How to Draw a Tattoo Design

Artist: Dawn / September 4, 2010
How to Draw a Tattoo Design

Step 1.


Firstly, start off with the basic guidelines of your skull tattoo. Draw a big circle for the base of the tattoo and some guidelines that will shape up the face nicely. Add a long curvy line that will serve the tongue. Drawing this should be really ea   

Step 2.


Next, draw the outer shape of the skull. When you get to the upper teeth area, draw a rectangular box that will support the teeth. Some people find drawing the teeth a bit tricky because of the sharp edges, as well as the positioning. The edgy cheek    

Step 3.


Then, draw the pointed brows of this tattoo design. This will make the skull seem vicious and cool in the overall drawing. If you want a more natural looking appearance, lower the cheek bones and make the eyes circular opposed to being exaggeratively   

Step 4.


Here's a fun part that will add some definition to the drawing. Lightly, take your pencil and swiftly sketch tone and defining lines that will give the skull more sweet spots. By using a lighter line weight on the inside of the skull, it will make th   

Step 5.


Next, move onto drawing the really long and curled tongue. Having a tongue curled gives the vision of being "held back" before something strikes. That's only in my view though, it could mean something different to other point of views. Start sketchin   

Step 6.


Lastly, draw the inner detailing of the spinal bones and the tongue as well. When you draw the saliva, keep the lines short and light. You don't want to make the drool seem too prominent, otherwise it will tie the viewer's attention. Shade in the hol   

Step 7.


The line art, really? You've finally completed your drawing, congratulations! I know, something that looks complex, can be...well complex! The trick is to take your time and keep practicing until you get it right. I guarantee if you master this drawi   

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Details

Artist: Dawn
Date Added: September 4, 2010
Steps: 7
Favorited: 1 (view)
Views: 0 in last hour, 2 in last day, 13 in last week, 70602 total
Comments: 0
Tags: how to draw a skull, draw skulls
Description: Hey all, I've drawn something very very cool that I drew tonight during my LiveStream broadcast. It all started off as a weird circle and some strange skull eyes. I was trying to create a cool looking head with a torn lower jaw but, eventually that turned into a wicked cool skull with large lower tusks and huge long tongue. This skull has a unique feature about it unlike my other skulls. There's a spinal bone that connects to the skull and body which I didn't include in this tutorial. Anyways, the tutorial title is obviously “how to draw a tattoo design step by step”, which means that you'll be drawing a skull design. This tutorial doesn't have any tip steps like my previous tutorials I've been submitting lately. What I will do, is add some tags at the lower right corner where the “tutorial actions” are. When you draw a tattoo design, you'll want to reference other tattoos and get inspiration from them. This drawing was drawn out of randomness while listening to the song “So Long Sentiment” by Celldweller (a really cool solo band by the way). So, you pick something you really like in general and find ways to create different symbolism with it. A tattoo can be anything that attracts positive attention. My advice would be to observe other artist styles and the professional styles of tattoos. Drawing a tattoo causes a lot of difficulties, trying to make the nice gradient shadows and colors mixed in. Believe me, I've tried making a traditional tattoo and I failed desperately. Another power to becoming a truly awesome tattoo artist, is to explore the way they are drawn and what colors make tattoos really “pop”. Anywho, I really hope you'll enjoy this tutorial on “how to draw tattoo designs step by step”. I had so much fun contemplating the tutorial! Feel free to color the line art if you'd like as well. Peace out guys, have a joyful drawing experience!

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