Adorned In Seduction

Hey guys!

Remember doodling tattoos all over girls in magazine ads when you were a kid? Well I'm not sure about you, but I still love to do this! My amazing photographer friend, Amy Kaplan, shares the same love of decorating lovely ladies with tattoos so we've decided to take it to the next level. She brought me a gorgeous photo from a recent shoot she did and asked me to paint on top of it. Naturally the inner magazine doodling child in me loved the idea and this is what we came up with!

Adorned In Seduction - 8x10 acrylic on photograph 2012

Glenn Arthur and Amy Kaplan

Here are some process shots so you can see how I set about painting the tattoos on the actual photograph.

When I received the photo from Amy, I threw a piece of tracing paper on top of it to design the tattoos and map out where I wanted to place them on the model.

After I got that all figured out, I inked the design on the tracing paper to make sure the lines were crisp and clean. Then I broke out my trusty light box, layered the photo over the tracing paper design and began to paint directly on to the photograph.

I used acrylic paint mixed with a small amount of acrylic ink to help the paint glide a little easier over the photograph. Ink alone did not give enough solid coverage and smeared too easy on the photo paper so the paint was a definite necessity! I also had to use a very tiny brush as the photo was only an 8x10 so some of the tattoo designs ended up being super little!

Amy and I are both so excited about the way the final piece turned out! And to make it even better, the piece will be on display at the Rothick Art Haus 3 year anniversary show opening Saturday, July 14th!

Hope to you guys there!