For project 3.2, I have begun my studies with tracing, rubbing, photography, and digital mockups to further my knowledge of the project. Since I will be focusing on movement and spacing of tattoos as artwork, my studies reflect many of the ideas that go into creating, tattooing, and the final result.
Tracing helped me understand the movement and spacing of the line work that is present in every tattoo. Since lines are an essential part of every tattoo, tracing was a basic way to start a study of line and spacing that must make sense in order to create a successful tattoo or design.
The next method I used to further my studies was rubbing. While this didn’t expand my knowledge as much as tracing did, it helped me understand that even seemingly two-dimensional designs can be altered or warped to create an idea of texture, depth, and space.
One thing that really helped me understand the movement of tattoos across the body was photographing my own tattoos and observing how they stretch and warp with the skin as they tend to wrap and morph with movement of the body. This was also very helpful as I had a reference to understand how tattoos can be rendered onto skin digitally, which is evident in my mockup below.
This is the beginning of my project, developed in Adobe Photoshop. I found that this program was much better and produced a lot more realistic results than Graphic can. I not only utilized graphic designs, logos, classical art images, and a digital software, but photography as well (my hands are in the image). It’s a long and difficult process to be able to make each “tattoo” look not only digitally but physically realistic, but with warping and filter tools I think I’m getting a hang of it. While this doesn’t represent a classical view of movement, I think that the movement of the ink as it warps around skin is something that’s evident on anyone with tattoos. I believe that tattooing can be a very refined art, but at times not as respected, just like most other forms of art (such as photography). With that in mind, one of my hands is supposed to be a sort of a walking billboard, and the other is a reference to classical art and the beauty that tattooing can have. Looking at tattoo artists’ Instagrams and ideas on Pinterest will help me further develop the mockup, as I would like to almost completely cover my hands in the process. This is still the beginning stages of my project and I’m still brainstorming on how I can incorporate more movement into the final design and product.
Peder Harvey Design 