Ink’d
“Ink’d” was a fun undertaking of combining Photography with Illustrator and merging the two in Photoshop for a realistic tattoo effect. Having hand-drawn the graphics to start, I was able to get rough sketches that served as a base before bringing the illustrations into Illustrator. From there, each sketch was worked on and molded into a polished vector with line work, strokes, colors, and shading, resembling that of a tattoo. After creating the graphics, I planned how I wanted each tattoo to be presented and organized a photoshoot. While photographing the model, I focused on specific areas of the body but cropped the space in a way so that the tattoos have room to breathe. That is, while the graphics stand as the main focus, other engaging details add to the scene and captivate the viewer.
Booking the studio, I attentively coordinated all aspects for my desired scene such as the model’s skin tone and hair color, jewelry, shoes, nails, posing, background, etc. For overlaying the graphics onto the skin, I played with placement, sizing, perspective, lighting, blending, and more. Having just myself on this project, it was such a thrill as I worked as the scouter, stylist, art director, photographer, illustrator, graphic designer, and photo-retoucher. Overall, I feel this project allowed me to exhibit a side of my drawing in an interesting way while expanding my technical skills and igniting new ideas for future projects.
