Smoking Figure part 29

Got up to the Studio around mid day, with two goals. The first was to finish cutting the figure on the block. That meant finally settling on the tattoo. At my day job, the most common upper arm tattoos among the employees are name tattoos, usually in a fancy script, and I found many more examples on the web. I didn't want to do just that, since I had a text only tattoo (in Chinese) on the other wrist, so I decided to incorporate it into the previous design. I felt that the rose idea was fine, just needing a better drawing. So I erased what I had and redrew it, moving it a little further back on the arm. Those name tattoos tend to be significant others or children. I don't know what name would mean anything to my model, so I put in "Summer" which is not her actual name, but her professional model name. My thinking is that her choosing that name is a symbol of her love of the season and all that goes with it, less common than a personal name, but not unheard of in a tattoo.

I drew the new version in pencil (above), decided it was acceptable, and then cut it into the block. Afterwards, I inked it just enough to make it visible, like I had done with the rest of the figure. Results are below.

The only thing left on the figure to deal with is the eyes. I'm leaning toward cutting out the irises, indicating a light colored eye. Leaving it solid black would make the eyes too intense, and the stripe thing might draw too much attention.

The second reason for my visit was to pick up a bunch of stuff for tonight's critique on location. We had decided to go to Mary's house, and it's just easier to get there from my house. So I got the portable tack wall, the smoker block, our timer, and a few odds and ends.