Hey welcome to the Fireside Tattoo Network. This is fireside technique and I am Jake and
I wanted to do a quick episode today on my thought process whenever I am designing tattoos for darker
skin tones. We've done a podcast episode or two on this in years past, but it's kind of an abstract
thing whenever it's just people sitting around a table talking about it so I thought we would
use a literal example and hopefully this helps you out when your next tattoo design.
All right, so Cedric has some stuff that we have (need you to turn just slightly) Cedric has some stuff
that we have already started, we blocked in what maybe a month ago something like that.
And so, the biggest thing to consider and now we still we're kind of we blocked in the majority of that some
of this is still marker, but the biggest thing to consider or the thing you should know on
the front end, is that when you're dealing with darker skin tones we're always we're already
working within a very limited value range right which means that we need to push our contrast
even further. The way to do that is to reduce the total number of values, so we're still pushing as
dark as we can go and as light as we can do go but the difference is as light as we can go is
this right here, ascetic skin Cedric's complexion the darkness we can go is the closest we can get
to black which is you know and here. So in order to really optimize how to push that as far as we can,
we want to limit the greys in between. So we're on a complexion like mine, I might use five six
seven different Gray's starting from a light light all the way up to black, I probably won't use more
than four Grey's total in this entire piece in an effort to simplify the shapes that's the goal
simplifying the shapes because what we want when this thing is settled in and he's lived with it
for a couple of years, we want when you see him from, I don't know 10 feet away, you want it to
the shapes themselves to be super clear super easy to read and draw you in so that you want
to so you want to look closer. And the mistake I think that's most common to make is that you get
into, so I've got a lot of like gears and stuff happening and then through here you want to turn
and kind of get to the front a little bit too we got gears and cogs and all this kind of stuff
and you'll tend to want to come through and really add all these subtle little transitions and lights
and darks, and what that tends to do is flatten the image out over time we want to make really
really deliberate decision. So in this case I'm gonna push my background as dark as possible, I'm
gonna keep my foreground as light as possible and I'm gonna simplify those shapes, I'm gonna
think about it basically in two planes to start background and foreground nothing in the midground
background and foreground. And as I work I, might slowly subtly start to play with transitions.
But that would be after I've already established all of my darks and all of my lights I'm working
from simple to complex so you've never you never solve a problem by making it more complicated you
solve problems by simplifying them, and it's more important than ever when you're dealing
with a limited value range, like you are when you're when you're tattooing darker skin tones.
Another thing to consider you know I'm pretty lucky here and that we're using a lot of big
bold shapes that will have big bold lines another thing to consider if you are dealing with subject
matter where you need subtle transitions is pay attention to the person the part of the
body that you're working on. So for example Cedric is probably several shades lighter here where he
hasn't been in the Sun then he is on his outer forearm no different than then you know then I
would be by but typically outer forearms are the darkest part of anyone so you want to avoid when
you're planning say a sleeve you would want to avoid putting all of your finest detail work or
your most the star of your composition, the most important part of your composition in the areas
where you have the least that the yeah the least value range. So for example if if we were working
just on the forearm and Cedric wanted a portrait or something that required maybe something that
was like vegetation had really soft leaves or something in that something like that with it,
where I had to have really soft transitions I would likely move to his inner forearm where the
skins a little bit lighter than the outer forearm . Same thing goes and I think for the most part you
know it's the same rule with anyone no matter the skin complexion, usually inner arms inner forearms
shoulders are going to be lighter than outer arms in general so it just gives you a place to start
when you're designing. If you know you that the star of your composition the thing that has to
be seen it is going somewhere on an arm you may as well just plan for that part to be on the arm
and then let the transition simplify as it moves around to the area where you less contrast to work.
All right, so to sum it up when designing tattoos for darker skin tones, shape comes first simple
easy to read shapes think about seeing that tattoo from 10 feet away is it going to read
well simple shapes limiting the total number of values so we want a full value range we
need contrast but we only need a handful of values within that value range we're working very simply
simple to complex and then finally when you're laying it out think about the lighter and darker
areas of the body and try to place the star of your composition into place where you have the
easiest time pushing contrast, so inner forearm versus outer forearm so I hope that helps let
us know if you have any questions or comments. If you have ideas on how you design tattoos
for darker skin tones we'd love to hear about it this is a sharing platform so if you share,
we share everyone learns Thank you guys as always for supporting what we do, we'll see you next time.