Jodeen

Photos of Palm Springs

This is a shot of our motel


Mom in Sedona

Everyone must now be tortured with my vacation photos. I'm going to keep it to my very favorites, but Sedona is one of my very favorite places on earth and I want these in my journal. Maybe you'll love them too. Otherwise just scroll fast. I'll do it in chunks.

I just got to Seattle and realized I forgot spitkitten 's wedding invite. I'm on the list so I should still be able to get in but I need the info on the when and where again. Can someone email me at bellafetish@hotmail.com? I am Spaciness Incarnate. I sent an email to patty_puke but in case she doesn't get it, if someone could send it to me I would be so grateful.

I swear I live on the kindness of my friends.

Jodeen

My sweet little bluegrass-playing mother let me put a tattoo on her yesterday. It's about 3" on her shoulder and she said it didn't hurt at all. It took less than 20 minutes once we started. She's in shock, but she loves it.

It's number 16.

They stand for Loyalty and Strength

I'm trying to draw more...

So I am free-flowing. My ideas are not coming. I haven’t been drawing enough. My imagery is stagnant, all the same. It’s the fact I stopped carrying a sketch book and birthing my thoughts. I roll about in circles. A year’s worth of thoughts are blocked up in my head and I need to break the dam. I think of where I’ve been. The depression, the break up, the anxiety, the fury, the acceptance, the peace, the desire to build something new; there are images within all those emotions. I just have to revisit them. It’s not comfortable, but good art rarely is. I don’t want to make angry art right now. I’m feeling optimistic. Optimistic art is hard. I’m not used to happy, peaceful feelings. But if I can I’d like to pull some energy from that. I have canvas prepped and ready to go. I’ll spend an hour drawing on that idea today.

People are coming to be tattooed. I should spend some time on my book. One is coming for touch up, but said she’d take another if I find a cool design. I’ll look for something in my skill range. The other needs touch up and a piece I started finished. It was a hard piece and I quit it on the outline. I know now I didn’t get enough stretch. It was a back of an arm, a hard place to stretch. A very curvy piece. A dragon. It was too hard for me and I’d like to wait on it, but he wants it done. The outline is 80% done and I’ll have to draw the rest since there’s no way to get a stencil back on it. I can do it, I’ve hand-drawn it five or six times to get the lines down. But it’s a hard piece. I took on too much. Now I know. I’m too ambitious. I think because I can do it on paper I can do it on skin and I’m not there yet. I’ll finish the outline, the shading won’t be hard. I’m getting much better at that. I need to print out some stars for his other piece. Maybe I can find him a cool piece for his other arm and distract him away from the dragon. I doubt it. No one likes partially completed art on them. I know my back drives me crazy. I’m going to call tomorrow about starting the color. I can’t believe that black in the outline blocks took three times to get solid. That reduced to torture. I wonder if my teacher is teaching me to go too light. It usually takes him two tries to get color in good. My tattoos are looking like they are going to be the same way from what I’m seeing from the healing results. I don’t know if I like that. Other tattooists get it in on the first take. Why can’t I? But I only can do what I’ve seen and been taught. Is it needle depth? We go really light. Maybe we aren’t getting the color in deep enough. I don’t know. I’m too new to tell. I’m still learning to get a solid take without trashing the skin or getting holes. So far pretty good on that. Maybe it’s something I can learn from another artist down the road. After I’ve gotten all this one can teach me. I’ve a feeling our time together is coming to a close. He can’t get his own shop open with his resources now and is going to go back to a regular job and tattoo on his days off. He hasn’t called me for a single tattoo since we left the shop. He doesn’t have time for an apprentice. I’ll have him finish my back and call it good. I’ll need another teacher though. Maybe I can find one in Seattle. I need more guidance before I’m out there totally on my own. I want to know how to do the cool stuff. I need help critiquing my baby stuff. I know just the basics. The basics won’t get me where I want to be. My teacher had a wonderful teacher. He’s helped me the best he can, but he didn’t really want the job to begin with. He’s taught me a lot and I’m really grateful, but I have so much more to learn. I could almost start over somewhere else. They might take me now because I do have this year under my belt. I still need to design flash. It’s not easy. I’ve almost got enough pinup girls for a sheet. I’d like to do a skull sheet. I love skulls. I should do some girl stuff. Butterflies and shit. I’ll draw and see what comes up. I want this. I'm determined. I will find a way. Who was it that said when the student is ready the teacher appears? I'm ready. I'm teachable. I want everything and I'm not too proud to learn it from the bottom all over again if that's what it takes.

these are pretty rough, but I'm just trying out ideas. Do they look like they could be worked into tattoos?

I finally did some fetish work after HOW long? TOTALLY not work safe.

just add girl...

( Read more... )

Happy birthday visioninblack !

Something I'm working on. I still have a few changes to make.

I drew for a couple of hours yesterday. I got some ideas. I think I need to draw at least an hour a day. I think it’s as important as journaling, if not more. I journal more than these public entries and then just put them private since they are more stream-of-conscious. It’s supposed to be good for creativity. I try to keep these a bit more earthy although they can still be dull. They are more records of what’s going on in my life. After drawing I studied cosmetic tattooing until I wanted to rip out my eyeballs. I hate that book. It’s written and put together so oddly. For $3000 she could at least proof read. I still can’t find the answers to all the test questions and I’ve read the book through 3 times. Looks like I’ll go for four. I’ve also made flash cards for the really boring stuff that she’ll probably want memorized. Most of this is just not going to stick until I see it done. I learn by watching and doing. But I’ll get this stuff in my head and it’ll come in handy down the line when we are doing it. It’s more complicated than you’d think. But it’s people’s faces. You don’t want to fuck up someone’s face. There is really no room for mistakes or errors. I understand that. I understand makeup. I like tattooing. I think I’ll be able to do this. But it’s a very careful process. So I want to be very prepared. I’m still more into the traditional tattoos. But it’ll take me longer to master that. Years to get to the place I want to be with that. It’s probably going to take six months to be where I can do a tattoo that doesn’t scream “beginner!” It depends on how much practice I get. I’m buying grapefruit today. I hate grapefruit. They’ll just be thrown away after I tattoo them.

I want to paint today. Hopefully they’ll be time after errands. I broke a tube of cad yellow light and so I’ll be using a lot of that before it dries out. It’s a great color. I’ll need a new tube without a hole in it. The smell of oil paint and turpentine makes me heady. I love it.

I’m still prepping the new canvases. I have some ideas, but am not going to start anything yet. I have a few old pieces I can work on. There are still three portraits I could finish but I’m completely not interested in them right now. I want to do something with emotion and energy.

I drew a really cute pinup girl yesterday. Maybe I’ll post it.

I better get moving.

I'm totally sick. My nose is stuffy. My throat hurts. My head is pounding.

Why does it take this to remind me I'm allergic to cats?

I have to stop playing with the kitten.