Tutorials

HOW TO WHIP SHADE

HOW TO WHIP SHADE WITH A ROUND LINER

we have covered line work, straight lines, curved lines, circles, how to join lines, we have covered dot work and done multiple designs to get used to blocking in different shades and blends and learned the concepts of shading. Now its time to learn how to whip shade using the round shader. Whip shading is an extremely useful and versatile method for shading that is used in most tattoos especially when blending form a dark line to a light area. As ever I’ll explain the method so you have a deeper understanding of how and why it works then we will jump onto the mats and do some drills so you get plenty of time to practise the method.

Think back to the path we take when doing a normal line (image 76). We enter the skin controlled and then leave in the same way keeping a consistent speed throughout. Then. remember the path we took when leaving the skin and re-entering to join a line together with a invisible join (image 77). Well today’s lesson we need to learn a new path but this time we also need to change the speed of the hand as well.

Think back to machine and hand speed when we learnt that we could move our hand twice as fast with the machine running at the same speed and obviously this would cause the needle to going in and out of the skin half the amount of times (image 78). For whip shading we want the area where we enter the skin to be the darkest so we enter the skin like before. To create the shading we taper out of the skin, the length of the blend is determined by how long the taper out is, however we also need to increase our hand speed as we taper out (image 79). The combination of gradually leaving the skin with increasing our hand speed will create this affect.

For this lesson I’ve used my Sol Nova Unlimited with a 1218RS and solid black ink. We will look at how to use and make your own grey washes later in the course. Personally think its better to learn everything with just black then you’re purely relying on the techniques to achieve lighter greys this will help you master these techniques and to build muscle memory. So as I explained we’re going to enter the skin then ‘whip’ out whilst increasing the speed. The distance could be short or long depending on the design and you will get a feel for each as you start to practice and ultimately master the technique. I want

you to practice both. I find it useful to lock the little finger of my tattooing hand into my stretching hand (image 80) and use this as a pivot to help steady my hands and achieve a smooth action, it can also help propel the tattooing hand as it whips out of the skin.

So, we’re going to do go into the skin and whip out, in, whip out, in, whip out (image 81). You’ll see that the lines start dark and as the needle comes out they get lighter. Because of the movement of the hand it’s easier to do it away from you. Pulling and whipping is a totally different hand movement. Before we look at this I suggest you do one full row of whipping from the bottom up, try doing longer and shorter blends but always try to make the blend smooth. Next I want to practice whipping towards us. I find it easier to complexly change my hand position (image 82). From this position it will be much easier to whip down form the top. Again think about the motion: In, whip out, in, whip out… this time entering at the top and whipping towards yourself. In this position I sometimes use the index finger of my stretching hand to steady my tattooing hand (image 83).

Play about with this technique. Try going from a corner like we did with the dots, and try different lengths of gradient. As ever the more you do the better, fill an entire matt if you have time!