The fundamentals of Art & Tattooing.
Plus secret ones that no one told you.
from the messy art desk of dinlee.
Subj- The fundamentals of Art & Tattooing.
If you are taking tattooing seriously you have to understand the importance of art fundamentals. Artist are like the graphics are in your PC, training and building up your fundamentals will upgrade you as a graphics card to GTX-ARTMASTER and allow you to ‘render’ higher quality art. The old masters or your favorite did them for years and years, and it also unlocks your path to the next level very fast.
You can practice shooting eight hours a day, but if your technique is wrong, then all you become is very good at shooting the wrong way. Get the fundamentals down and the level of everything you do will rise.
-Michael Jordan
No Matter what your goal is in art these are a necessity, however in this article I will write towards tattooing application. Since I think that kind of information is lacking. ‘Why didn’t I hear about them if they are so powerful you ask?’ Because they are very dry and takes a lot of discipline to learn. Also they are not fancy at all. But hopefully in the practices I share in the future could help on that. With all of that said let’s get into the fundamentals.(Plus 3 secret ones that no body tells you.)
The fundamentals of tattoo art.
Form and Shapes
Every good tattoo could be broken down into shapes. In better terms ‘well designed’ shapes. That are interesting to the eye like geometric works. Also if you are after realistic and neo traditional styles you would like it to read as a 3D shape. Understanding forms could help you with that.
-Q: How do you practice forms ans shapes?
-A: Draw objects on your table and pay attention to the forms, draw them in different angles.
My friend Anubislok killing it with strong shapes.
Perspective
Perspective applies in tattoo pieces about a big scene it’s about communicating objects in space. The easy way to put it is that things that are close to you are big and the more far away objects look smaller.Tattooing a landscape picture of nature is a bit rare of a tattoo subject. If you are after portraits or traditional styles this has least application in them. However understanding perspective does help you to practice other fundamentals.
Anatomy & Proportions
Learning anatomy by drawing humans will train your skill on designing good shapes and forms. Also if you are tattooing a face you would like to be anatomically correct with good proportions. You don"‘t want huge eyes with a small mouth unless you are drawing an alien :)
-Q: How do you practice anatomy / proportions?
-A: Draw people.
Composition
The most important one foe me (They are all important :) While other art forms communicates with a rectangle(tv screens, posters, paper). Tattoos are dealing with 3D human forms. To design shapes and compositions to look visually appealing on the human body could be a difficult task. By improving this skill you can design tattoos that compliments the human form.
-Q: How do you practice composition?
-A: Break down and draw movie screenshots.
Work by my brother SquidYu.
Value & Shading
Value is how you tell people which part of your tattoo is the most important of in my terms controlling the first read of your design. Everything else should work for your first read. Also by value we are talking about light and dark. You would like to direct the eye to the most important interest(first read) of your piece by high contrast(created by strong dark and white.)
-Q:How do you practice value?
A:Draw movie screenshots with 3-5 values(5 levels of tone.)
Now the next 3 is unlikely you will hear from anywhere else but these are as important if not more then others.
3 Secret fundamentals.
Observations (AKA the Artist eye)
Having a great eye is very important for your self-improvement. To see the good part of others work and what they understood and trained to create that is how you learn from other people. Also you see the flaws in your own work and try to solve and learn to overcome them is huge. You also learn what a ‘good tattoo’ is that would level up your art taste.
-Q: How do you train your eye?
-A: Write about tattoos/art you like. Try to explain what you like about them.
Discipline
“Discipline is choosing between what you want now, and what you want most.”
— Abraham Lincoln
Discipline is how you pick ideas that are important and ignore others even your mind wants to work on those. Discipline is how you practice dry art fundamentals everyday even you don’t want to. sometimes I don’t want to fill a big tattoo area with black it’s so much work! Just do it anyway.
-Q:How do you practice discipline?
-A: Take cold showers everyday.
Perseverance
“When a man is in the right path, he must persevere.”
– P.T. Barnum
Perseverance is what needed to keep you going. The people who got ‘good’ are the ones that stayed till the end. Push yourself and do the work everyday. DON”T GIVE UP.
So here are some short intro into the fundamentals that builds up every good artist. Now go and draw. If you need more help here are some useful books:
On drawing and forms: How to Draw by Scott Robertson.
Value and shading: How to render by Scott Robertson.
Anatomy book I’m studying at the moment: Dynamic Anatomy by Burne Hogarth.
Will talk more about books if there’s interest, Let me know what topics you want to hear about.
Until we talk again,
-Din
Hello Folks, Studying value is one of the most important task as an artist, And even more so as a tattoo artist since we don’t have full access to full values when we are working on skin. So today we’re going to do a mid tone study.