Expanding a project.
This sleeve started out with a shoulder tattoo done the previous year (link). To be honest I don’t like adding stuff to already existing tattoos, because most of the time the previous work imposes space and creative constraints.
In this particular case, however, the previously tattooed demon had elements that allowed for a more organic expansion, and beyond that, the fact that the sleeve had to have the same infernal theme made things easier for me.
Although I will never get tired of saying that it’s better to design a sleeve or any large tattoo all in one go so that all the elements can flow better together and on the body 😉
Circles of Hell
Considering the demonic theme, the first idea that popped into my head was a sort of horror biomech representation of Dante’s Inferno, with Cerberus on the inner arm and a bunch of damned souls, among the most interesting ones of the Divine Comedy.
The idea was as interesting in my head as it was impossible to put on paper. By adding too many elements I would have had to reduce their size, limiting readability and durability.
We moved on to the second idea: the seven deadly sins. Interesting idea, especially since the punishments inflicted upon sinners are drawn from the Divine Comedy.
But just as before, as soon as I put the pencil on paper I realized that there was still too much stuff for an arm piece.
In my mind, the idea of having the circles of hell develop around the arm was intriguing, but as much I studied a way to make it work there were still too many elements for me to illustrate them properly.
Final inspiration
The client gave me the solution. He suggested a hydra fighting with itself, this gave me more interpretative freedom and meant I had more available space and didn’t have to worry about the anatomy of the damned. He was also particularly fond of the punishment for the envious, who wander around hell with their eyes sewn. From there came the idea of a huge sewn eye, that I later revisited.
However interesting, I had a little trouble shifting my focus to this sudden change of plans, especially after a couple of days spent documenting myself and focusing on the Divine Comedy.
But in a couple of days I managed to create something that satisfied me and that went well with the existing tattoo. A sort of infernal mouth, with the screaming hydra branching out and biting itself, and on the opposite side an eye, no longer sewn but inside another area of this demonic mouth.
A sort of infernal biomech 😀
Fast as the wind
I know I’m fast, especially with black and grey, but it is mainly thanks to this client’s resistance that the sleeve was completed in record time, probably one of the fastest sleeves I’ve ever done, although it has to be said that good part of the arm was already tattooed 😛
