Couple recent pieces

Couple recent pieces. As always all critique welcome.

Nice work mate

Thanks Tyler, appreciated. Far from perfect I know but I keep chipping away at trying to get a little better each time.

I really like the flower here...very tidy. What set up did you use?

the koi is weak, you did okay on some parts, but overall it needs to be better for it to be "good"

you have a long way to go, i think maybe it is beyond your limits at this time and a simpler design planned out may work better. or maybe you didn't follow the design properly and plan it out better. some of it looks improvised. the design itself isn't that great for koi, there's so many out there. i can pick it apart more, but you probably know where you could have improved.

but at least you are chipping away and getting better.

Overall my favorite is the flower for application, however I find it hard to read a abit I think with thinner lines in the head the petals would have came out crisper. But the color saturation is good as well as the line work. Good job on that one.

I recognize some issues with the shading on the koi, especially the soft grainy spotty or hard dark edges. I think if you tried building up shade you would have better success with smoother transitions. The overall look is solid and bold, and it's a decent job but there are some spots that could be better. The flowers look fantastic and it's a really hard skin i find in the underarm very rubbery and hard to push ink in some spots. Overall great job and nice decent size piece to show off some details.

Whippet: On the Rose / Flower I used a Powerline 12/7RL with a Stainless disposable tube from Killer ink and used the RW ID Liner with needle crane. Colour was all packed with a Powerline 9RS using a Ronnie Starr DD rotary and a Powerline 14RS using the RW Mk2 Springer with the soft spring with the dampener turned right in with a 1/4 turn taken off. Inks were Panthera Lining Black, Tony Bennett Extreme Dark Purple and Micky Sharpz Easyflow white.

Reset: Agreed, I struggled with some of the shading on the koi and the transitions in shade. Partly lack of confidence and in part lack of skill and it could have been executed better. I always try to post decent sized pics to allow for the best critique and I appreciate the time you have taken to review. It's not out of the realms of possibility that I might have another session on it to tidy it up once it has healed as he is a repeat client. As for design it was what the customer brought me not what I chose. I think in hind sight as well I would have gone for red and pink blossoms but he is a West ham fan so wanted Claret and Blue.

GM74: I think I have said it all above but thanks for the critique and comments

Interesting, as I'm currently looking at the RW ID liner. How would you rate this machine? Or anyone else who has used one.

I'm thinking of this machine with the 3.5 cam for lining only. Spec says 3.5 cam is good up to 9rl.

I have the 3.5 cam in Brass. Its a good machine, as are all of Dale's machines. Runs consistent and solid at all times and the brass is heavy enough to feel sturdy. If I had one criticism it would be that with the Killer Ink stainless tubes and the needle crane in place there is sometimes not enough adjustment if you wanted to hang the needle out a bit further to tattoo of the tip of the needle if that makes sense? it's like that maybe what would be the back stem is too long? Of course, you could use it without the crane and just use rubber bands. Most probably an issue with the tubes opposed to anything with the machine.

Its my birthday in a few weeks so I think i'll take the plunge

I fancied the Bishop but price is a bit prohibitive

ID liner ordered ( )

Gaztred: I stumbled back into your wolf tattoo post. The lining on that looks completely solid and consistent, like the rose above. It's difficult to appreciate what changed with the Koi piece, which seems to have varying depths in the linework (finger waves mainly) and nowhere near as fluid. Your lining generally looks tight  (??).

the koi design looks like you aint stretched enough to get a solid line...i think you was struggling on this piece during the lining so you then just rushed the rest of it as that what it looks it to me...the fingers waves are terrible on this design as i know as this is a common google koi..i think you should always redraw the finger waves

head wrote:.the fingers waves are terrible on this design as i know as this is a common google koi..i think you should always redraw the finger waves

that's one of the first things i noticed. it looks fixable but you should have outlined it properly first time around.

your skills show, but the rest of the tattoo should be as good as the head. the flowers are not bad, but not good either, the blending is weak. if its realistic flower then you should blend better and shade for some depth. but the problem then is, it don't match this koi style. the first flower is worst and i see that you shaded it more and by itself its good, but laying that on top of the koi background fucked it up, maybe cuz you realized that you are losing the outline and definition? so then you began to use white on rest flowers make flowers stand out?

i don't know what the best way to bring a flower like that out from a blackish dark background.

just a guess

and you should fill in the koi completely its got empty spots where ink should be