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