New Ink! In Progress Pics *UPDATED*

[petejig ●]

It\'s a slightly different take on an Oni demon Trav,has a manga sort of look to it.I have done many of these in my time but very traditional,I like to use Horiyoshi\'s art as reference.This has a slightly different tack which I like,it\'s deffinitly working out so far,nice clean lines. Who\'s the artist by the way?

[travsall ●]

Thanks guys! Mike, Yeah, this guy is good, I actually waited a couple years till I found him to get this done. I\'d known of him and his work for a while, he did a piece on my sister, but then changed shops, and was tough to track down. I can\'t wait to be able to show this to you in person buddy!
Thanks Pete, that means a lot coming from an artist like you! Yes, it is a little different then most Oni I\'ve seen too, which I like, it\'s totally unique which is a big part of why I\'m going to the guy I picked to do this for me. The character is actually Raijin, god of thunder and storms, in traditional Japanese lore, didn\'t go all the way traditional with the piece, or the full sleeve when we get onto the rest, the artist and I talked for hours over the look, and influences and he went with this slight manga look to him, kind of a nod to traditional, with modern influences, really make it a tribute in a way to Japanese art. As another nod to tradition, the whole sleeve is pretty much the artists design and choosing, I had some input, but he chose to do Raijin and Fujin, and add in the background elements and things, which is also cool, I trust him and his work to step aside and let him go like that. I\'ve always liked that about traditional Japanese work, the client doesn\'t decide on the tattoo, it\'s the artist\'s decision to what fits the client, it\'s a surrendering in a way, but respect for the art and the artist over everything else. The artist is Kyle Staub, works out of Ghost Town Tattoo in Okotoks Alberta. He actually has a copy of Horiyoshi\'s book he uses a lot too, he let me look all through it, astounding work in there, I could have spent days just studying it in detail! REAL traditional work. Added a sub goal to my bucket list goal of going to Japan, getting a piece done by him LOL

[VF 31 ●]

dang man that is wicked rad!

[SideshowFreak ●]

I\'m digging it Travis! Very clean and great color. Are you going all the way up your arm?
-Jared

[petejig ●]

It impresses me that you\'ve had such lengthy dialogue with your artist Trav, that\'s exactly how it should be. Also ,when planning a sleave ,you mustn\'t get drawn into the error of overcrowding, your artist\'s decision and yourself,to go with just two characters is bang on the money.
I\'m glad you\'ve seen Horiyoshi\'s artwork for yoursef, I have about three of his books. In 1997 I had the honour to watch the man at work.He outlines with machine and then uses the traditional method of "Tebori" which is hand tools.Here\'s a nice picture of the great man at work.

[travsall ●]

Thanks again everyone! I agree Pete, I was impressed myself, Kyle got me to come in twice to talk to him, the second time was a few days before my first session so he could get to know me a bit, and really personalize the piece, and so we could both get on the same page with it. I liked that a lot he takes that care and really tries to understand the person he\'s working on, it is how it should be for sure! When you invest as much money, time, and taking into account this is a permanent thing LOL it\'s fantastic to go into it like this! I agree on the sleeve issue as well, I\'ve seen a LOT of very very cool sleeves, but it takes a long time to see each piece and dissect the actual work, just at a glance it looks like a blur of stuff together. With this one, I wanted to just have the 2 main elements, Raijin and Fujin, easy to see, and make sense of right away, the background elements will be just that, background, still really cool work, (and in black and grey) but separate also from the main theme.
I couldn\'t get enough of his work, I POURED through that book, and wanted to spend hours on each page going over ever line! I wanted to get a copy for myself so I could do that, but I\'ve found out how difficult his books are to get, and how expensive, which is a shame. Wow, that must have been such an honor and so meaningful to see him work in person. And to get to see him use Tebori! That\'s another life goal thing with tattooing, getting a piece done in that traditional style. I love seeing masters of that work, it\'s such an amazing way the Tebori stick and small mallet become just an extension of the artist moving so effortlessly and in such unison. To me, that is up there with watching any of the masters of oil and canvas.