So I showed in a previous post the start of my koi fish, pagoda tattoo. Phil Young from Hope Gallery Tattoo in CT is my artist. Well I went back to start the shading, so here are the pics! This was 5 hours in the chair, each lily took about 2 hours to complete. I can’t wait to go back and start in on the pagoda and koi fish.

I suppose this falls under the “&Such” part of WebDesign&Such. I recently started a full sleeve Japanese style arm tattoo. I’ve always loved tattoos, and have been thinking of this tattoo for a while. I wanted a koi fish with a pagoda and some water lilies. After looking around at a variety of artists, I decided that Phil Young from Hope Gallery Tattoo, of CT was the artist for the job.

Four hours in the chair, and the outlining is done. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks to start the shading. I’ve decided to stick with black and grays instead of doing any color. I saw a painting the other day at the California State Fair. The painting was black and grays with no color. Artist Michael Sly explained the reason for this choice to not use color

“My palette choice is black, white, and three shades of gray. I feel once the artist introduces color to the painting it eliminates the viewer’s imagination; everything is identified for them.”

I agree with that theory, which was the reason I chose to use grays. Here’s some pics from my first session in the chair. Check back for updates in a couple weeks!

UPDATE: I started the shading..check out the new pics here!

I took these photos in February of 2009 in San Juan, Puerto Rico. This time I was using a Casio EX-S10 camera.

I took these photos in San Juan in February of 2008 with an Olympus SP-350 camera. They were taken around the “Old San Juan” area. Great place to visit.. so warm…

Here are a few shots from St. Maarten that I snapped last February. Really an amazing place for photography.