Today…has been awesome. I woke up early, found the consult book that has been missing for a couple of weeks, then recorded the next episode of the CreateQuest Podcast.

On this recording, Chris and I were joined by another artist — Michael Orwick. I’m really excited to get that episode edited and published.

On the development front, I didn’t get much done today, but I DID manage to get prepped for a tattoo design tomorrow:

It’s rough, as most of my pre-tattoo designs are, but I got the approval, I’ll be doing a finished design on the skin tomorrow. My main concern with this draft was getting the composition laid out in a way that preserves the silhouettes, has some depth, and tells a story. Oh, and ending the tattoo at the bottom in a way that makes sense and doesn’t seem lazy.

Burne Hogarth’s Dynamic Light and Shade was a huge help on this design. It’s probably his best book.

I also began prepping another design, mostly finding references and photobashing them together in a very rough, loose composition. I’ll show the results of the sketching process tomorrow.

What went well?

• A successful cover-up.
• Nearing the summit for alpha-testing CreateQuest.

What needs work?

• I wish I could do creative exercises all day every day. But life happens.
• I didn’t move much today. I need to push myself to exercise a little bit tomorrow and remember to get up and get my blood flowing regularly.

What did I learn?

Style is something that evolves naturally, not something you force onto your work.