my portfolio...

hey there, I have worked as an apprentice for a year or so but my teacher packed up shop and moved to chile. so im on the search again.i currently have a very weak portfolio and i am doing what i can to better it. i have taken painting classes in oils and acrylics,a sculpture class and im signed up to do a drawing class,but heres where its tricky. I dont know what to paint,draw and sculpt,im having this huge artists block.so what i was considering doing was asking some of my favorite artists for permission to do my own rendition of their work,show it to them and if they approve it looks good enough for them then use it in my portfolio with the credit for the original going to the original artist.i would never dream of naming another artists work my own. Being honest im not very good with rawing and painting stuff from my head,but lets say im asked to do something and a person describes it to me,then i can do it with reference. I know that with plenty of time and practice i will have done so much that it will come naturally eventually,kinda like if i draw enough skulls,eventually i wont need reference anymore i can do it from my head know what i mean? I intend on doing a very varied portfolio but do you think its a bad thing if i dont have a lot of my own original designs in there? any help is appreciated,and please,i lost a family member not so long ago and i am in no mood for asshole comments. thanks :-)

I'm not good at drawing from my head either. And aside from the art classes you are taking (bravo, by the way), most artists just don't know how to draw tattooable art from the word "go". Chances are they've studied many, many reference books. Honestly though, I don't have the cash right now to buy all those books. But here is what I decided to do: First I wrote a VERY basic list that are somehow elements in most tattoos, like water, fire, banners, leaves, clouds, etc. I decided to look up references on each different one (I used www.tattoojohnny.com ). I started with leaves. Do you realize how many styles of leaves there are? lol So I drew rough sketches of each different type of leaf. Then I practiced drawing and perfecting each leaf. I'll continue to do this with the rest of the list. Then I made a more substancial list of other popular but trickier subjects - roses, skulls, other flowers, you get the idea. Then I'll have many different options for putting together each idea I have.Then I'll move onto composition by mixing and matching the things I already know how to draw. I'll have my own references that I've practiced beforehand instead of looking them up when I need them. Hope that helps some. :)

heya inksane gina,thanks for the reply and advice,i do that quite a lot and im working on it every day but i still wana get my portfolio done and get it out there you know,i do have some of my own artwork to put in there but do you think its acceptable just for the portfolio if i do what i said above with other artist work? just to show what i am capable of? :-D

work on you own images if you are going to post them in your portfolio... nothing wrong with working off someone elses art to reproduce it, but dont put it in your portfolio with any excuses/disclaimers... after you learn from the strait up copies from a dozen two dozen artists, then draw some of your own to put in the portoflio. Also, learn to take photos, and take lots of reference... then you are copying/drawing from from images your own reference...

Thanks for the info gabe,much appreciated :-D

my advice, drop the sculpting class. you don't need it. replace it with a watercolor class. that would be more useful. also try a colored pencil and pencil class. these are the things you should focus on to improve your skills and broaden your abilities.

hey thanks for that advice. i actually really like sculpting and i reckon that anything that shows the ability to be creative and artistic will help. the main prob is i live in the rear end of nowhere and its hard to find lessons in specific things like color pencil,pencil and watercolor,the only things that seem to be available are crappy poster paint classes for teenagers etc,so i paid a certain sum to a local fab artist who has agreed to teach me acrylics and oil so i was lucky in that sense but again the sculpture class is basics really but at least i can use whatever i learn tward more detailed stuff.i have a large intrest in learning watercolor but there is just no demand for lessons here. so i think for what i want i will have to check out books and dvds and then practice. again thank you for your help.

If you have a lot of good photos of your tattoo work, create an artist (or apprentice) profile at tatbook.com and upload them to your album... you can get to know a lot of other artists/apprentices there as well. Hope to see you soon!

welli got no tat work yet as i dont feel ready to touch people.but i will post artwork for sure.never knew bout that site.thanks a mill. :-D