Ahhh, Friday the 13th. The day that most tattoo studios run giant specials to sell gimmicky flash. It’s a cool tradition, but with the stress of the past week, especially, I really don’t want to do a special.

Today is the day that I catch up on some work with the amazing gift of an extra drawing day that one of my clients gave me by rescheduling.

I had another fairly good warmup today, it’s not as accurate as yesterday, but I’m still happy with it.

I struggled with my gestures, yet again. I think I got ONE that was dynamic enough for me to be satisfied. I’ll let you guess which one. 🙂

A design for tomorrow’s tattoo. Thankfully, I had plenty of time to work on this today. It’s going to be a little trickier than I thought to tattoo it, but I’m grateful that I had the time to work on it today.

And finally, a sketch for another client (the really awesome one). This is how most compositions start out for a tattoo — quick notes, big shapes, then filling in the blanks with the best pieces for the puzzle.

I was having a conversation with the one and only Chris Beaven earlier today and he made the point that showing my work, and how long it takes to develop a large-scale piece, could be really beneficial for clients.

This is an iteration. The final piece is on the skin, but it all starts with something like this.

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What went well?

• I have a day to breathe and help around the house, PLUS catch up on client work! Awesome!

What needs work?

• My gestures felt stiff and sloppy today. I think I may be experiencing an unfortunate “backslide” in my growth curve.

What did I learn?

Backslides in growth curves are normal. It’s a part of the path of mastery. I need to accept it and start looking for different angles to the problem I’m facing.

Also, having an extra day to draw is making a HUGE difference in the levels of stress I’m experiencing. No complaints there!

Finally, having enough sleep is a game-changer. Sleep is my #1 priority.