Dan the Doodlebug ✏️ Nightmare Before Christmas x Japan Good Luck Mr Mayor

I know it feels like I just did a Dan the Doodlebug blog, but the one that was recently posted, I actually started writing in October of last year! Took me a little bit of time to get my shit together and finish it. Actually, now that I think about it, I still have blogs from 2019 that I need to finish too. I just lost focus or interest sometimes. Sometimes I feel pressure to put out a certain type of content. Not so much anymore. I do most of these blogs for fun. I really love doing the Dan the Doodlebugs when I have the motivation for them, so before I lose the motivation and the artistic flair for doing another one of them, I present to you a clash between the Nightmare Before Christmas and another popular tattoo/style Japanese good luck tokens. FUN FACT! Japanese good luck tokens are actually known as Omamori are actually amulets and they're for good luck and protection. I had to look that one up! I wasn't sure about them. I got into the artwork style of them and knew the just as Japanese traditional or Japanese good luck tokens. I've even heard them called Japanese bath tokens, from the popular anime film, Spirited Away. I must admit that was the first thing that came to mind after seeing some of the tattoos and Japanese artwork featuring them. And inside the amulets are prayers, warm wishes and spells I've heard from various sorces. I'd love to know more about them, so if you know about Omamori, let me know what you know about them! When I sat down to start sketching, I knew I wanted a Japanese themed tattoo, but I also wanted to somehow incooperate my desire to finish tattooing my favourite Nightmare Before Christmas characters on me. I played around with some ideas featuring the Mayor and Vampire Teddy before the idea hit me that I could do what a lot of artists do. Mix and Match. That's what I call it anyway. (I should probably mention that I'm having issues with uploading photos on the blogger site, that is why blogs over the past month or so haven't had photos. I'm trying to work it out, but with all the shit going on for me, I've not been able to work it out. If anyone has any ideas, suggestions or tricks, let me know!) Knowing that this was going to cover the bottom of my ribcage, leaving off where the script from my Smashing Pumpkins tattoo left off, I wanted to really have the stencil flow well with my body. I didn't want the artwork to look like it's randomly stuck on me, you know? I know that Kevin will be able to pull it off, maybe freehand some parts here or there when we get down to putting the stencil on me, as sometimes a flat stencil doesn't translate well to a curved part of the body. It's going to run down onto my hip and sort of wrap around to meet in where he just did Vampire Duckie. I knew that I wanted to have peoneies in the design, them and roses are my favourite flowers, and they always look good on the skin. I want these peonies to compliment the ones that I already have on my stomach with my snorlax piece. That has to be one of my favourite tattoos. Maybe I should do a blog on favourite tattoos...but first I have about 20 other blogs slated to be finished this month and theres only so many hours in a day and I start my new job in a little over a week! So excited about that. I might go into detail about that when I get settled, or maybe I'll just leave it a mystery for you guys. What really caught my eye and sparked the idea for the mayor x vampire teddy combo was one of the latest Nightmare Before Christmas Funkos that are available for pre-order. I LOVE Funkos. I have 5 or so shelves in my bedroom filled with them! Most of them are spooky and Halloween themed pops, because why not? The new Nightmare set features many of the popular characters in cabooses and Jack is driving the train. Too cute, right? I loved the mayor one instantly. He's riding in a little caboose that's painted to resemble vampire teddy. I knew I needed to have that on me. Could I pair that with the Japanese theme that I wanted to work with? OF course I could. Just takes a little imagination and a decent pencil. Off to the races! I start by sketching the major and the caboose. I can build the shape that I need around it, rather than trying to shrink down the drawing, losing details in the process. Remember, this is for a tattoo and the smaller you go often times you lose a lot of detail. And based on where it's going on me, I want it to be a little bit bigger so we can get all the detail in there. There's some scars that I have to cover up, maybe a few stretch marks or two that we're going to have to tattoo over and in there lies another issue. The skin is damaged so it tattoos a little differntly. You can't have things too small or the lines will blur and blow out. I know that Kevin is a pro so when we go for the size that we want on my side he'll know just how to approach it. (If I didn't already have a Zero tattoo, I would have totally turned the Zero x Vampire Duckie into a piece for me.) After the basic outline of the mayor and his caboose, I start to fill in little details here and there. (It looks smaller in the image because of how I took the photos. I wanted to take them in a way where people could see the details but not easily take them and trace them, as so many artists have issues with this and this is a special project for me. If you're interested in a similar piece or would like me to draw something for you I can. OR if you'd like to ask about using a piece for your own tattoos I'm happy to share certain pieces, just reach out.) Following the little bit of details, I start to draw the semi-rectangle shape around the orginal part of the sketch. Now here is the tricky part. I want him to look like he's painted on the omamori, not floating on it. You have to draw it at just the right angle to get that image. I'm not very good at drawing straight lines in one go, so to make sure that everything is as straight as a bisexual can make it, I use a little mini ruler for assistance. I don't know how digital artists do it. I tell ya. I've never done digital art. I'm old fashion. I use a HB pencil or a mechanical pencil; that's about as technologically afvanced I get with my drawings. I start to add a little more detail into the omamori before continuing on inside. I want the little velvet ropes and jingling bells to really stand out, but not take away from the central piece of the design. I want them to be the perfect little accents. I think making the bells on the omamori look like sleigh bells is the perfect little nod to the Chrismtas elements to the film. Despite me not being a big fan of Christmas, I think it's the right choice. As for the colour, silver or gold, I think we'll leave that up to Kevin when we get to the colour session, which is a little ways away. He's always taken my ideas and ran with them pretty well, so I don't really have to put much thought into it. It's nice to work with a real artist who sees and understands your vision but has a creative viewpoint and the skill to add his own little flair to it. (How many pieces of flair are you wearing, Joanne? Actually, I think almost all of the people that read these blogs are too young to get that reference, but let's see how many of you do!) I go back into the centre of the omamori, adding a background for the mayor. Now that the centrepiece is done, lets add in some traditional peony flowers to opposite ends of the drawing, makig it look like they're blooming out behind it. Its tricky. you need to have the right depth within the flowers, how much is hidden behind the centre piece. Too much and it looses the definition that makes it pop put. Too little and it looks unblanced, incomplete. I think that I've nailed it with this one. For this drawing, I used some Japanese paintings for reference when drawing them. It needs a little something extra...There we go. The Kanji for good luck. I need some of that in my life. But who doesn't really? It takes about an hour to complete the entire piece. I couldn't be happier with it. I can't wait to see what it will look like in full colour decorating me. I'm going to do one entire blog on the tattoo I think, rather than two seperate ones for the outline and the shading. You'll be able to follow that progress when we start via my Twitter and Instagrams. Until next time Doodlebugs.