Can I be a tattoo artist if I can't draw?

First of all: what does painting ability mean to tattoo artists?

The most important abilities of tattoo artists are as follows:

1. Skills

2. Aesthetic taste

3. Drawing/design ability

4. Service attitude

Among them, technical ability = mastering the machine, making symmetrical lines, uniform fog, saturated colors, etc. Good technology can ensure that it won't hurt the skin of the guests, and that the pattern can let you play your imagination.

aesthetic taste

It sounds empty and irrelevant, but it is the most important of all abilities. If the aesthetic taste is not good enough, no matter how awesome the technology is, it is just to make some ugly tattoos with very awesome technology.

Drawing/design ability

It allows you to show your guests the effect you want and gain their trust.

It can prove your aesthetic level, attract and appreciate you and recognize your guests.

Through continuous painting, your aesthetics will grow slowly and your taste will be higher and higher. Without drawing, technology can be improved, but aesthetics can't.

Through continuous painting, your abstract thinking ability will be improved, which is the basis for you to help customers solve problems.

Service attitude is also very important, but it is not discussed here.

So back to our question: can I learn tattoos if I can't draw?

A: Of course. But what you have learned is only part of the technology.

Suppose a tattoo artist is first-class in technology, but can't draw at all, then ta's aesthetic ability is limited. The maximum capacity of ta is:

Tattoos made by Ta may recover well, but most of the works look "ordinary" or at most "ordinary" and will not be particularly amazing.

The picture below is an "ordinary" example. . I don't want to draw many pictures, because there are many reference factors in various styles, so I can't cover everything.

Generally speaking, there are the following tattoo artists who can't draw:

Ta can't draw any paintings that need painting foundation at all, such as sketching portraits. If it's done hard, it's easy to go wrong or look weird.

Ta can't "design" anything. The design level is limited to "find 2 or 3 similar works to spell". When a guest expresses an abstract idea, ta is as confused as the guest.

Ta heard that a senior is very good, but even other people's works are not good.

Ta will collect many other people's manuscripts and learn from them, but ta will not match colors; If the guest wants to change the details, ta will not change it, and can only say to the guest, "I think the original picture is quite good".

In fact, few tattoo artists can't draw at all-as soon as they enter the business, they will immediately know the importance of drawing; Therefore, most tattoo artists who can persist, regardless of whether they have a painting foundation or not, will constantly improve themselves through painting.

Some well-known predecessors in the industry, such as Guan, did not have any art foundation when they entered the industry. However, I heard from my peers that Xiao Peng's predecessors worked very hard when practicing painting. When others practice the new tradition, koi fish draws a few pictures. He "thinks he will", but he insists on practicing from all angles and never rests. ...

Any training class will tell you that you can learn tattoos without drawing.

They just didn't tell you that if you can't draw, you are at best a mediocre or even poor tattoo artist. They will say, you see the senior is a tattoo artist who can't draw; However, they didn't say that the seniors practiced painting ten times harder than ordinary people after entering the business, nor did they tell you that ta was very talented in painting, and that ta's love for painting had reached the point where he forgot to sleep and eat.

The reason why that senior did better than others was that he used time and efforts to make up for the weak painting foundation after he entered the profession, and after reaching the "sufficient" realm, he continued to pursue a higher realm with extraordinary efforts.

In short:

If you think tattoos are interesting and just want to learn this technique, it doesn't matter whether you can draw them or not.

If you want to be a great tattoo artist, get ready to paint all your life.

The harder you work, the sooner you are awesome.

So, is it necessary to study in the studio?

The studio specializing in painting teaches plaster statues, fruit still lifes and the like, which seems to have nothing to do with tattoos, and it takes many years of practice, so it is particularly easy for people to feel that "learning is not helpful for tattoos"/can't persist. Even some institutions that specialize in training "tattoo art" publicize it like this: "Learning painting in an ordinary studio can't directly help you improve your tattoo level. Come to us and teach you to draw koi fish Dragon Lotus. "

Whether it is necessary to study in the studio depends on your own requirements.

If your standard is: I just want to "paint" koi fish/Dragon/Lotus, as long as I am good enough to start a business, then I don't have to go to the studio or go to a special training class on tattoo art.

If your criteria are: I want to be a tattooist with high taste/I want to see the quality of any work/I have the ability to improve every manuscript/I keep doing better. ...

Then, please go to the professional studio to learn about three major aspects and five major colors from painting gypsum geometry, draw portraits to understand musculoskeletal mechanism, and draw colors for color matching training.

The improvement of tattoo level, especially the improvement of aesthetic ability, is a process of dripping water and wearing away stones.

In my opinion, any form of "detour" is just a word, lazy.

"It takes too much time to draw a manuscript", "This style of painting is too difficult, I can't. Forget it ","I don't want to play online games today ","As long as I take more selfies, there will be more guests "... these are called detours.

Also, although there are many tattooists (even famous tattooists) with average drawing ability in China, they usually don't draw drafts or practice, and there are still quite a lot of guests. ...

Although their times are different, the standards of the market are getting higher and higher, and those who are not strong enough will eventually be gradually eliminated.