Tutorials
HOW TO TATTOO A ROSE DESIGN
HOW TO TATTOO a ROSE design
In the last lesson we did a basic mandala tattoo design. To further practice and develop our line work skills in this lesson we’re going to be doing something very similar to give you more of the crucial time needed with the machine on our hands to help us improve as fast as possible. Physically repeating something is the most effective way of learning it. We’re going to be tattooing the outline of a rose, possibly one of the most popular tattoo’s known to man kind! In fact I dare say that if you haven’t tattooed a rose at some time or another during your tattoo career, can you even be considered a tattoo artist? That’s how popular these designs are. You will be getting asked for these week in and week out for the rest of your career.
Later on in the course we’re going to be coming back to these designs to learn and implement different shading methods, skills and techniques. But for now lets just focus at the task at hand which is to complete some nice line work. So we all need to remember to take things nice and slow, step by step.
There is no rush. It is really important that we do not bypass all these crucial stages and jump straight to the things that people consider as advanced. I predict that there will be many people who follow along with these lessons and think right, yep, I have got the line work and understand it now so lets move onto the fancy stuff, like shading. I want you to be the best you can possibly be in the fastest time possible if I can help you with that it means I have done my job correctly. You may be thinking “well if I shoot straight to the fancy stuff then I’ll learn quicker”. Well that’s totally wrong. Jumping ahead and not spending enough time practising and developing each individual skill is going to slow you down in the long run. You need to spend time in these fundamental areas and develop them before moving forward. I have put this course together in such a way that each lesson naturally progresses onto the next. Yes we will be doing portraits at the back end of the course, yes we will be learning how to shade using different needles and different techniques from stipple, to whip shading, to brush shading and hammering them all in both specific drills to learn and build each skill, followed by doing designs that will reinforce everything you have been learning. But right now you don’t need to be worrying about all that fancy stuff as you will be covering all that in great detail later on. Let’s put all our focus and energy into the current lesson.
So let’s get into it. Remember all the points we have learnt to date. You should also be thinking about what works best for you in terms of hand position, the order in which you do things and the speed that you do them at. We are all different and as long as you remember the key skills and theory behind what you are doing you’ll be fine.
