Update

I want to apologize for my lack of activity on here lately. The last thing I want to do is have this become just like a lot of blogs do, stale and unactive. However, Ive had an overwhleming reaction to my portraits and have been SWAMPED with requests for them, I guess they make a great Xmas gift. But as a result, I cant post any of my drawings until after the holidays, so I dont spoil any surprises. So that being said, I will be back with some new stuff to show you in the new year, and should I get a chance to sketch something for myself in the meantime, I'll be sure to post it! Have a great holiday folks!!

Vampires

I had some time to draw for myself over the weekend, so I decided I would draw a known person that most of you would recognize. Maybe an athlete, an actor, somebody famous I suppose. But who...
Ive been thinking about vampires a lot lately, its hard not to, they are more mainstream than ever. Vampire this, vampire that, theyre everywhere. Everybody loves vampires. Its kind of annoying. I thought about drawing one, but I usually find them kind of stupid, and maybe even a bit gay (not that theres anything wrong with that). So anyway, I decided instead to try to depict what I consider to be a real-life vampire. Oh yes, there is such thing as real vampires!
And theres nobody in sports today that entertains me like Tyson does. Surely you will all recognize him. So I killed two birds with one stone here.

Finally got back to my portraits. This is another for Jeff, turned out good, im pretty happy with it for now. I absolutely love this little guys expression! He looks like hes pretty fed up with all the bullshit! HAH HAH!! It was a good exercise in drawing different textures, his clothing was pretty varied.
Anyway, I hope I can eventually achieve this level of realism on skin someday...

Billie Jean

Did another pigskin today. I wanted to try filling in something solid black. Tribal doesnt interest me much, so after a bit of google searching I came across this silloutte of MJ, and I thought it was great so I gave it a try. Im sorta happy with how it turned out I guess, its not as clean as I would have liked, but its just a part of the learning process I suppose. Just shows me how much I still have to learn in order to have a basic grasp of things. And besides, the little white pig hair stubble makes it look like theres way more mistakes than there really is. HAH HAH
Anyway, it really is completely different than drawing with any other medium. I can see that this is gonna take a while.
People always told me be careful what you do
and dont go around breaking young girls hearts..

Butcher

I spent the day cutting up the rest of the pig skin....the damn thing was HUGE....Im not sure if I'll ever be the same....HAH HAH HAH wacked...

PigSkin

Whats the weirdest thing youve ever done? HAH HAH! Today I cut off a piece of pigskin and shaved it so i could start practicing tattooing, very bizaar to say the least. It was a really cool experience in the end, but cuttin up that hide was just plain wacked!! I did, however, get a taste of how the tattoo machine works and how to do lines and shading. It was much more difficult than I could have imagined. We took a couple pics, here's how it went....

First, Wade and I cut up and shaved the flesh of a pig obtained from a local butcher...
that was....fun....yeah....
so after that, Wade helped me set up and I went to work on it. I decided to try a skull and crossbones as my first attempt. Wade was close by the whole time giving me invaluable tips.
Wade gave it a try too, to give his approval or disapproval. He said it was tough as hell but a LOT like human flesh, definitely ideal for practicing, so I was glad it wasnt a waste of time. It worked out decently enough. Heres the final product. This little piggy musta been in a few fights or something, he was scarred up pretty bad on the part we cut off. Next time I'll have to look for a better portion of the hide to use. It was hard to notice the scars with the hair.
so yeah, here it is. life-size, my first tattoo!! YAY!! im not a tattoo virgin anymore!...sorta. HAH! I've inserted my first needle, and it was somewhat of a success! On to some more pigskin!! Theres sooooo much I have to learn!!!

Sacred Temple Tattoo

Today I had the pleasure of going to visit Sacred Temple Tattoo in Havre Bouche with Wade. I forgot my damn camera though. I met Jamie MacKay, and holy shit what an incredibly talented, humble, and all around nice guy!!! His studio is kickass, really nice and really clean. Actually, everybody I met there was really cool, a great bunch of people. Jamie had a lot of interesting things to say, and I saw some of his finished tattoos in person, which let me tell you, has a MUCH greater impact than seeing them in photos. His work is simply phenomenal. And you couldnt meet a nicer guy.

PORTRAITS

Just so everybody knows, Im offering to do portraits at $150 per head. I know its a bit pricey but you get what you pay for. If anybody is interested, just drop by the studio and we can talk about it, or email me at clifftattoos@hotmail.com.

From there I decided to do a portrait for Wade's brother Jeff. I started with his oldest boy, again its not hard to make these look great because the photo references have such fantastic lighting. Jeff is a very talented photographer!

I wanted to do something for Wade since he has been so kind to me in so many ways, so I drew up a pic of his boys. I could really start to see a difference in my work at this point, I was happy with this portrait for a few days!! (which is ultimately unheard of, I usually hate my art within 24 hours) I think they turned out great because the photo reference had such great lighting and composition to begin with. When i scanned it in I accidentally set it on this blue tone effect, but I ended up really liking the look so I kept it that way.

After that I decided to do some portraits for income. The drummer in my band and great friend of mine, Craig hired me to draw his parents. Again, theyre really nice people and that always helps motivate me. I was pretty happy with the result, and I think Craig was too.

The next project i took on was of my good friend Derek's father, Bo. He was a wonderful person, a real "no fuckin around" kinda guy with a great sense of humor, I have many fond memories of him, so again it was a treat to draw this gentleman. However, he has a very unique look and it was extremely tough to capture him. Fun but frustrating. I may also take another stab at this guy in the future. But for now, Ill settle with this.

My first portrait was of my friend Colin's daughter. Shes as sweet as an angel and cute as a button so it was a pure pleasure drawing her. I had to revisit this one a few times to get it right, but im fairly happy with it now. Im thinking I might do another of her in the next few months though.

So I guess I'll start posting some of my sketches up here for you all to see and comment on. Ive been away from this kind of thing for a long time, probably about a decade, so Im feelin a little rusty at it. I love feedback, so please leave a comment if it strikes you. But if you think any of these suck, try not to be too harsh as I'm already way too hard on myself already HAH HAH

So far I've only watched my mentor tattoo while he explains the process, I've yet to pick up a machine myself. I've seen him set up and tattoo a hundred times now, and recently hes been getting me to set up for him while he supervises so I can get it down path. Theres a lot of little things that I never noticed him do until he pointed it out. I've also been forcing myself to finally draw again, mostly portraits and still life. I haven't really drawn with a pencil in a very long time, and back when I did I never really took it seriously, but I've always had a knack for portrait art and im curious to see where my skill lands now that Im actually trying to develop it. I'll also have to work on developing my own custom tattoo designs, I fear that may be one of the hardest areas of focus for me. I expect that if I end up developing my full potential, I'll likely end up being more on the 'fine art' end of tattooing, a 'replication artist' as Tom Renshaw refers to himself (my personal favorite tattoo artist). i enjoy photo realism and feel thats my strongest area, and its also the most interesting to me.

INTRODUCTION

My name is Cliff, and I've recently decided to give the art of tattooing a try. I thought it would be neat to document my rise (and potential fall) in the tattoo world and to track my progress.
Ive been tempted time and time again into trying tattoo art for a long time now. I can remember my friend Richard Lambe from Lucky Devil Tattoo in London, Ontario hounding me to give it a try as far back as I can remember. Wade Bond of Bonded Ink has offered me the opportunity quite a few times as well. Ive always had a respect for it, just no desire or motivation to try it myself, i guess I felt that it wasnt really for me. I was really quite clueless as far as how intricate the technique of tattooing is and I never felt a genuine interest until lately. Perhaps it was spending so much time at Wades shop watching him work his magic and picking up little tidbits here and there that sparked it, I dont know. But whatever the case, I found myself developing a real curiosity and a desire to give it a shot! When i noticed my interest begin to blossom, I talked to Wade about it and he was kind enough to give me another chance to train under him, and this time i graciously accepted. I cant express how grateful I am to have someone as talented and patient as him to work and train with. If I get the hang of things, I cant think of a cooler kat to work beside! so yeah, here I am, documenting my days as I do my best to become proficient in slinging ink. wish me luck! I'm surely gonna need it with all the solid competition out there!