A rejected project.
When I received this guy’s e-mail, I was surprised by the amount of details he provided to explain his decision to get a Dark Souls video game character (Gwyndolin) as his first tattoo. However, after evaluating the project, I realized it was a terrible idea for a number of reasons. First of all, the client wanted the full-body character on his arm, which would have resulted in a very small and unappealing size. In addition to that, the character wears a mask with long radial spikes, which would have forced me to further reduce the details and leave too much empty space on the arm. In short, it would have been a “cheap tattoo decal” 😀
Fixations
The client had a precise idea of the tattoo he wanted, but he was unaware of the actual limitations of tattoo art and of the long-term consequences. With a little patience, I explained to him all the project’s limitations, and we eventually found a compromise by using another character from the same video game (Aldrich), which, although having similar characteristics, is more manageable and suitable for the size he wanted.
The drawing
The creation of the design wasn’t simple. The client was very enthusiastic about the project, but after each step, he showed confusion and requested modifications. This made the creation of the drawing longer and more tiring, causing the time spent discussing the project to exceed that spent at the drawing table. Therefore, I put myself in the shoes of a mere executor, temporarily putting aside my creativity, in order to create something that would satisfy the client. Finally, after numerous iterations, I managed to create a design he liked.
The tattoo
All that was left was to translate the work on skin, but, as it often happens with people who get tattooed for the first time, his anxiety and concern for the final result were evident. It’s understandable. I patiently explained that the work would be as close as possible to the drawing, but it would be impossible to make it exactly like what he saw on the computer. Skin is not a backlit screen, and this results in differences in the rendering of the drawing. After clarifying these issues, we proceeded with the work, divided into two sessions, the first dedicated to black and grey and the second to colour.
The result below is at the end of the second session. There’s also a video of the design process and the final result.
https://youtu.be/NQmlydFblAo