A key part of this project is creating the fictional artists and their portfolios. I chose to use my research from the previous assignment (and my personal interest) to create three different artists that each focus on a different style of tattooing. All tattoo designs however will be completed and compiled by myself.
There are three artists so far, Cherry, Corey and Heather. Cherry is the owner of the studio and subsequently it is named after her. Cherry is almost based off of me as her style and her portfolio is composed of the style that I enjoy making the most and also the cleanest illustrations in my opinion.
Cherry’s art style is inspired by the traditional tattoo styles that originated in the 1700s, and is also reminiscent of a style called neo-traditional: Neo-traditional tattoo designs feature bold, dark outlines and illustrative looks. (Meszko, 2022) This style is one of my favourites as it is bold and historic. As you can see in figure 1, this design is inspired heavily by the art nouveau movement (of which I researched heavily in my research project) the design is based off of classical illustrations made by Aubrey Beardsley and Toulouse-Lautrec. However as you can see in figure 2, there are also some more traditional designs based on tattoo pioneers such as Sailor Jerry and Ed Hardy, the tiger has been a common tattoo symbol of ‘protection’ and ‘strength’ traditionally for a very long time (jhaiho, 2019)
Corey’s portfolio is very much inspired by the now extremely popular patchwork tattoo styles. Often completely different styles, patchwork tattoos are not meant to create any sort of sleeve or continuation on the body, they are instead individual illustrations that cover a part of the body as patchwork would. I also chose to have patchwork tattoos featured in this portfolio as ‘The beauty of patchwork tattoos is that they can be done in any style’ (Martina, ?) and subsequently this gave me a lot more freedom to show instead my illustrative skills. You can see this illustrative and almost ignorant artistic approach in figure 3. These small designs could be tattooed anywhere, don’t have much specific imagery or symbolism behind them but still tattoos similar to this still end up making very popular tattoos.
Heather’s work is inspired by realism and features mostly animal portraits. ‘Realism is considered to be one of the hardest styles to tattoo’ (INKPPL, ?) and because of this I wanted to have an artist in the studio that could do it. Realism tattoos end up being very popular, and as it is such a difficult style to execute, artists that can do it are in constant high demand. As you can see below in both figure 4 and 5 I focused on both colour and black and white realism, figure 4 was made traditionally with coloured pencils and figure 5 was made using procreate on the IPad.
I chose these styles for each artist as they’re each vastly different from one another, this means that in general the studio itself covers a wide range of client preferences therefore widening the audience scope. I also wanted to utilise the research I had done by showing my knowledge in a variety of different styled illustrations.
In terms of where these artists will fit on the website – each artist will have their own summary on the ‘Artists’ page. From here there will be a short description of what they do, how long they have been doing it for and what their style means, but from here you will also be able to access their portfolio via a button that will lead to the ‘Portfolios’ page, each artist will get their own separate page for their designs. Overall I am extremely happy with the outcome of these three portfolios, not only do I think they are well designed, they will also be extremely helpful in the future in regards to having a well rounded tattoo portfolio.
REFERENCES
INKPPL. (?) REALISM TATTOO STYLE – THE BEST TATTOO ARTISTS. Available online: https://inkppl.com/en/tattoo-artists/realism#:~:text=Realism%20is%20considered%20to%20be,education%20from%20a%20tattoo%20master [Accessed 19/05/2023]
Jhaiho. (2019) Tiger Tattoos and their Meanings. Available online: https://medium.com/@jhaiho17/tiger-tattoos-and-their-meanings-70c0df05dd76 [Accessed 18/05/2023]
Meszko, B. (2022) WHAT ARE THE DESIGN ASPECTS OF NEO-TRADITIONAL TATTOOS? Available online: https://hushanesthetic.com/blogs/community/design-aspects-of-neo-traditional-tattoos [Accessed 18/05/2023]
Martina, T. (?) Patchwork Tattoos, What They Are, And Examples Of Patchwork Tattoos. Available online: https://www.mrinkwells.com/blogs/news/patchwork-tattoos-what-they-are-and-examples-of-patchwork-tattoos [Accessed 18/05/2023]