My Story & Nervous/Excited about First Big Piece!

[Gingerninja]

Amazing! Congrats!! @otisc

[oboogie]

Beautiful, @otisc!

[Mike Thompson]

Great thread, and great sleeve!  Got any healed picures?

[otisc]

Going to bump this thread up, because tomorrow I am going to start lines on sleeve #2, also from Scott Ellis of Triple Crown. Scott has become quite the world traveller, and has spent most of the last six month popping around Europe tattooing at some of the continent's most famous establishments. After the lines tomorrow, we won't do shading until April. Will post photos. 

[otisc]

November 28 -- 2nd sleeve begins.

Once again, we returned to the studios of world traveling artist Scott Ellis. He's spent most of the last six months hopscotching Europe. I was happy to know ahead of time that he'd be back in Austin Texas for a few week -- plenty of time to start sleeve #2. 

Scott suggested we try a Phoenix for this sleeve. Seemed to fit well with the dragon. Here is his notebook prior to my arriving:

As before, Scott creates the design in freehand. Took him about 3.25 hours. And as before, he was ever the perfectionist -- at one point an hour in wiping off my arm and starting again because he felt the bird's head was an inch off from where he wanted it. 

As we progress, Scott goes through about four layers, increasing the detail with ever more fine brushes along the way.

Below are layer #3 and #4:

Taken in mirror:

And at least, we ink! 2.5 hours of linework. 

Unfortunately, Scott is back off to Europe... so no shading stage until April. That's okay, it is worth the wait to be worked on by a master. 

 

[oboogie]

Looking so good, man! Congrats.

[gtrjunior]

That looks amazing!
But you gotta go all the way down to the wrist!

[scottyg]

nah, 3/4 sleeves are dope!

[JAC1961]

@otiscVery cool, look forward to seeing it finished.

[gtrjunior]

nah, 3/4 sleeves are dope!

I always feel like they aren’t finished!
Haha!
I have a 1/2 sleeve and I can’t wait to finish it.
Just don’t have the money right now.

[Hogrider]

Very cool, nice crisp line work.

[otisc]

On 12/5/2018 at 2:39 PM, gtrjunior said:

That looks amazing!
But you gotta go all the way down to the wrist!

I may extend them some day. the 3/4 sleeves rock now, as I can roll up a dress shirt and have them mostly still hidden if I want. I like that flexibility... and the surprise when someone I've known awhile finds out I have them.

[Tsam]

Looking really nice man, Scott does great work. Also, I think the 3/4 sleeves look awesome! 

Looking forward to your next set of photos.

[otisc]

It's been almost a year, and we are slllloooowly making progress on this second sleeve!!

In April 2019, Scott and I did five hours of shading. It was the usual ouch, and I didn't post an update.

November 14, 2019 -- session number three! 5.5 hours of coloring in the bird. 

Next session: April 2020!

 

Edited November 15, 2019 by otisc

[oboogie]

That is gorgeous. Look forward to your April update!

[tcgjake]

Love this, that's a great looking Phoenix!