Large work Back pieces or work that covers a large surface area is usually considered to be ‘large work’. It generally involves multiple sessions, is a custom design or a compilation of several smaller motifs, and most often is paid for by the hour for tattooing instead of quoting a job. Large Projects The first project is a landscape that because the client lives in another state, wasn’t going to be colored for several months, so it needed to look complete after the outline. We decided to color it like a charcoal drawing with the undershading until he came back for the rest of the color. Now that we have the color on this portion done, we now have plans to continue the drawing further down the back with a stream exiting the lake and then turning into a waterfall at the bottom of the back. Landscape with Charcoal Drawing under shading Landscape with color added The second project is adding another chest piece to give somewhat of a mirror image to an existing dragon, but with a different color scheme. This will eventually be part of a kimono style Japanese body suit. I had to fit this new dragon in amongst existing work on his upper arm that extended to the chest. Existing tattoo Before New Dragon Outline Top shoulder cap of new Dragon Day 1 Coloring Day 2 Coloring Day 3 Coloring Day 4 Coloring Finished dragon with clouds and lightning Matching dragons Now that we have finished this dragon, he wants the dragon on the other side recolored in a brighter color scheme to match his new dragon. We also are planning on adding the scalloping of the Japanese body suit next. Watch for updates! Recently I have started several New Large Projects. The newest is a recreation of a painting by Esao Andrews entitled “Happiness and Wisdom”. We originally had sized it to fit an upper arm, but we resized it to fit his forearm. We only need to finish the hair and skin now. Original art by Esao Andrews Line drawing for outline Day 1 Outline Day 1 Outline Detail on Obi and tools Day 2 color on kimono and owl Day 2 Owl detail Another new project is this butterfly with lilies on a back. We have completed the outline colored the butterfly. Now we Just need to finish coloring the lilies! Day 1 Outline Day 2 Butterfly colored Yet another project involves a tie-in to a tattoo on the other page. I did a peony on this client’s arm below an existing koi fish (he got elsewhere). We are now creating a Japanese type background to tie the two together. New Peony Peony and Koi with Peony and Koi with After second session of background from back background from front shading background
.		I have been also working on a project for a client that brought me a copy of a painting by Alonso Smith and wanted it recreated on his back. We got a few more sessions in this fall before going back on hiatus for a few months…. Here is a picture of the original art.
		To do this, I first needed to make a line drawing of the painting to create a stencil. I finished drawing objects that were cut off the paper so that the painting on his back would not have square edges.
		Next I colored a full- size mock up of the painting. The client and I collaborated on changing or adjusting colors from the original work in order to make the painting more ‘readable’ on his back.
Next came the ‘hard’ part of putting the outline on his back. Because the client had had an injury, he was unable to tolerate long sessions, so it took seven separate sessions to complete the outline.		Day 1	Day 2				Day 3
Day 4	Day 5	Day 6		Day 7 Outline Complete
Day 14		Now we are working on the long process of ‘coloring it in’. Watch the progress as the picture grows!			Day 18
Day 21					Day 28
Day 32		Day 35			Day 38

Kate is now working on a big project, too! She is slowly adding scenes from ‘Alice in Wonderland’ to

This lower back piece.

Alice with the Caterpillar Cheshire Cat added to scene

And toadstool

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