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.