will be placed in the same sorta spot as the first one…
Last thing still to be decided is just how much glow / colour to put into it… the photo above is a very realistic amount of glow – the original picture i had in my head however had the flames of hell contained within!
Originally the main reason for the wings around the valve is that I wanted something that I could have to blend into future leg work also in the interim it makes it more of a 1/2 leg rather than just a single little tatt floating on my leg… The replacement item for the wings is some halo-eqsue beams of light as below… What are these called? i couldnt find a heap of clear examples of what i meant… my googlefu failed me…
so the rest of the re-evaluated design will be – (main part remains relatively unchanged but there are 3 details still up for grabs…)
note – this is the MRI shot – main parts will be black / greyscale…
First thing up for grabs is the logo –
Once again the TAD will be replaced by ROJ – and the rest of the writing will be ignored
OR
The little black logo in the bottom left hand corner is a hamfisted re-working of the original RCA logo – meant to say ROJ but i suck at that sort of thing…
and will be placed in the same sorta spot as the first one…
Last thing still to be decided is just how much glow / colour to put into it… the photo above is a very realistic amount of glow – the original picture i had in my head however had the flames of hell contained within!
oops – I edited it… pics should show now
As they say in the movies… Watch this space…
After 3 long weeks from booking in and finishing the design its now t-15 hours and counting… I dropped off some more reference material and had a look a half a dozen different layouts and setups yesterday… little bit of scope creep but nothing too hardcore… I swapped out the wings – If it was going me as a full back piece it would have worked – but i really dont want to use up too much skin – I have 80% of the full leg already mapped out 😉
am bringing a mate along to take some photos during it so I should have some good shots to share…If i dont log on by this time tomorrow night with shots it really turned to shit and ill be drunk in a gutter
am SO FUCKING EXCITED!!! m/
All done – so happy with the result… she gave me the option of going back in a month or so and adding a red wash over the black rays… dunno if im gunna yet, ill wait to see how it heals…
Was my first tatt and i really enjoyed the experience… the pain thing was weird didnt hurt as much as i thought it was going to but the back of the legs hurt alot more than the bone-y bit of my ankle…
after forgetting being told to sleep on crappy sheets i then went onto ruin a fancy 500 tc $90 sheet set 😉
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