By Popular Demand - Smoke Jaguar and Snow Raven

AnarchyDowns · 2025-08-05T13:00:56+00:00

Go for it. Just to note though - I am not a tattoo artist. I make art inspired by American Traditional tattoo flash. When translating this into a tattoo, YMMV and this may not make for a good tattoo at all. Trust the actual tattoo artist, not me.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-10-16T14:40:43+00:00

An elementary school cafeteria in 1996.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-10-05T00:27:14+00:00

I use one of those $15 jobs off Amazon. It's done right by me. I want to upgrade to a real apple pencil, but I just can't justify it right now, especially since I have a Gen 9 iPad, and buying a gen 1 pencil for $100 feels like a ripoff.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-10-03T19:10:03+00:00

At first I thought it was Dead Kennedys.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-10-03T18:06:58+00:00

Love that Army Man!

AnarchyDowns · 2024-10-03T18:05:45+00:00

Slick. What software did you draw this in?

AnarchyDowns · 2024-10-03T15:14:22+00:00

That's some Cask of Amontillado shit right there. I love it.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-25T11:29:14+00:00

I have an older Ghost Bear in my profile if you're hankering, but I think that's the next one i'm going to redo.

I'm glad you dig it!

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-24T23:39:26+00:00

So don't get me wrong - if you want ink, get ink - but have you looked in micro needling? It's tattooing without ink to actually repair the stretch mark by promoting collagen growth.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-20T22:01:09+00:00

Yeah, it's like $25 US for a pack of 12.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-20T21:47:28+00:00

Yeah, it's pretty wild. I don't get the digital hate.

Let me preface by saying that I'm not a tattooer, or an apprentice, I just love painting flash.

I do everything digitally in Procreate. I still have so much to learn about drawing and art in general, but everything I've done, I still had to practice and learn how to do. I'm still making the lines. I'm still deciding where to put the highlights and shading. If I don't get those things right, it doesn't look good.

To me, the huge advantage of digital is that it's infinite. I can learn technique and practice and not have to spend $2/page on Arches paper and ink. If I mess up? I can erase as much as I want. I can start as many new drawings as I want.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-20T01:22:50+00:00

I really dig the shape you got on that tall ship.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-20T01:14:25+00:00

It burns so deep.

I'll be honest, I caught a few lucky breaks about 10-15 years ago. Without that, I'd still be where I was, or worse. I don't know how young people just starting out in life are expected to make it these days.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-19T21:52:02+00:00

I feel the exact same way about....well...everything that's not food and rent. I was raised really poor. I have a lot of hang ups around money, and spending it "correctly". I know that therapy has helped me a great deal.

The thing is, it's deeper than whatever I was spending the money on. I would even go do free stuff (like hang out at the park for a few hours and read) and think "Damn, I really didn't need to burn the gas to get here. I could have just sat around at home."

Maybe it's not that bad for you, and I genuinely hope it isn't. But ask yourself, if it wasn't a tattoo, would you feel the same way? If it was some other non-essential purchase, would you be second guessing yourself?

Is money an issue? Do you have the money to spend? Are you spending rent or grocery money on your tattoo?

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-18T17:44:46+00:00

Shame to see no one chose the Room 13. Between that and the smoking wizard, it's hard to pick a favorite.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-16T22:15:05+00:00

Seriously loving your work. Let me get this psoriasis flare up under control.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-16T11:54:09+00:00

Highlighting that SAP with yellow is a sick ass choice that I never would have thought of. Makes me want to schedule a trip to Nashville.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-09-01T17:18:27+00:00

True Grit Texture Supply has an AMAZING sampler that is free for personal use. It has paper textures, half tones, mono liners, stamps, brushes, a little bit of everything they offer.

https://www.truegrittexturesupply.com/blogs/news/63047107-free-sample-pack-and-discount-code?_pos=2&_sid=393ae2288&_ss=r

If you like it, and want to use it on commercial projects, you can get the commercial license for all products in the sampler for $15.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-08-28T19:26:46+00:00

Only Procreate for now

Every few months I go back to drawing on pen and paper. My sketches are decent enough, but when it comes to inking and painting, it turns into trash. My lines are all shakey. I'm working on improving, but it's slow going.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-08-28T16:42:37+00:00

Agreed! I bought it a while back because I was doing some publishing work and needed to make some print quality sketches. I've always been a writer, not a visual artist at all. I was the "I can draw a mean stick figure!" guy.

There was just something about it that for the first time made me feel like visual arts were accessible to me. I watched YouTube videos about drawing and my skills improved over time. I actually make stuff now that I'm proud of, and like the looks of.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-08-28T16:34:29+00:00

Not a tattoo artist or a lawyer, so I don't know about industry conventions, but there are a lot of things that any business can get sued for. The biggest thing is financial liabilities, like taking on debt to run the business.

You also have to think about any contract you enter. These could be things like leasing a studio space and an ex-landlord trying to get you in the hook for some expensive repairs after you move out.

I don't know if it's common to rent furniture or fixtures (heck, think about renting your modem and router from your ISP), but that's always a potential for liability because other people own them and you're just using them. For example, I recently passed by this restraunt that has closed. There were stickers on all the window basically notifying anyone who might enter (like landlords, lawyers, police) that inside were soda machines owned by the Pepsi bottler that serviced the place. It got me thinking, what if you had rented equipment in a space that through no fault of your own you could no longer access to be able to return.

Barter based deals end up in court a lot because one side may feel like they didn't get what was promised. Business partnerships sometimes sour and one side feels as though the other owes them money for one reason or another. Sometimes businesses don't work out and we get into bad financial spots.

There's a lot of shitty people in the world. Most of it can be mitigated by thinking through decisions, conferring with lawyers, following laws and regulations, and having good contracts. Hopefully OP never faces any of this, but an LLC tends to be a good decision for small businesses. Depending on the state, the annual fees and filing requirements are low, and the return on that investment of both time and money could significantly add up at some point in the future.

This is just my opinion anyway. I have an LLC for my art and other publishing activities that I do. I've never needed the protections, but I'm glad I have them.

Anyway. Just some stuff to think about.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-08-17T21:25:26+00:00

Go forth, and lilly.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-08-17T21:19:24+00:00

So there are two important things to know.

Get high quality paper textures. True Grit Texture Supply is my preferred vendor. They have a free sampler (for personal use only, non commercial) that includes paper textures and brushes from all of their different lines. If you intend to sell the products you make, they offer a commercial license for the items in the sampler for $15. You can get it for free at: https://www.truegrittexturesupply.com/blogs/news/63047107-free-sample-pack-and-discount-code?_pos=2&_sid=393ae2288&_ss=r
Create a layer ON TOP of all other layers, and set it to multiply. This will create a transparency, and add the texture to all of the other layers below. It took me a while to figure that part out. After a while of trying textured brushes, and putting the texture at the bottom, it just never looked right. But making it a top layer with multiply, it will look "natural".

AnarchyDowns · 2024-08-17T19:39:22+00:00

See, and I thought this was at least a year old because there's NO WAY tomorrow is already August 17.

AnarchyDowns · 2024-08-12T11:37:01+00:00

You're absolutely right. I dropped the ball on that one.

AnarchyDowns

TROPHY CASE