I just wanted to drop you a line, 5 pages of lines
Good morning Speakeasy friends!
This is Marléna here with your Speakeasy Tattoo Los Angeles news show. The shop has felt busy since I last wrote to you, I’ve been busy learning and learning through mistakes! We’re still busy planning our shop art show, which is set to happen later this summer. This past Tuesday was also our art night, we had a great time painting and drawing none other than the Jesse Gomez himself! We had drinks and made some art and listened to the Cranberries and Carry On Wayward Son by Kansas on repeat- all around good times.
In terms of apprenticing, Scott has given us the “OK” to closely watch him while he tattoos. As someone who is a visual learner, it’s been a blast to watch the tattoo appear as it’s being applied. Now that I am a little more familiar with needles, I am starting to recognize what hand movements translate to the marks being made on the skin. This week I watched Scott do this rad geisha tattoo, her eyelashes and eyebrows are on fleek.
This week’s stack of homework assignments was relatively extensive, but the one assignment I wanted to mention was the line drawing practice! This week Scott asked James and I to trace 5 pieces of regular lined paper. When Scott demonstrated this in our meeting he showed me using his notebook paper with is about half the size as ruled binder paper. This left me with a decision: should I also use small notebook paper knowing because Scott showed me using small paper that I would probably get away with it? Or choose the long way out and do full sheets even though he didn’t specify!! Well folks I chose the scenic route, mostly because I’m just along for the ride. Also I thought this might be the only dedicated time I have to trace five pages of straight lines, so I might as well milk the cow dry. While the lines weren’t really perfect, I did about a page and a half every day, and noticed that the lines improved in quality slightly each day. I would recommend this exercise to anyone looking to refine their line work.
Thats about it for this week! Now I am going to leave you with a photo our the beautiful/rare cactus bloom that happened in the garden last week. These blossoms are a real treat and only last a day or two. Thanks everyone for reading!
-M.m