#apprentice hopeful

[tomboystudio]

🔪 Will Graham / Patroclus 🔪

🐺 Portfolio piece 🐺

This realism study explores the archetype of the empath, the gentle companion whose empathy is both their greatest strength and their deepest wound. Will Graham as Patroclus: separated by centuries, bound by the same emotional weight. Overlaid text and conceptual elements examine the duality of being the one who completes someone else while losing yourself in the process.

Design Details:

Style: Photorealistic portraiture with conceptual overlay

Medium: Pencil on paper

Technique: Detailed shading, texture work, mixed media elements

Concept: Character study and literary parallel

Original creator of the image: @nopause

[tomboystudio]

💀 Trash Friends Flash Sheet 💀

💖 Portfolio piece 💖

This flash sheet features a playful collection of quirky characters and bold, simplified line art. Each design combines humor and charm, from defiant possums to confident muscle bees. Ideal for sticker-style tattoos, gap fillers, and those who appreciate a touch of mischief in their ink.

Design Details:

Style: Bold line art with cartoon and humorous elements

Color palette: Black and white (monochrome)

Medium: Digital illustration

Currently building my portfolio as I pursue a tattoo apprenticeship. Feedback from artists is welcome!

[tomboystudio]

🩷 Heart Spine Cybersigilism Design

🩷 Portfolio piece 🩷 This intricate design features symmetrical flowing lines that create a spinal column effect in the cybersigilism style. The delicate heart motifs cascade down the centre, forming a vertebrae-like structure with ornate abstract elements extending from the upper portion.

Design Details:

Style: Cybersigilism with gothic romantic elements

Colour palette: Pink/red monochromatic

Medium: Digital illustration

Cybersigilism combines the symbolic power of sigils with modern digital aesthetics, creating a visual language that blends the mystical with the technological. The heart's spine represents the connection between emotion and digital consciousness.

Currently building my portfolio as I pursue a tattoo apprenticeship. Feedback from artists is welcome!

[tomboystudio]

Cherry Blossom Branch Design

🌸 Portfolio piece 🌸

This cherry blossom branch design combines traditional Japanese influences with a contemporary monochromatic style. The delicate sakura flowers, buds, and scattered petals create movement across the composition.

Design Details:

Style: Neo-traditional/Japanese inspired

Color palette: Pink/red monochromatic

Medium: Digital illustration

Cherry blossoms (sakura) symbolize the beauty and fragility of life in Japanese culture - a reminder that life is both beautiful and fleeting.

Currently building my portfolio as I pursue a tattoo apprenticeship. Feedback from artists is welcome!

[tomboystudio]

🔮 Witchy Cauldron - Work in Progress 🔮

Brewing up some magic in the studio! ✨ Here's a peek behind the curtain of my colouring process as this mystical cauldron comes to life.

The Journey: Started with clean line work and slowly built up the colour palette - deep purples for that otherworldly smoke, vibrant orange roses for warmth against the dark cauldron, and thorny green vines to balance the composition. There's something so satisfying about watching a black and white design transform into something that feels like it could bubble right off the page.

Design Details:

Style: Neo-traditional with bold lines and rich colour blocking

Theme: Witchy occult meets botanical abundance

Colour palette: Deep purples, warm oranges, forest greens with gold accents

Intended placement: This baby would look incredible as a larger piece - thigh, back, or even a bold forearm statement

The magic is in the details - those swirling smoke tendrils, the delicate filigree on the cauldron, the way the roses seem to grow organically around the skull. Every element needs to work together to create that perfect mystical vibe.

Process Notes: Colour theory is everything in tattoo design. The complementary orange and purple create that visual pop, while the green grounds everything and adds that natural witchy garden feel. Building colours in layers helps maintain the bold line work while adding depth and dimension.

Currently building my portfolio as I pursue a tattoo apprenticeship - this piece demonstrates colour harmony, composition balance, and thematic consistency that translates beautifully to skin.

What do you think of the colour choices? Any fellow artists have tips for maintaining colour vibrancy in neo-trad work? Always learning! 🎨