Background Shading, Day Two

I slept like a baby. I honestly can't remember the last time I slept like that, and I woke up feeling properly refreshed, which after yesterday's crash was a relief. Breakfast at the hotel, and I was starving again. My body was clearly still busy with the repair job from the day before. Quick coffee, and I was at the studio for about ten.

I'd assumed today would be more shading. It wasn't. We decided to go back to line work, which surprised me at the time, though in hindsight it makes complete sense. If you look back at the first entry, you'll see the line work was never quite finished: the back of the leg was looking relatively empty. So we spent the first hour or so drawing up what could live there.

The answer was a huge chrysanthemum sitting on a rock at the back, with another chrysanthemum on my hip area. Once that was drawn on, we got the lines in over the first half of the day.

And I have to say it: the design is incredible. That chrysanthemum on the rock at the back is going to be mega once it's shaded, and the background is so bold. This is exactly the look I was after for the entire bodysuit. Not a doubt in my mind.

The second half of the day moved on to shading the outside of the leg, and that was fine. Very manageable. The outside is definitely more tolerable than the inside, which I found out the hard way when we were doing some of the thick black bars on the inside of my leg. That area is spicy, no other word for it. I'm not exactly looking forward to shading there.

But the progress has been rapid. Two days, around eight hours of tattooing once you add in the drawing time, and it's starting to look like a proper leg sleeve. The detail is exactly what I mean when I talk about simple complexity: not many elements, but the way they sit together is wonderful to look at. I've managed to sit really well too, which I'm quietly proud of. Deneka and I have found a real flow now. Breaks are modest, a couple here and there, not many, and the work just keeps moving.

There are a couple of shots here from home too, which show where things have landed after the two days.

Next entry I'll check in on how it's healing. But this is where it got real. This is starting to look like part one of the bodysuit.

Super happy.