Personal Sketches : Frida Tattoo

It's my birthday soon and I'd love to celebrate with a new tattoo. So, there's been many ideas and some doodling. This is one I'm pretty happy with, a hamsa tied in with Frida Kahlo - two ideas I'd been toying around with for awhile. Plus it's full of other little things and elements - eye of protection, flower, ankh, skull, day of the dead. The colours aren't close to what I'd like but I was just seeing how it worked with colour in general. I have a few other ideas still to choose from too. I should get drawing those too!

Zoetica Ebb and Shakespeare

A few weeks ago, as part of my reward from the Secret Guide to Alternative Beijing Kickstarter, I had a Skype chat with the wonderful Zoetica Ebb about my work. It was incredibly helpful and ended the call with a list of things to try, work on, look up and some really cool artists - like Franz von Bayros.

So, when I started my assignment for the Bologna Book Fair, which probably won't be entered until next year, I kept artists like von Bayros, Beardsley, Clarke and Dame Darcy in mind. Basically, black and white, painful detail and crossed eyes by the end of this. I chose A Midsummer Night's Dream for my story which works perfectly with this style. This will definitely stay in my artist's arsenal.

Demetrius and Helena after Puck has made all right.

Still unfinished. I'm not 100% happy with it but I'll keep it as a back up.

"Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania"

*click photos to enlarge

Batgirl

I spent the other day rambling around the national gallery and museums. I honed in on the bats in the Natural History Museum for some reason and took some photos and a few sketches. Then yesterday I found a photo of a woman in this pose and thought I'd give it a bash to see if I could get it. Once I had that done, I remembered the attempt I made a few months ago at a painted/tattooed angel figure that failed. This was attempt two. The bat wings just kind of happened, more based on the stuffed bats from the museum than functional wings. The designs are based on henna tattoos. 

I'm less happy with this the more I look at it, mostly due to the background/sky. I was originally going to use a different medium but changed my mind, so the moon looks a bit...yeah.  I'm still happy with her and the rocks though (after 3hrs of stippling I'd better be!)

I'll stop rambling and post the picture now...

Pigment liner 0.05, polychromo pencils on A4 300gsm card