From the Sketchbook Archives: Tribal Sigil Hand

A quick sharpie sketch here of a tribal design idea for a sigil hand image. Perhaps to be used as a tattoo at some point?  This particular image haunted me for about a week before I finally got it to paper.

{Sharpie}

UPDATE: Kevin's Dream Catcher Tattoo (Flesh)

Here is Kevin's tattoo fresh on the flesh!  I'll get another photo of this once it is healed completely and post it.  I didn't really have any expectations how it would end up looking once finished, but I was impressed once he got home and broke it out. The original artwork and updated post can be seen here.

UPDATE: Kevin's Dream Catcher Completed Tattoo

Here is the finished version of my friend Kevin's Tattoo.  With Kevin's permission, I will post a photo of his arm once it is complete.  At some point (also with Kevin's permission) I need to post what his arm looked like before.  More on that later...

My post with my initial drawing of the Tattoo is here.  As you can see we shifted the whole dream catcher structure over.  The preexisting paw is very close to Kevin's arm pit and as I understand it, that is a very sensitive area for tattooing, so to avoid causing him too much pain, we shifted everything over.  :-)  We also changed the web design a bit to give it more organic, less structured feel.  I added the border around his existing paw to make it look like a large carved piece of turquoise attached to the dream catcher.  The feathers are modeled after the feathers of the Great Horned Owl.

{Drawn in Pencil, Scanned, Color Created in Photoshop}

UPDATE:

Here's Kevin's Tat, fresh from the shoppe! I'll post another once it has healed completely.  :-)

The Black Heart

I was obsessed for awhile with the symbolic idea of the "Black Heart".

My question was: What would turn a Heart Black?

Flame I think...VERY HOT Flame.

All apologies to the Black Heart of the Feri Tradition,

which I did not discover until later.

I must investigate that visually at some point.  :-)

{Image 1: Created in Photoshop.

Image 2:  Digital images manipulated in Photoshop.}

Kevin's Tattoo Dreamcatcher

Here is the preliminary sketch of my friend Kevin's tattoo.

The Bear paw is pre-existing on his arm 

and we're attempting to create the dreamcatcher around it 

and integrate with the paw.

(More on that later)

The finished piece is going to be color,

but this is where it began.

{Graphite drawing scanned and merged with Photo in Photoshop.}

The Black Sun

This image haunted me until I drew it.

I think it'd make a cool tattoo,

but I don't care much for the meaning of the image.

{Pen and Ink on paper}

UPDATE 010413:

At Zombie Bites, this piece was Exhumed and reinvestigated with color in November 2013.  Check out the Exhumed image here.