my first shading project

[HELLION]

working on this for my bro
still W.I.P. but this is the first attempt at shading
am i crazy or is it good or what
any thoughts

i guess i should leave description
my bro got the smaller dragon on vacation and found that the choice was not the greatest ( a sleeping dragon?) but also that ppl had hard time with what it is. so he wanted something to work around the smaller dragon as part of a larger theme. we thought about a baby draco in the egg being helped out of the shell by a loving but fierce mother. can you see that or did I make it even more difficult to make out?
http://img71.imageshack.us/img71/9733/1000659gp5.jpg

[Rockabillytattoo]

Pretty clean work Hellion. I checked out your color one too, nice!! It looks like(may just be the pic and lighting) the red is a little shady here and there. Your lines look a little shaky too, but for a month's time, still good. Doesn't sound like you know how to tune your machine. Go through the forum religiously, you'll learn more about springs and a shitload of other stuff. I've been learning for the past eight months and I've only done 2 so far. Before I found this site, I thought it was going to be fairly easy, but thank God!! After going through all posts new and old, I realized how intense it really is to produce good quality tattoo work, and CLEAN of course!!!!! PATIENCE IS A VIRTUE!!

Rock on

[the colorist]

damn good start,you got a future in the art ahead of you,try playing with light and dark variations in your work

[xxxMDKxxx@Gmail.com]

I've never seen a hairy dragon.
looks like the shading is coming out nice though. Post a pic when its done man.

[johnnynotoes]

I've never seen a hairy dragon.
looks like the shading is coming out nice though. Post a pic when its done man.

you ever seen a dragon though?

nice black n grey tho hellion!

[HELLION]

dont get me wrong guys i'm happy with it being my first attempt at shading but there are some areas i'm not happy with. I did make mistakes which is not cool but i think when it's all done the total effect will be nice.
the colorist "damn good start,you got a future in the art ahead of you,try playing with light and dark variations in your work". dont really understand what your saying could you explain about light and dark variations?
Rockabillytattoo your right about the color being shady and about the lines being shaky to my shame. i know my machines are not tuned right and in the process of fixing them but i think the problem lies in the springs so until i get more and experiment i wont really know. i also think that the contact point which hits the front spring need to be filed down flat for better contact.
I also thought that tattooing would be easier but the challenge makes it more worth while.
thank u all for your comments

[xxxMDKxxx@Gmail.com]

A tip I have found to help work out the shakes is pic some lines that are small and that oyu can really tell that they'll be shaky. For me, after I hit a couple of these lines the shakes are gone.

[the colorist]

dont get me wrong guys i'm happy with it being my first attempt at shading but there are some areas i'm not happy with. I did make mistakes which is not cool but i think when it's all done the total effect will be nice.
the colorist "damn good start,you got a future in the art ahead of you,try playing with light and dark variations in your work". dont really understand what your saying could you explain about light and dark variations?
Rockabillytattoo your right about the color being shady and about the lines being shaky to my shame. i know my machines are not tuned right and in the process of fixing them but i think the problem lies in the springs so until i get more and experiment i wont really know. i also think that the contact point which hits the front spring need to be filed down flat for better contact.
I also thought that tattooing would be easier but the challenge makes it more worth while.
thank u all for your comments look at the values you made on the greywashed dragon.your graduations from light to dark.same principles apply to color.the green of the small dragon would be more 3D if you had dark,medium and lighter green/yellows.the egg could be shadowed and highlighted in a gray blue,with reflected colors on it.study paintings and even computer generated are for color graduations

[cabrone_s]

looks nice!... :)
the dragon is facing the wrong way though

[richart]

looks nice!... :)
the dragon is facing the wrong way though

Yeah thought that too .. but hey, life's about choices :D

Richard