Larry Brogan: Tattoo Convention Booth Set Up Part II
By Larry Brogan
Courtesy of Tattoo Road Trip: In part one of Tattoo Convention Booth Set Up we touched on things such as having promotional items such as business cards and stickers, proper banner size and good overall lighting. In part two, I’ll talk about keeping your items safer from theft, helpful display tips and a continuation of proper lighting… (more…)
Larry Brogan: Building a Solid Portfolio
By Larry Brogan
Courtesy of Tattoo Road Trip: Your portfolio is your most important tool. Why? Because it gets you the JOB. Your portfolio is what sells your skills… (more…)
Gunnar Gaylord: A Change in Direction and an Addition of Goals
By Gunnar Gaylord
Last year I had the good fortune of attending two amazingly inspirational conventions, that put me on the path to a brand new year in art. I had blogged on both events at the time, those being Paradise Gathering in Massachusetts and Hell City Phoenix. And I have to say the fact that it was in Phoenix, may have a more profoundly symbolic meaning, then it was meant to. However, from these events was born a new passion in art, one that I hadn’t had in years… (more…)
Larry Brogan: Scheduling Appointments and Taking Deposits
By Larry Brogan
Courtesy of Tattoo Road Trip: How many times have you gotten excited about doing a big cool tattoo where you spend all kinds of time designing, hunting for reference images and hours of drawing a piece that you just know it’s going to be one of your best ever? You even get to the shop early and set up your station, and the next thing you realize, your appointment is 20 minutes late. After waiting around, losing your excitement minute by minute, you call the client’s number only to get voicemail. It’s then that you realize you have been stood up. At first, you are bummed, because you have been itching to do the piece, and then you realize that you just spent hours drawing, and all for nothing. Then you get pissed, because you will quite possibly have to sit on your thumb all day, doing nothing and making no money. Well, at least you took that $20-dollar deposit. Maybe you can buy lunch with it… (more…)
Larry Brogan: Tattoo Convention Booth Set Up (Part I)
By Larry Brogan
Courtesy of Tattoo Road Trip: Most tattoo conventions provide a space for two working artists approximately 10’x10’ but they can vary by a couple feet in either direction. You will usually have two long narrow tables, one to tattoo from and a front table to showcase and display your tattoo portfolio, original artwork, paintings, prints, tattoo machines, t-shirts or any other items and promotional material you choose provided they are permitted by the promoters and local law… (more…)
Markus Lenhard: Workplace Ergonomics and Long Term Health Improvement Techniques for Tattoo Artists
By Markus Lenhard
After reading the [TAM Blog] post about health issues by Marcus Kuhn, I was inspired to share my own ramblings and experiences with you. Over the years I had countless tension migraines from working in sub-optimal lighting conditions, lower and upper back pain. Lumbago, cramps in the Shoulder, neck and head muscles resulting in different flavors of terrible multi day headaches. Tendonitis of the wrist, tendonitis of both elbows, cramps in the calf, tingly fingers and ass-cheeks to a total loss of feeling in some parts of my right thigh… I am out of permanent trouble for more than a year now. I still sometimes have a bit of a backache or long for a massage but then I am doing horrible long sessions on people who are traveling from far and sit on the computer a lot… (more…)
Markus Lenhard: The End of Paper
By Markus Lenhard
It has been about two years since I have rendered my last tattoo design on paper now, and I have gotten many requests to explain why I abandoned paper and how I went about it. Let me go off on a tangent for a bit to explain how and why I make decisions, though… Since I can remember I am suffering from strong Boredom Intolerance Disorder. Most people call this ADD. I call it that BID. It seems more appropriate… (more…)
Larry Brogan: Developing a Style
By Larry Brogan
Courtesy of Tattoo Road Trip: Every artist wants to be recognized for their art and they want it to stand out among all others as distinctively their own. In the world of tattooing, you will find many artists whose work is as recognizable as their names, such as Guy Aitchison, Paul Booth and Joe Capobianco. People like this may have been born to be artists but the skills they posses did not come easy. They were developed over decades of constant study and practice with a pencil and paper… (more…)
Nick Baxter: Realism Techniques Part I
By Nick Baxter
This is the start of an occasional ongoing series on this blog where I’ll be discussing the process and techniques of sharp-focus realism oil painting.
Here’s the evolution of the painting I began at my parents’ house during a recent visit. The phases of development you see here represent approximate divisions into layers, i.e. major progress stages of the painting (click on the image below to make it larger). In actuality, there were a few more partial layers and back-and-forth adjustments made to various areas of the piece which are not shown here, as they didn’t constitute major turning points… (more…)
Larry Brogan: Detailed Hand Drawn Stencils
By Larry Brogan
Courtesy of Tattoo Road Trip: In most tattooing, a quality job starts with a well-drawn stencil. Long gone are the days of acetate stencils that wipe off with one pass of a paper towel. Today, most of us rely on thermal spirit masters and a thermal copier or Hectograph paper to hand draw our designs for application to skin. When drawing stencils, it is common to use tracing paper over the original image or a light box to help see the image more clearly. When doing more detailed or realistic designs, it is difficult to see the fine details clearly through the tracing paper, so the following techniques will help put more detail into your stencil drawing… (more…)
Gunnar Gaylord: How to Improve Creativity, Growth and Confidence
By Gunnar Gaylord
I recently posted a short list of rules on Instagram that I found to be helpful with my art. I received a lot of positive feedback and it seemed like something that people wanted to hear… Maybe even needed to hear. I know personally that after 15-plus years making a living with art, I have had major lulls in creativity, growth and confidence… (more…)
Larry Brogan: How To Make Stencils with a Thermofax Machine
By Larry Brogan
Courtesy of Tattoo Road Trip: If your shop does not have a quality Thermofax copier, preferably a 3M, the old, super-heavy-duty kind, you are living in the dark ages and making life difficult for yourself. The best models to buy are 3M45, 3M4500 or 3M4550. If you are still hand-drawing stencils each and every time, you are wasting your time, and time is money. 3M no longer makes Thermofax machines, but they can still be found on the Internet, on sites like eBay. Expect to pay about $1,000 for a good, working, used machine, but believe me, it will be money well spent… (more…)
Larry Brogan: Mapping Out Large Scale Tattoo Projects
By Larry Brogan
Courtesy of Tattoo Road Trip: Clear contact paper or shelf liner can be purchased at most home improvement centers, kitchen and bath shops and even many grocery stores. Just ask where the shelf liner/contact paper is. It is nothing more than a clear, thin, flexible sheet of plastic with a sticky side to it, and comes in a roll like wrapping paper…
Larry Brogan: A Lightbox Makes Tracing Easy
By Larry Brogan
Courtesy of Tattoo Road Trip: Most tattoo artists are already familiar with the idea of tracing stencil images, where you lay a piece of tracing paper over the original image and sketch out a line drawing. Many times the image you are tracing is very detailed or quite dark, making it difficult to render an accurate image because of the semi-translucent nature of the tracing paper or velum that you are using. This is where a light table or lightbox comes in very handy. (more…)
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