Hi Cody! First, let me say that your work is awesome and you definitely should be getting paid to draw designs up for people. With that said, my advise always is “charge what you think you’re worth”. Personally, I think I’m worth at least $25-$35 an hour. So I estimate how many hours a particular size and style of drawing usually takes me, and I quote a flat price for the design (anywhere from $75 to $300+). I also try to be reasonable and take into consideration that my client has to then pay a tattoo artist to actually do the tattoo, so sometimes I’ll try to work within a budget that’s fair for the both of us. But never undervalue your time and expertise. Artists have to spend a lot of time not only drawing up the actual piece, but we also invest effort into brainstorming ideas, exercising our creativity, and employing years of practiced craftsmanship. The clients who commission me are paying for a quality service, not just a finished product.

Hope this helps you out a bit! Best of luck with your art and tattooing!

I haven’t done much shopping around and haven’t gotten any reliable recommendations from other artists. But I’m really hoping to find something soon and make some of my artwork available in the next few months. As always, suggestions and advice are appreciated!

Both are relatively rude. But what upsets me is the mindset behind not acknowledging an artist for their creativity, or not paying one for their hardwork. To simply pluck something from the Internet like you own it and use it however you want is pretty disrespectful.

I think the confusion about why it makes me upset might be due to a confusion about what it is I do. Artists like Audrey Kawasaki and Sylvia Ji get their work tattooed all the time, so why shouldn’t I be just as thrilled that people want to use my art in the same manner? The difference is: those artists depend on the sale of their original paintings and prints to make money. I’m a freelance designer — the money that flows into my account depends on people hiring/commissioning me to design custom artwork for them (illustrations, album art, logos, t-shirts, tattoo designs, etc). If people just take my work for free, then I can’t make a living. Just the same as a tattoo artist wouldn’t be thrilled for you to take their design to get tattooed by another artist, I’m not stoked to find someone else got paid to use my artwork and I got nada.

With all of that being said, after tattoos of my artwork started showing up, I did start getting quite a few requests to design custom artwork for individuals that wanted their own designs drawn up. And I appreciate those clients more than they know. They valued me enough as an artist to not only pay for my work and support me, but wanted to be able to boast of an original piece by me. For that reason, I’m not too bummed when I find my work stolen, because I know there’s a lot more people who value my art and support me.

Awh, this made my day. Thanks Mercedes! :) I hope you’re doing fantastic as well!

I’m absolutely terrified of using color. I bought a $70 box of Prismacolor pencils and didn’t open them for over a year. I bought watercolor paper a few months ago with intentions of painting one of my tattoo designs, and I’ve been avoiding it now for three months.

The only time I comfortably use color is when I can digitally render it. The portrait with the wolf head was hand drawn on sketch paper with Staedler pigment liners, then scanned in, and colored in Photoshop using a Wacom tablet and stuntkid’s natural brushes.

Tis a shame, but I’m glad you found me! :)

Hey! A tip if you’re searching for other artists — Go to Google image search, click the little camera icon next to the search, put in the image url of the artwork or upload it from your computer, then Google will find other places it’s located on the Internet, usually linking you to the original artist.