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!