Smoking Figure part 22

The dog days of August seem to have arrived early in a lot of places, including the Jersey Shore. It was so hot that when I arrived at the Studio today, Molly was working in there with the window closed. Usually she loves the fresh air, but days like this, our un-air conditioned basement space is still more comfortable than the hot air that would pour in the window.

Minor adjustments today. I redrew the Chinese characters on the right side wrist (above), making them a little larger. On the left side shoulder (below), I decided to go with a two flower design. It's based on one seen in a magazine photo, but the roses themselves were originally sketched from living specimens in my back yard.

Molly liked the roses tattoo the most, agreeing that it definitely adds to the character. She thought that the wrist tattoo didn't work as well, saying it might be an unnecessary distraction. I like that it adds some interesting lines in that area, but I may try to make it smaller again if I can keep it readable. In the end I will have some kinds of tattoos in those spots, and if I decide in the final version that they don't work, I can just cut them off the block. No harm there, since those two spots would otherwise just have been blank. Below is the current state of the whole block.

I'll head back to the Studio in a few days, and unless I have some different thoughts before then, I'm going to start cutting the block.