Tattoo Simplicity: triangle

Hello,

I'm back again, with another half sleeve tattoo design in Samoan inspired style.
On Facebook I've had a lot of compliments and comments on my previous design, so I decided to create a series of these drawings in the same style.

Well here's a picture of the first basic lines I drew:

Pencil sketch of a Samoan tribal sleeve tattoo

I start with a circular shape at the top that follows the upper part of the shoulder and then drew a few tapering lines to add some motion. The spearheads are a common pattern in the Samoan style, symbolizing strength and power. There are many kinds of spear- or arrowheads, so I usually combine different ones in one design to keep it as intricate as possible.

Mostly I try to draw a few layers on top of eachother, running above- or through other patterns.

This gives a sense of depth and it makes the design flow.

Here's a second sketch, you can see I traced parts of the drawing with a black marker and fineliner:

Tribal Samoan sleeve tattoo designs for sale

Traced a few patterns of the Samoan tatoo

Normally I first draw the full design with a pencil and then start tracing it, but sometimes I get a little impatient and cannot wait to see how it turns out :)

This photo shows the upper part almost traced and finished:

Samoan flash for sale high quality designs

Upper part of the Samoan tribal tattoo

After a lot of sketching, erasing, and redoing the lines, I finally finished this flash design and took some photos with my Canon EOS 400D:

Pictures of Samoan tattoo drawings and sketches

Another picture shows a digital mock-up of a shoulder with the sleeve projected on it. It's not a 100% accurate, but gives you an idea on how it will look once it's tattooed:

I made a Youtube video of the total design process, so you can see a kind of time-lapse on how the design evolves. Please subscribe to my channel if you want to see my latest videos:

And last but not least, you can order this high resolution flash design right here!

Detailed patterns in a Samoan tattoo design

Hi,

At the moment I'm working on a series of new designs for my galleries, to replace some 'old' tattoos.
I'm really inspired by the intricate Samoan patterns which have a lot of repetitive shapes and symbols and bold tattoos.

I started with a new tatoo, a halfsleeve tribal with some Samoan and Maori influences and shapes.

First I drew a basic layout of the tatoo to make it fit to the shoulder and upper arm.
Then I draw a few crossing lines, a bit tapered to give it a sense of depth.
On the left side of the tatou I added a koru fern, a national symbol of New-Zealand, aka "Aotearoa", and created a line of spearheads. I traced it with a black marker and a steady hand ofcourse ;)

To get a sharp and crisp look, I use a lot of triangular shapes with a high contrast between the black and white patterns. The heavy black lines are drawn to divide the tattoo into smaller section, so it's not one "greyish" mass:

When the Samoan tattoo was finished, I made a few nice pictures with my Canon 400D DSLR, which has a nice depth of field, the blurry fades:

To show you the full design process, I made video that is some sort of time-lapes, where you can see it from pencil sketch to high resolution design:

This digital mock-up shows how the tattoo will look on your shoulder. It's not a 100% accurate, but gives you an idea:

The final design can be purchased from my blog, simply hit the 'buy now' button below and you'll be forwarded to the Paypal website. Use your creditcard or Paypal account for the payment and as soon as I receive it, I'll send you two high resolution images of this tattoo.

The first is the full design with all patterns and black shapes.

The second is a linedrawing, so your tattoo artist can transfer the tatoo onto your body.