This doesn’t mean this is for beginners only. At Crook’s Tattoo Studio, I once mentored an artist who tattooed for 9 years. He was comfortably doing black and grey tattoos. The problem? He was mostly self taught and worked with mostly intuition. He wasn’t confident with line work, even 9 years in. His lack of line control effected his ability to do finer details in realism with his liner. Level 1 includes the finer details. The things that contribute to clean lines and smooth shading. A typical mistake is to practice doing designs on skin without identifying and practicing the things that contribute to clean lines and smooth shading. What I teach, is to learn and practice these contributing factors before moving onto advanced designs. You wouldn’t run before you walk. These exercises are teaching you to put one foot informs of another like a professional would. Would you rather 10 practice sheets of designs, full of shakey lines and choppy shading? Or would you rather 10 practice sheets of just straight lines and shapes filled with smooth shading? I know one seems more exciting than the other, but the second exercise of lines and shapes will build skills that carry into the most advanced tattoos. Without it, you’ll always feel limited by your skills and understanding. Then, when we begin to learn the types of shadows and what tones to use, we have the technical control to tattoo as we mean to. Download and stencil these templates for practice and post your work for feedback from me. You could even trace the templates with pen to practice hand steadiness.

Aim - study 2 point perspective and draw 3 cubes with shadows - draw sphere using a highlight, base tone, shadow, core shadow and cast shadow - find 2 objects wherever you are, draw them with shapes and give depth with the same highlights and shadows as the sphere exercises - turn a cube into a rough snake head shape and place eyes and mouth based on form lines Watch - Exercise 1 from my 10-week drawing challenge for self taught artists. Swipe for the sheet. These are the fundamentals of quality black and grey tattooing that all beginners and self taught artists should learn and practice. These are the lessons and exercises that should be part of every tattoo apprenticeship. Note and remember these types of shadows and the role they play. You’ll see them a lot. Think about how the shadows behave in different shapes, and where the light is coming from and how they effects the shadow. Take anything from where you are, I took a cup and drew that. Break down the shape with simple shapes and build from there. Then, break down the shadows and where they fall, thinking about the tones you’re using to communicate each shadow’s darkness or lightness. To watch the full videos for each challenge, join Crook’s at the standard tier or above to take my black and grey online tattoo course. Post for feedback.

A student and fellow tattoo artist just sent me this from my drawing and tattoo challenges. Smooth shading, nice shadows. Great work. Take part in this exercises and post your work below for feedback (original reference tattoo and sketch is in the photos below)

Start here. Learning to draw with professional method and technique. I don’t just tell you what to learn, I do it with you… You can join my 10-week drawing challenge for self taught artists right now. 10 pages of sketches. 10 weeks (or 10 days if you can practice full time) A video of each page breaking down: ✅ how to do the exercises ✅ how to build drawings ✅ where shadows go and why ✅ shading methods ✅ how it all applies to tattooing If you’re on a free trial, you can: 1️⃣ watch Drawing Challenge 1 video in the comments below 2️⃣ begin Drawing Challenge 1 (in the photo below) 3️⃣ post your drawing for feedback (in group or private message) To watch the full videos for each drawing challenge, you can either join: 👉 the standard tier - learn from my Black & Grey Tattoo Course, my A-Z of black & grey tattooing, which includes all of the videos for each drawing challenge plus so much more ($27 per month) 👉 or the “premium tier” - get continuous feedback videos and mentorship from me on top of everything in the standard tier ($67 per month) Black & grey tattooing is made of 2 halves. Art, and technical tattooing. Learning each thing separately makes things much more digestible and efficient. These are the exercises that will teach you the art fundamentals that apply to every drawing and tattoo I do. We’ll focus on technical tattooing later on in the course. Post your drawings for feedback from me.

From page 1 of the 10-week drawing challenge, a part of my Black & Grey Online Tattoo Course. To watch all of the drawing challenge videos, you can join Crook’s at a stander tier or higher and take the B&G course. If you join the premium tier, you can post your work for feedback and mentorship at every step. https://youtu.be/UocaRWlOB1g?is=FY9pKIswMBDjVrkW