Hannya, Peony and Chrysanthemum's

New paintings where i am trying to simplify my colour choice and drawing, simplicity is always the best but always the hardest to achieve! 

Irezumi Pin ups 2

Some of these larger scaled ladies were created using some of the original A4 ladies outlines, and some completely new ladies drawn especially for this size, as i grew more confident with creating the bodysuits i wanted to work larger to allow for more detail. These larger A3 ink and watercolour pieces were the result.

Tattoo Style Flash Sheets

I wanted to create more flash sheets based around tattoo themes, i wanted to continue the practice of creating smaller contained images arranged on a pages as oppose to individual large scale paintings. the [process was great for working on simplifying ideas and for layout and spacing with composition.

Irezumi Flash sheets

I begun a process of creating traditional 'American' tattoo flash sheets but using my own style and aiming towards Japanese themes for the subject matter. Creating these flash sheets provide great practice for layout, sizing and page composition. 

Irezumi Pin Ups

I created this set of girls with the intention to try out new painting techniques that did not have a black outline, i wanted to give each girl an individual character and Irezumi suit. Each girl has a theme, some poses inspired by Bruce Timm's work and some poses inspired by Gil Elvgren pin up girls

 

Irezumi Flash Sheet work

One of my major interests is Ukiyo-e work, this eventually led to an interest in Irezumi and tattooing, i have created many images on the themes from Ukiyo-e and Irezumi but i recently started to design tattoo style flash sheets to explore the ideas of the two merging further. These ink and watercolour paintings are a Kingyo and Oni Demons set of flash.

Kingyo Irezumi Set

Probably the last post of the year for 2014! I have felt compelled to add images to this blog even though the frequency that i post at has slowed down since i started it... nearly 5 years ago! a lot of my images i tend to post through Instagram and on my own website, but every now and then i will post some progress here. This set of Kingyo were a continuation of the Koi seasons but with goldfish, i tried again to give each one a distinct colour scheme, i was very happy with the outcome of this set!

44 Demons Samurai

I completed these smaller A4 44 Demons pieces recently, the Irezumi on the arms was done freehand with a brush and ink as i did not want it to have a outline like the characters. The masking and solid colour behind each character was a new technique that i tried out that has worked well.

The poses for each character came from looking at Kuniyoshi and Kunisada prints of samurai.

Seasonal Koi

Finished the Koi through the seasons series, from the top left its Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter. I wanted the water colour to reflect the season along with the colour and pose of each Koi, the plant in each image represents the season also. 

Koi through the Seasons

Just finished the inks on this set of four koi each in a different season, colours to follow soon. From the left they are autumn with maples, summer with peonies, spring with Sakura and winter with no flower...

44 Demons Irezumi

These are the finished pieces using the characters from my 44 demons comic. The father and son's Irezumi relates to their personality and fighting styles....

Oni Demon Designs

Two pieces that I am currently working on, a set of Oni demons wielding classic japanese weapons, going for really bright colours on these, second guy is gonna have green hair and blue skin...

44Demons Irezumi Progress

Progress update on one of a set of two large scale character images that I haven't touched in a while, I am eager to get them finished!

Koi and Kingyo pieces

Finally finished these two pieces, both koi and kingyo are painted with acrylic and Indian ink on cartridge paper, still need to give them a signiture and date!

In Progress Paintings...

A selection of paintings that i am currently working on, i posted these shots as i have not finished and posted any work lately. I may have started to many different pieces at once! all the paintings here are Acrylic and Indian ink on cartridge paper.

Ryu/Dragon Irezumi Design

Here are two different colour schemes for the one design of this Ryu/Dragon, dragons for me have always been hard to get right, i feel that i have made progress with this design and will be working on more soon, i couldn't decide between the two colour versions so i posted both, enjoy!

Woodblock Printing...

Having always been interested in Japanese Ukiyo-e prints i have always wanted to develop a technique that i could use in a similar fashion to the Japanese. I begun experimenting at work with the laser cutter to burn into wood the patterns of my drawings so as to use them as woodblocks.