Monday, November 28, 2005

Twin palms

Ok heres a story...
These two guys who are identical twins asked me to do matching back tattoos for them.
The subject they asked for was a sort of beach scene with palm trees, these guys surf and spend alot of time in tropical sunny places around the world so this tattoo was an obvoius choice for them and suits them very well.
I have known these guys as customers for many years and so I felt comfortable with suggesting a twist on the project. The idea was to make two backs that match as a set but are each one unique and that when the two brothers come together the tattoos both make one scene.
Because the twins spend alot of time in the sun we chose to do the tattoo with a very minimalist aproach, using only black silhouette shapes for the palms and minimal shading for the background, this way they can tan thier tattoo without worrying so much about losing the image to fading or sun damage.
The twins live in Vancouver, B.C. and last winter they flew out to see me to have the outlines done. Shortly after that the twins had the idea that I should come out to Vancouver and work on them there, after a little bit of arm twisting I agreed.
My friend and kick ass tattoo artist Steve Moore offered me the use of his studio to do the work.
Steve is a very talented and cutting edge tattoo artist who recently opened his own studio and so I was excited to have the chance to work with him and be in his new environment.

Check out Steve's web site.

So, i went there for the week, I worked on the twins for four days straight, eight hours each day at a grueling non stop pace. It was tough and hard work but they did it and we completed both backpieces.
It was a fun project to work on and it was great hanging out with Steve and of course the twins, Troy and Rory.

Here are some shots of the work and us around the studio...












Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Keeping busy

Working on lots of new projects and finishing some pieces as well.
I've also made some new paintings.
Watch for new prints coming soon, I will announce it here when they are ready.
Tonight i'm heading off to Vancouver for a few days to work on these two backs.

Here's a recent sleeve I completed a week or two ago...