A shell of your former self - painting

A shell of your former self, well.
i guess is your former self is a monster, somewhere between the transformation, you developed a third eye, maybe.. enlightemnet?
creatures, i love to paint them, incorperated some rock formations i wish i could see again from colorado
who knows, maybe thats when i she my shell.

thought of the title this time before the painting, enjoyed the outcome, and working towards a goal, seemed more organized.
im thinking about something "into the fray" the descent of how great my life has gotten, but how absolutely shitty i feel.

werewolf tattoo

Werewolf head on a stick, tattoo, upper arm full color,full moon, i thought of this as arather unusual tattoo, if it was asked by anyone else but this girl, who is super rad, BTW.
awesome client, awesome tattoo, these days make my life worth living. drawing provided :O

BIG sculpture ~ video!

Sculpture my boss asked me to take a picture of, so i took a video, because pictures are flat, and vidoes give you dimension in time and space. helping most viewers understand it more, whov never met it atleast, its 7 ft tall, and weights more then 250 lbs.
hopeing to get this into the shop, it sturred alot of attention at the last place i was at, i can only see it being a positive experience for the holy mackerel.

Full skull backpiece B&G

This client is what makes my job, i do whatever i want whenever i want on him, one day i decided to start a back piece, super random, i knew he wanted a little time off his sleeves, so here we are, 2 sessons in. no linework yet, all done with number 8 needle 33 CURVED MAGS.
good progress for 8 hours :)

CAUSE art show #19

WAY more stoked on this then i should be!
first real art shopw, featureing a bunch of older work iv done, just a cool atmopshere.

MP5 Ribcage Skull-pture

31x16in 23 lb sculpture i made off a wood pannel and some shit i had laying around, finally feeling like i dont need it anymore, this ill put it up for sale/ figured id update it to add to my portfolio of shit

i was inspired to create art with a gun in it, because i love them :D
tattoodavid@gmail.com for any inquirys

Skull Rose chest tattoo

Photo i threw up on my instagram, decided to put it on my blog too.
Skull with roses and some 1911's on the side reading FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS, this guys a year in the making, the client isnt too regular, but hes a good guy.

robot painting tribute to the HOLY MACKEREL shop im now working at,
high bridge of saint paul in the background, the fish is supposed to have his little fins togeather sort of praying, and the light on the robot, silowetting the mackerel, causeing a snapshot moment of a halo,
piearcing jewlery claws for mr robot because verno~ the owner doese that.
so, a few elements meaning things, totally unlike most of my work, LOL

still dig it, hope they do too

Galaxy space star and heart hand tattoo

 Random duder came in and got this after seeing my work, pretty stoked to put a high caliber tattoo on the first volleyball swing towards the client.  the star isnt the jewish stat eaither, i guess its from the band tool? reguardless, it was a 2 pass tattoo because of size, and, i guess galaxys just need that extra go-over to make sure the motiony cloudyness is detailed enough to look like its in space.

heart with leaves and branches i did on my mexican freind. shes rad, and i never know what shes saying. also a 2 sessioner, might make 2 out of it to try the nick baxter layering affect, who knows :)

Reaper- Skull Coverup

so, this guy likes paul booth, alot. like, thats the reason why he ever even started getting tattooed from me.
thanks to awesome customer service, this is the large outer shell of his upper arm, which will become a sleeve of black and grey torment, like the artist paul booth usually depicts.
cant say i like doing black and grey to coverup tattoos, but i made it work.

2 sessions later, today its looking pretty snazzy.

Meeting again for the first time - Painting

Meeting again for the first time.

let it tell you your own story.
acrylic, 16in x 40in

i got really frustrated on how much time this painting commanded,
i went against my usual care free way of doing things, and it became to precious to me, so progress went slow. still a cool one tho :)

leave a comment on what you think

Same picture as on my instagram, but its a graveyard spooky haloweenish peice, so festive for when i did it!
the linework and composition of this peice was more then 4 years old, so i had to do some reworking to be happy with it as well.

Glow Worm

Finally finished the glow work painting, took 2 monday paint nights to complete.
pretty happy with the depth,  and how everything blurs back as it goes further away, dark in front, light in back, 3 light sources, because im a whore.

another coverup...

Coverup/rework im doing on my buddy shawn...
hes getting both of his arm sleeves reworked and coveredup by me

he really has no direction then a good side and a bad side..
so most of this, also to make it work, is me applying technical/creative thought

 

First real upload from the new job.

this girl wanted to represent character in her pinup, with one of her favorit activitys:

rock climbing,  fun tattoo, cool client. win-win

6 Years of painting, PROGRESION (18 images)

current - 2012 humanoid with lantern

 

2012 - creature face guy, i guess i just like faces.

 

 

The pondering creature, is he inspecting? or eating?

you decide,  early 2012

 

early 2012, reminds me of 'the thing' morphy creature kabob

 

  

early 2012, skull, i painted sort of like a landscape to show more depth

and restricted my black usage

 

 

Skull face cover-y guy... late 2011

i dont know where this one was going, but i whipped it out pretty quick

 

 Skully skull, late 2011 as well.

 

 

ZOMBIE PIG! BECAUSE!

late 2011

 

early/mid 2011, still not happy.

organic/ mechanical humanoid

 early 2011, apparently i wasnt happen then

                                another biomechanical run, 2010, i was really peaking my interest in this style around then.... also covering my arms with the work

 

PINK FACE!

2010 i let the paint tell me what shapes to make, first run at letting go of controll...

not being so anal,its just a painting.

 

2010 four eyed skull, trying to play round with a better way to intigrade red into a black and grey peice, because every chump wants to throw red in theyr black and grey tattoos, instead of smooth it in

 

Another emotionally strung piece, a bad idea symbolized as a demon (because theyr just fun to paint/draw) prodding at the brain of a masked human, as the hand melds into the face/ me.. trying to symbolze unity between them.

2010

 

2009, gave up airbrush, and tryed another run of acryslic, you can see the lack of controlll, needed to add in lines, hah.

 

2009, last real doccumented airbrush peice that i havent sold off

medusa, used fishnet to create her scales.

apparently i figured she should be more beast-ie

 

First real airbrush run, i couldnt really figure out lines to well, so i took the tattoo artist traditional method of cakeing them over everything. sort of a diffrent look, but i think i gave up airbrush for the last of controll, and the needy cleanup mess.

2009

 

 2006, "your words like sowrds"

emotional quick strung piece on the cardboard backing of a over-sized sketchbook

First day of a new job :)
excite.

 

Between jobs right now, getting ready for my first sleeve outline at THE HOLY MACKEREL.

physodellic/ medaphore galore sleeve on my freind tucker.

not included: city with asteroids raining down on it, with a sky full of hammer head sharks, and a third eye alex grey creature with grabby hands

And.. everything else (11 photos that cant fit into catagorys)

 

So, biomech axe leg.

for a big mouthed Christopher walkins impersonation client who makes me cry with laughter when i tattoo him =)

 

King of hearts inner arm wrap for a half sleeve

 

I wanted to showcase this one bigger, because everybody seems to get a kick out of it :D especially me.

 

 

Baphomot chest peice, she sat like a champ.

 

 

flower transforming into rib peice, she brought in a photo that i customized and changed into a more

bird aspect of things

 

 

Hah, so this was this dudes, first tattoo.

Dragon vs phoenix, all the patience and understanding in the world ..

i wish all first time tattoo clients were like him.

see if you can find his kids innitals in the picture :P

 

BOOBS! BEWBS B00BS BUBS!

 

 

Self explaitory color peice... cool guy, cool girl.

awesome clients.

 

 

I think this one 2nd or 3rd place in mens large color for the 2012 tattoo you...

i dont remember, but this dude was the shit to tattoo, understanding, punctual, and had a crazy ass scar from his leg being broken into way too many places on his foot (incase you didnt know by looking, this is a outer lower leg tattoo)

 

 

Evil ass maro plants. win.

and, no i didnt to the hello kitty... this is transforming as a sleeve as i type.

LOL! still love this...

self explaitory.

Faces/Portraits

 

This is sort of a older piece... but franky has a place in my heart <3

 

First shot at a color portrait. a coverup of tribal green booger-ness is in her hair. arm sleeve

 

did this on my buddy ben, he tags horrible things across the city :)

priest portrait i sort of winged, keeping to the original wasn't what i wanted to do, recreations are boring for creative people.

 

Cheshire cat, this girl was a screaming mess the whole time, but was awesome enough to let me tattoo this on her

 

this client builds off road jeep buggy things, yeah, fuck you urban ford drivers with your lifted scratch free American hoorahh gas guzzling product consumer whore vehicles.