Mural at the Tattoo Shop

I've known for many months that I would LOVE to paint a mural on the walls of the tattoo shop. A few weeks ago I had the chance and the time to start a new project. I knew exactly what I was going to paint: a Mitch O'Connell girl from the cover of his book, Mitch O'Connell, Tattoos.

I emailed this fabulous artist for permission to use his artwork. He responded within minutes with, "I would be flattered! Please send me a photo when it's done so I can post it on my website!" I was/am completely excited to hear from him so quickly!

So I borrowed a friend's projector (I need to buy one of my own, one day!) in order to easily and quickly trace the image on the wall. It stayed like this for several days.

Then come the first layer of paint. The original image has a lot of white highlights, and I figure since there's already a ton of white surrounding the girl, I should just fill in her bodysuit with blue. We also decided to take away her kitty ears and tail, as well as her pearl belt and necklace. Do you know how hard it is to paint perfect circles??? Well, I didn't want to find out.

Adding more shading. I made her a redhead at the request of my bossman. He loves them redheads.

And here you go, the complete image. You can see the jewelry case & flash rack on the right. The girl's quite large and impressive. I'd like to add more images around her but for now she's good on her own.

I really am proud of her. I will add Mitch's signature the next time I'm working at the shop. There are a few pencil marks I need to erase here and there, but you can't see them in the photo. I just couldn't wait to show it off on my blog. 

Thanks so much for your permission to use your image, Mitch!