Help Me, People With Better Google-Fu!

[ladysprite]

All righty, then.

All of you folk who told me that one tattoo would never be enough, and that they're somewhere between Pringles and heroin in the 'once you start you can't stop' spectrum? You were absolutely right.

I love my pawprints, and I adore knowing that they're there, and seeing them and showing them off. But... it's been a couple of years, and I'm feeling the urge to body-mod again, and I just can't stop thinking about it. It's been on my mind for most of a year now, and I've been noodling around with images and concepts, and I've had the same idea for most of that time, so I'm feeling pretty safe about moving forward.

There's just one problem. I can't find a picture of exactly what I want. And I'm a horrible artist (stick figures are about the extent of my skill), and my google image searches aren't quite geting me what I need. So, I'm opening this up to more (and more talented) folks.

I want... hm. This is going to sound both incredibly vague and incredibly specific at the same time, but such is life. I want something green and leafy, and living, at the same time. The image in my head is that of a dragon, but admittedly, that's because most of the images I find for just "tree spirit" or "nature spirit" are naked women, and that's not quite what I want to have on my thigh for the rest of my life.

Unfortunately, most of the images I find when I look for tree dragons, or leaf dragons, are 1) black and white, 2) vaguely sinister, or 3) cartoonish, and I don't want any of those things. I want something green and colorful, graceful and beautiful, and... if not realistic, at least not cutesy or cartoony. Not Asian; that's not my paradigm. And not just a tree, or a dragon in a tree; I want something that I can.... oh, God, this sounds so pretentious when I type it out, but something that symbolizes both my bond to living things and to nature and green growing things, in one image.

Honestly, the aesthetic of what I want, image-wise, is a leafy sea dragon, just less aquatic and more land-plant-y. Somewhere between this and this.

So - anyone with better searching skills than mine want to hunt this down for me? Or, any amazing artists out there want to try their hand at coming up with such an image? I promise eternal gratitude, pictures of the finished project, and, if it's truly awesome, negotiable rewards of your choice....

Comments

[lensman.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a cross between a typical "green man" and a dragon. Something like this maybe:

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Look at a convention Art Show? There usually are a couple of artist who do nice dragons, and there's at least one that does small dragons that blend in with the flowers. I think I've seen her work at Lunacon, I don't remember if I've seen them at Arisia.

[deguspice.livejournal.com]

Arisia's website has pointers to some of the artists: http://2012.arisia.org/ArtShow
I think the person I was thinking of might be this one:
http://www.patriciamccracken.com/miniprint.html

Last year's Worldcon has links to info for most of their artists.: http://www.renovationsf.org/art-gallery.php
(about half the pages I looked at had a dragon)

ASFA has a gallery of member artists, but the site isn't working for me: http://www.asfa-art.org/

[gmkieran.livejournal.com]

Well, I did some searching for specific tree species paired with "dragon" and found these on deviantart. The second isn't particularly well-executed, but the idea is sound:

http://ironshod.deviantart.com/art/Oak-dragon-33316896

http://rowanwatersprite.deviantart.com/art/Colourful-Dragon-158513905

http://baardk.deviantart.com/art/Little-leaf-dragon-34002135

and then I found these in the Elfwood:

http://www.elfwood.com/~mikewaters/Maple-Leaf-Dragon.3044449.html

http://www.elfwood.com/~mikewaters/Royal-Paulownia-Leaf-Dragon.3044485.html

http://www.elfwood.com/~trefly/Leaf-Dragon.3542367.html

this one might be a bit on the menacing side, but I liked it:

http://www.epilogue.net/cgi/database/art/view.pl?id=87702

There's also this, which I found interesting - an artist might be able to stylize it to bring out the dragony aspects of the tree:

http://artofbonsai.org/galleries/images/halloween_2007/small/halloween_2007_Jupp_grape_elm_dragon.jpg

Maybe some helpful ideas in there, if nothing else. :)

[mermaidlady]

Marrus has been known to do custom artwork for tattoos and her style might be something you like. Check out her work at http://www.marrusart.com or https://www.facebook.com/pages/Marrus/53754388488?sk=photos

[ravenrose.livejournal.com]

Also, ask your tattooist! I do not know who you go to, but I would be perfectly confident taking a small pile of images to Capt. Gordon, my tattooist, and saying "here is my concept", and letting him come up with something. The artist will run drafts by you and you can tweak and return and do it again until it is just right for you. This is what they do!

[evcelt.livejournal.com]

All of you folk who told me that one tattoo would never be enough, and that they're somewhere between Pringles and heroin in the 'once you start you can't stop' spectrum? You were absolutely right.


;-)

Heck, I'd be confident just talking out the idea with Captain G. It never hurts to start with that...

[ladysprite.livejournal.com]

*blink* It never would have occurred to me that I could do that until you mentioned it - I kind of had this idea that I needed to go to them with a picture of what I actually wanted.

I did exactly this today; I have an appointment to check out his proposed finished artwork next weekend. :) Thank you so much!

[hermitgeecko.livejournal.com]

I love the way sea dragons look, and this sounds like it will be an absolutely beautiful tattoo!