Digital concept sketch

tormented prisoner dark ART by DAVID Ekstrom

Digital concept creature face sketch i did whole on the phone for about 5 hours recently, was pretty stoked how it came out, starting to enjoy the ipad and the sketchbook pro (which is the app i used and apparently prefer) with one of those "stylist" pens or whatever, regurdless, pretty fun, no idea what the web stuff was around the tormented looking guy, whos, not too happy apparently in his prison of spider web collar-y bondage

"spooky" haloween arm sleeve tattoo

Spooky Girl AMY K's Halloween Pumpkin night time arm sleeve tattoo by DAVID Ekstrom

"spooky" Halloween arm sleeve i did on the wonderful Amy K, it was a total pleasure tattooing this woman, she was so well mannered, and easy to get along with, one of those clients that makes being a tattooer worth it, this was taken  INDOORS after the final "go though" so this is florescent lighting people -___- i fucking hate florescent lighting for tattoos, much-less a sleeve, it was dark by 4-5pm at the holy mackerel by the time i wanted to take pictures, so i was forced too inside, stupid, indoor, light... blah!

regardless, starting from bottom up, around her wrist, were some ghosts and candy corn and bats and stars, by some other artist, i mainly left them alone, did a little blending, then, huge crow, some pumpkins, because everyone loves jack-o-lanterns :D mossy gravestone with a crow, spooky skeleton roaming the graveyard at night spooky pink mouth tree, whose apparently angry, probably because of all the bats flying around, and yeah, generic scary full moon in the background showing the hills of the buried dead. pretty stoked on this tattoo, like i said, mad props to Amy, she was awesome to work with, learned a lot doing this

creature oil painting, and collaberative

monster concept art painting progress by DAVID Ekstrom

 A little before after of a creature i drew on beforehand with marker,  fix-offed, and acrylic matte sealed the marker below, and used oils over the top, one session, one "layer" so to say, could probably benefit from another layer, but im calling it done, still highly enjoy painting creatures, monsters, and all of the like. I get a "genie" feel from this guy, maybe something about his "i know something, that you might not know" grin, and his "third eye" could pass as like, a eye-Gem thing, his round head sort of in a turban shape as well... hrm.. gotta love creativity

Biomech abstract collaborative painting with Jeff Marek, and David Ekstrom

had my ex co-worker and friend over for some collaborative oil painting action, we used the same procedure as above, but with charcoal instead of marker, because its easier to erase, i mainly worked the left side, as Jeff mainly worked the right, we did switch it up here and there, a good exorcise, even if i dont end up completing a bunch, i always feel like i walk away with something new when i do collaborative paintings, of, and the abstract form of biomech, which id say me and Jeff are not noobys at, is probably the best criteria for the sort of stuff, or just general things tattooers are into, maybe a half and half skull next time, who knows,

Skull Backpeice digital sketch

Skull back-tattoo concept digital art

was actually drawing this as a distraction as i was getting my own backpeice tattooed, skull backpeice digital sketch on sketchbookpro... first official digital painting iv ever really tried, the mirror capability is how i designed most of this, felt like it was appropriate to share, definitely a learning experience, hoping to design a few tattoos this way, especially symmetrical ones, because you can see it develop as you go.

" Two of a Pear "--- acrylic Painting

"Two of a Pear" - acrylic by David Ekstrom

"Two of a Pear"

probally my biggest painting, 24x48 in, stands almost up to my armpit on its side,
started this with no direction whatsoever, other then admireing the clouds in the sky, and the fun shapes they had, i have something for rocks.... rock formationsare just really fucking cool to me for some reason, so, quickly blocked out most of the background, and moved in to the left snake lady from there...
knowing my character would be a foreground imag, i sort of wanted to add a sense of depth with her moveing back into the background,

the general composition of this painting was paised to bring your eye to the center, the burning plumb, mainly because the painting these are going around are bot facing this on either side, drawing you into this painting when you look at those ones, sort of like a comic book's panels move your eyes though the comic book, opposed to making them work to get to each panel, which would feel, unsuccessful to your eyes, and make it harder to read. or at least thats what the teacher mentioned vaguely at MCAD.

the second snake lady was added, then i needed them to be looking at something, i have no idea why i came across a pear apparently being a good idea, but i did, hrm, because this painting lacks green? like so much of my work already, i think i have a grudge against green.

probally could have done another burning pear, or a few, the bottom left corner with the super upfront rocks could have had something in it, but i started this painting mid summer, and finished it NOW, around fall, just got super sidetracked a bunch...

really liked what was going on so i forced myself to finish it.

hope this long description doesnt take away from the art, let your brain make up your own story, i think thats the best part about things like this.

Oni mask

Oni \ Hannya mask-- sketches

ripped this off my Instagram, low rez pictures because its a drawing, apparently people steal, I DON'T KNOW JUST TRUST EVERYTHING YOU READ ON THE INTERNET.

anyway:

from left to right, my brain:
marker drawing, i love oni masks, i tattooed on on my right thigh, whole top, their like skulls, but form demons, and the Japanese samurai wore then when they butchered people? sounds awesome.
anyway, excitement drawing, markers, blending a tan and a brown, keeping it wet and moving the ink around, almost like a painting,  left it, came back, realized my proportions suck,

puppet-warped it in cs5? 6? whatever, if you dont know what puppet warp is, and your a visual artist, it saves your ass, re valued the proportions, and drew over it, so i could trace the original oni mask size printed out onto the upper right tracing paper.

and finally the  original tattoo, to size, photo taken at angle, BEKUZ ARTZ N SHITZ
but the size literally came down 20% from the original line drawing, which made me super sad, but i still lined it,  forearm tattoos always need special love, didn't subtract any details, just fine lined the Oni mask and dealt with it, 2.5 hours of line-work.

cool client,  usually wants traditional spin off artwork from old legends.

Some skully updates

 this is a cover-up of 2 tattoos, dude wanted a full unifyed half sleeve, this just happens to be a progress shot of it, underwater corpse, representing being lost at sea, a beer can, a shot glass, and a bottle of booze, to represent habits he threw away, and a preachers collar, because religion is damned, and worthless, the konji i covered up in his rib cage, it was a pretty mean sized one, and the other tattoo, covered up extremely well in the background, this is only my 3rd session on this guy, looking forward to more, oh and a octopus, because everyone loves them, HA

Human Skull with paisleys tattoo by David Ekstrom

 more proggress on this guy, also turning out very nice, i love doing skulls, they never get old to me...

Strange undead humanoid creature acrylic painting in burnt umber

painting pictures of a old painting that i never photographed, why? i dont know? thats croissant dog on the bottom, his butt has a face, like so many people i know.... acrylic washed out burnt umber, with a strangely per-portioned humanoid who im assuming is dead, or, undead, his neck is his tubular mouth with an eyeball where his clavicles would meet and some sort of strange geometric shape inside his "rib cage" area

clients

Im just one human being, i shit, sleep, and eat just like you, stop making requests like Im some divinely powered robot. Patience is a virtue.

people have been so irrational with speaking to me lately, and they want to shit all over me and have me lick their asshole while tugging their genitalia just to their own specific proper speed, which they expect me to know ALREADY.

i give everything to my job, and it wants more.

tower tarot card tattoo

Black and Grey tower tarot card tattoo with man falling to his death on some sharp pointy ocean rocks

tower tarot card tattoo on a little miss named lydia i recently tattooed, the lines are a few months old, and some shading in the bottom of the rocks

id post thr meaniong if the internet wasnt so stupid an d full of diffrent ones

octopus sleeve tattoo- FINISHED

Joe's Colorful Kracken underwater destruction of dome-city's sleeve tattoo

apparently this guy took around 35 hours to complete? makes me feel slow, considering i know i hammered out the first few layers super fast like a boss., one of those epic clients that turned into a friend sort of scenarios, super cool dude, mad props for everything he endured to have my brains vision engraved into his arm.

this is a octopus smashing into glass dome city's, you can see some in the background to force a sense of perspective onto the viewer... he wanted the octopus to convey power, and strength.
probably one of the few tattoos i was able to layer so much on...

i really appreciate the outcome, pictures cant do these things justice, they can just give you a vague familiarity as to how its laid out, considering i shot these at 7pm at night in the back of the shop, fluorescent lighting i feel eludes cameras, and doesn't give you the full spectrum of light in the room, and its also extremely direct, which gives the gooey gross blood areas of the sleeve tattoo a glisten, or glossy look, opposed to the preferred matte finish of healed skin, which, there are definite parts of this tattoo that are healed up just fine for the pictures of this delicious end to such an awesome project on such an awesome Joe, of the Gilmore clan, and or tribe.

Skull drawing turned into flesh

sketchy skull tattoo in black and grey by David Ekstrom

pretty self explanatory, didn't follow the drawing exactly, because im not anal like that, personally i think tattooing, or doing art with being extremely anal is a way to put creativity in a box, and mail it somewhere else for the time being, because being a exact copy and paste artist means a lot of the  creation aspect is said and done, so all you have to do is focus on your technical skills of paper/pencil/needle/skin
but yeah, skull, tattooed on the lower part, sort of by the knee on a thigh

Skull backpeice tattoo- in progress

matts full back biomech skull tattoo in-progress

taking a trip down memory lane, you can see the structure is there, hard to believe this all started out with a ambitious "fuck it" attitude, and some markers.
being very proud of this tattoo, and it only makes me want to get my back lasered off finally and re-worked/ covered/ fuckoff-huge-done

honored to have clients that dont restrict my creations, SPOILED, really, so many awesome clients who all just show up on time to get my vision scribed into their flesh until the day they die and turn unto human jerky, hell, even then, in their decomposing moments, theyll still have the artwork i crafted onto their dermis.

poseidon tattoo

Poseidon nautical artwork

Poseidon statue underwater tattoo with a tentacle of the kracken sort of wrapping up next to him, man.. lots of underwater/nautical tattoos lately, funny considering how many people in MINNESOTA probably dont get out to the ocean much, hu?

dont get me wrong, i like the tattoos, i just wish i wasn't working on as many ocean themed sleeve tattoos as i currently am, i mean, how many octopus's can i make look different?
guess i should work on that...

....challenge accepted....


btw i want time off -___-

octopus tattoo, and table designs

 a dead fish i found :D because stopping to take a picture of a corpse is fun! bawhahah

Joe's colorful Giant Kraken octopus sleeve tattoo

 this is joes ocean octopus nautical tattoo sleeve that iv been working on, no real pictures existed until now, almost been at it for a year, and hes defiantly grown in bulk because he works out like a machine... second pass on some ideas in the tattoo finally, heavily needed it i personally think, most of the richer vibrant colors are the second pass, with ink underneath it, they should compile and create a more saturated vibrant tattoo.

 dome city's underwater in background of octopus

concept drawings for table

 table measurements below, but, designing the middle coffee like table that will sit between the couches art the holy mackerel, been feening for a project like this, and im a practical application person, was thinking they'd be too brutal, so i asked verno, he immediately pointed out the bottom one, the one i was leaning towards anyway, we agreed on it being non offensive, tho, i think the ghoulish properties of this might strange some people out. willing to saw in half a full grown hose skull i have
thinking of a apoxie, or bar top submersion to create unity, and give it that, "bug in amber" sort of cool look, while illuminating certain parts, full sized cheap ass medical skeleton on its way, as well as a female headless mannequin for cheap, looking into EL  wire to create, uh... lighted quill, or hair looking things on the creatures back?weaving in between the skulls, on, and the upper part sits against the wall...
looks like fun, and welding, things i like :3
very excited.

holy mackerel measurements for coffee table sculpture

Squid submarine painting

Octopus attacking Submarine artwork for the Holy Mackerel's new shirt designs

Squid submarine painting iv been working on for the t-shirt design for the holy mackerel, no screen printing for this guy, apparently digital printing is getting more affordable, tho i painted it 10% bigger then print size, im sure they can change it, first time ever taping off the foreground figures in layers, and stripping it away after painting the background in... hopefully this makes it to print, because i defiantly put some elbow grease in it

the idea of it is a tragedy, something that if you were viewing, you'd say "HOLY MACKEREL", assuming you didn't use profanity, which i would, honestly.

SKULL ARM

Tyler's Skull Handjob tattoo

Skull hand tattoo i got to work on today...
chill guy, friend of friends,  with what hes been talking, alot more grim and discusting tattoos to come illistrated by me and worn by him, should be rad, finding clients like these makes me happy :D

Tattoos painting sketches uploads

Table full of stencils read to become tattoos for the week

 My weeks load of drawings that i have due this week and next.

skull headdress peck chest peice bottom right, rotweiler bursting out of water, which i later found out (on the appointment time) that its sort of a dog whos a water god, or something, so, half dog half water... neater twist on it then i was originally thinking, rib peice... moth on top of them is a chest piece for my awesome friend Marie, fox with sunflowers and nature shit you cant make out in the photo, half sleeve for a new client, and the whole left of this pile is a whole sleeve including beck/upper shoulder cap skull, that should start at his sternum and move across his collar bone to the back of his shoulder blade/ armpit crease.

needless to say iv been working my ass off, and wanted to take this picture to show people, all iv been doing is tattooing and drawing, and i want to vomit.

marker drawing

marker sketch of skull i did tonight, before any tattooing is done

black and grey forearm skull tattoo

Skull with negative space flames/smoke/movement goodness, 80% done with this, dudeer tapped out early because i started at the bottom and worked my way up, the skulls forhead is his elbow, which feels like a fucked butthole.
f-u-c-k-e-d b-u-t-t-h-o-l-e
i love saying that...

Holy mackerel octopus attackerel !! lol

tshirt design, if i wasnt busy enough............

 im working on for the shop, you cant see the foreground because its tapped off,(like the fantasy magic card artist baxta does) totally unnatural approach to this entire oil painting, i never do this stuff, but size was something i wanted to keep down, instead of my wall sized paintings i normally punish myself with. tedious, but i think the end product will be something to be proud of, and very easy to "read" visually, very graphic to get the point across from afar, and have delectable details for up-close viewers.

Sunflower tattoo

Sunflower tattoo in progress

Finished my second session on this sunflower tattoo today, clients super badass, wish she could sit longer, but oh well :P

black and grey healed in upper left corner, fresh everywhere else, did some re-contrasting, and stuff, looks alot better in person -__-

Skull tattoo rendering, and creepy oil painting

 from the start drawing

Tony's shoulder-cap tattoo

 to the first lining on a new friend of mine,
the cracks represent whats happened to himself in his professional line of work with BMX,
pretty gnarly story's to hear, sort of brings alot more excitement to doing something so custom-ly personal, oh, and he likes paisleys, which made me cross-eyed to line :O










HER!

mutant zombie girl oil painting by DAVID Ekstrom

"the thing" ish dead girl creature iv been working on, adopting oils has been thus far one of my better art decisions, more vibrant colors, easier blending, and im not always adding paint, sometimes you just need to move around whats already there... not the full picture, but its not complete, thinking of adding, more creepyness

full oil painting progress steps on witch/banshee creature girl

first step- underpainting

 charcol startup with acrylic burnt umber washed background, dry
i did this because oil backgrounds dont dry fast enough, so sometimes you pull it up when you make strokes

 some hair and face rendering

 little bit more mouthy goodness

 went back into the hair more, refined a little here and there, and started the horizon background, all of these pictures are wet and glary, so the colors arnt as true

finished howling undead oil painting

95% finished product, i might go back in and render some parts of her face, probably a 5-6 hour painting, trying to get faster, and more productive at rendering paintings so i can participate in more art shows/gallery's around the twin city's, they give me excitement and publicity. this final picture was taken inside in my laundry room (lol) so as you can see the florescent lighting opposed to super straight on natural light have different properties with color.

iv been enjoying the oils, even went and bought some new walnut based oils, in hopes to get a better pigment saturation, plus they dry longer, opposed to normal linseed from what i understand, i cut my oils with a fast drying solution regardless, im mainly worried about keeping a palette open and workable for a few weeks without too much of a pudding skin ... this witch.. banshee.. screaming hoe was done in linseed oils, and some 7.75 dollar paint set my dad bought when he was stationed in japan for the Vietnam war

Oil painting, first 2 paintings

first oil painting of fat zombie

 Super shitty picture.. blurr.. gross..
anyway, first two paintings iv done in oils! hurray!
iv never fucked around with them offically before, mainly just painted a canvas, got discouraged, and then said fuck it. i really enjoyed the blending, and dry times, tho, on both of these im still waiting for the first layers to dry more so i can get back into them and fine render some things, the first upper guy was maybe 5-6 hours? and the pig i whipped up in about 2, which i personally find impressive, considering how long it takes me to do a acrylic painting in that time.. even tho im not done with either, its just nice to experiment with different mediums, i need to expand my horizons, because acrylics are seeming dry to me, other then playing with different varnishes, even my lates super promising paintings i feel reluctant to sit whole paint days at anymore...
im such a slob, my artistic karma must be horrible.

hoping oils will help re kindle some love

zombie pig, second oil painting ever

nature photos

 minnature waterfall and some plant shubbary

 the 1 ft wide creek after the waterfall

 thought this tree was cool... sort of bending down to take a drink, forgot the lakes name

 same rock formation with drinking tree, the sun was hitting everything beautifully that day

dead tree in the middle of a lot of life, oh, and some rocks..

Skull Sketch

boundary waters skull inspiration

had some time on my 1.3 week vacation to doodle a little and paint more.. this is a skull drawing i sort of pooped out between 2-3AM at the boundary waters, thought it was cool enought to share :)

Octopus chest tattoo -in progress

octopus chest tattoo, black and grey in progress picture i took yesterday after the first offical heavy shadeing session, we did some super soft shadeing on the lineing session  as background to build up on, as you can see the red, new, irritated areas, and the background shade showing its true grey values.
this kids a champo, so far we have like 6 -7 hours in this thing, and this is his first tattoo, LIKE A BOSS.
hes already contemplateing possibly a custom biomech peice halfsleeve tattoo on his arm to compliment his chest peice, because the octopus goes on the front of his shoulders so much...
except he wants the literal term of biomechanical, which to me is skin rip/ gears and overplayed stuff, i opened his eyes to what don mcdonald/ guy a/ hr giger do, hopefully he bites..
thinking... bone spurrs with anchored metallic peices with gauges and stuff... maybe a human growth cyborg war shoulder xD
idk, brainstorming

Eagle rework - Zebra - Reddragon back peice

 Eagle rework on MIKE! my awesome mechanic.
super cool guy with storys gilore, i love the gnarly older people with a kind heart and storys to tell
original done by persey? idk, i guess he was big in the biker scene, mikes a super rad guy, glad i could give him a tattoo to match the quality of him as a person

 Red dragon back peice, ionspired from the movie,
pencil value study and marker drawing on, i tryed addeding the first sessions picture but it skewed funny on upload, not a big deal, it was a 4 hour session witht he biggest needle i have, so the progress was pretty awesome

 zebra i tattooed on a old client of mine that flew in from one of the carolinas to get tattooed by me again, every client in this post has been awesome, and i take rendering theyr tattoos to a personal level, in progress.

day of dead girl REWORK/COVERUP

 Top left is stevens arm, with some notes for his life on his wrist... LOL... mad ehim wash it off, marker drawing of revamp, resculpted alot of the anatomy, added a rose in her hair, and finished her body, he did this tattoo on himself, and it wasnt even too bad.... added some wrist tits, theyr classy, right? i mean, its not pornography looking :P

i like posting pictures where you see them all togeather.... and heres the final as well  i plowed skin tone over the original paint of the day of dead girl.. in later sessions ill probally bring it back with a 90-70% opaque gray, just so its not true black, which i think would over pwoeer the fact that its face paint, i want true black in the shadows and shit.
super fun project on my coworker/ freind
stoked to get more sessions, and sculpt those wrist tittys!