The Human Canvas - Mixing and Matching - Michelle

Michelle.

I'd done a bit of filming for her, and was

rewarded with a canvas to work on. I've known her for

a while, and I guess I'd been leering long enough, as

she offered it up before I could ask. 

I was certainly gonna, but she was

quicker on the draw.

As it were.

I've been working

on a design to connect my wife's 

two tattoos into one, so THIS session

was gonna be a treat for me. Michelle already 

had a couple of Chinese characters on her neck,

and an Egyptian theme running across the top of her back.

Across the small of her back - a bunch of wonderfully

colored flowers. 

I got to fill in the space between.

I had kind of forgotten exactly what her

upper back design was, only a vague shape. So I started thinking about a Thunder bird.

I told her, and she said that was something

 she'd been thinking about as well.

So it was settled.

Well, it WAS settled.

Then I started worrying about mixing a

Native American piece in with

the others.

I finally decided that with 

Chinese, Egyptian, and the flowers

(which I felt had a Polynesian feel), I was safe

to venture into yet another culture. Mixing and matching on Michelle would work out fine.

Besides, a

thunder bird would go with the rest in other

ways, mirroring in shape...

...And in color as well.

Now it's just a matter of playing with

those smears and blends. And there are extra

photos on this session for the whole step-by step thing.

It makes for a decent slideshow.

A little blurred and outside the edges... but that truly doesn't matter - straying slightly outside of your borders. At least in areas where you're gonna go re-define the edges with black anyway.

Still though, I have a few ideas on how to control the smear/blend just a bit.

That'll come soon.

Meantime...

A cotton swab does the trick.

Nicely. A tip though. Buy generic.

Beyond generic. Buy something really really cheap.

Q-Tips have a wonderful, full, fluffy tip - great

for what they're actually

MADE for...

But when ya dip 'em in alcohol and drag 'em across the skin, they start to spread out... sometimes giving less of a smear/blend, and more of a general wash...

...That you have to

disguise  with a buncha little circles.

Oh well. Looks good. Works well for that type of art.

Ya don't make mistakes. You make happy

little discoveries.

Now the thing with Sharpies, 

is that upon application, they WILL stand out 

from a real tattoo. No matter how good (or not) the 

Sharpie drawing may be. The trick to avoiding this - is powdering it. Just like if you had just put on 

makeup, and were trying 

to avoid shine. 

Um, I didn't have any. 

Michelle asked, "Do you have any corn starch?" 

Now that I reflect back on this day, I wonder if she might 

have been kidding. Didn't matter at that point. 

 I was OFF to the kitchen.

BOOM!

Um, I didn't have any corn starch either. 

All I could find was some instant gravy kinda 

thickener kinda powder 

kinda stuff.

Being the person who suggested

corn starch in the first place, Michelle was

okay with this being sprinkled on her. And the stuff spreads okay, but doesn't do too much for taking off that shine.

It just sorta sweeps off, leaving 

white powder along the edges of your backdrop. 
Uh - and the cat.

So - this thunderbird remained a bit more vivid

than the other tattoos..

Now the thing is, even without washing, 

these things will fade slowly anyway. Well, technically 

speaking, they're not actually fading, but rather, 

the skin is slowly flaking away. So the next day, 

these things are always muted, having the 

vibrancy of something more 

akin to a real tattoo. 

Problem is, with the fading of color, 

you get a fading of detail. I always wanted to go 

back into one of these things, the day after, 

but never pursued the chance. 

Until now. 

I had mentioned that this session would be a treat for me. 

The next day was even better. 

And that's the next session. 

Some touch-ups - and some additions. 

OH! And no no NO more instant gravy kinda 

thickener kinda powder kinda stuff 

for ME, let me tell ya!

 Michelle gave me a small vial of the PROPER powder.

I mean... It SO makes a difference.

Check back and see.

Thanks for stopping by this time around,

and a BIG thanks to Mike Munoz, serving as photographer

for me for this and quite a few

other sessions.

This also, SO makes a difference.