color tips

[Anonymous]

I would like to know how to fade from one coler to another smoothly.And what is the best setup to do this? as far as type needles and tips for the job.Could you also tell me what is a good penatration is and does it vary from outline to color. later

[imported_NeedleJack]

Personally I go against the norm going from light to dark so that I never have to clean my tubes while I'm cruising along. But you end up working backwards on the piece. I wouldn't recommend this, you have to be pretty concious of coloring and that certain colors get pretty mucky if mixed wrong.

I'll start by saying that the norm is to go from dark to light. Ie red to yellow as an example. What I was taught is to keep your warm colors on top and your cool colors on the bottom. Say for instance a blue lake (cool colors) and a boat on fire(yellow, red, orange) compliments each other quite nicely and allows the boat to stand out without taking away from the whole scene. Short and sweet - dark to light. Always try and use the warm/cool method and your pictures will come out quite nicely. Keeping in mind that your cool colors belong on the bottom and your warms on top. This makes the warm picture jump out at ya.

Regarding the best tools. This is preference. I use mags, but great pieces have been colored with rounds too. You really just have to play around with it and figure out what you like the most.

Penetration: Yes, there is a diff in the depth of needles hanging out of the tube when you line and when you shade. You don't want any needle hanging out of the tube when you shade as you will get caught up in the skin going back and forth while shading. Liners, you can leave a tip hanging out about 1/16th if you feel comfortable. As far as coloring, keep the needles in the tube, just right inside so if you were to put your finger on the end of the tube you couldn't feel the needles.

Regarding how far both needles go. Well, lining will penetrate the skin about 1/16 (two layers of skin) coloring: depends on how dark you want the color. You could really lay it on thick making small circles with the stroke set correctly and enough power to penetrate the skin without jack hammering the flesh. You'll know if your meatgrinding right away, simply turn down the power and take your time. Worst mistake is to rush someone so you can get the next client in.

Have a good one - off to see my kid bmx

[SkinSkribe]

what is the purpose for not allowing the coloring needles tip to be exposed?

[slopokeinkslinger]

you dont want them to stick out so you can slide across the skin with quick strokes without snagging your needles in the skin. to do lighter or darker (color/shading) just adjust the length of your stroke (deeper/shallower)

[Jillsta]

2 days ago, I put a tattoo on my finance' where I shaded from green to yellow to green on some letters. What I did was lay the greens down first, then when I added the yellow, I went right over the top of some of the green to make the transition. I looked like it worked really well, but I guess I won't know for sure until it's healed.

[Anonymous]

I was taught to do all the dark inks first , then work your way lighter , but people develope thier own styles and it works great for them , and when I am going for the effect of blending darker to light(green to yellow) I like to put it in solid up where it meets and then use a fast whipping motion(whip shade) to fade it out a little then do the same with the other color , go solid , then over lap the two where they meet with a fast whipping motion , just kinda looks like it blends a little more than just two solid colors meeting ...

[vernon]

I agree with runic on coloring solid then using quick strokes where the colors meet. But I put my light colors down first and then subtract from them by laying my dark on top where they meet using quick stokes. It just seems easier to cover a light color with a darker color instead of covering a dark color with a light color. (Red on top of yellow) for example. But when I'm doing black and grey I always go from dark to light because you can always make the skin darker if needed, but it's a little harder to make the skin lighter if needed.

[Papa Gee]

Along those same lines. When you're doing a tattoo with black ink shading, do you color in an area first then shade it? Or do you shade with the black and work the color back to it? I seem to remember that you gan get a ghost tint by using a lighter color over a darker one.

So far I've done my outline then shading then coloring by pulling my color back into the shaded area. But that sometimes causes a problem as it causes me to pull the ink rather that push it. I get a much better fade by pushing the needle away from my starting point. When I pull towards myself the fade seems more abrupt.