Every year I make my kid at least one gift for Christmas. In the past I've made a needlefelted sasquatch, a miniature brick wall for graffiti, a needle point that read 'Liquor and Whores'... I try to make a little something that reflects something he's been interested in that particular year.
This year my son has been on and on about old school tattoo flash. I saw some super cool examples of wooden artist hand models that had been painted with tattoos and knew that was just the thing to make this year.
Then my kid shared his Spotify roundup and his top artist was Lil Peep. I actually painted a portrait of Lil Peep for his Christmas gift a couple of years ago so I knew that he's one of my sons favourite artists, and that he was heavily tattooed. I figured I'd include a nod to him too in my little piece.
I dabbled with the idea of replicating Lil Peeps hands as they were covered in tattoos, but then the issue became displaying the hands. The model sits on a flat base, fingers pointing up. This would mean that any wording on the hands would be upside-down when displayed. Instead of being faithful to the inspiration, I made a mashup of old school flash and tattoos that adorned Lil Peep.
Many of the Lil Peep source photos I used showed his nails painted bright red, so I included that detail too.
I'm pretty happy with how this piece turned out and hope my kiddo loves it. Making people things that reflect their loves and likes is such fun :)
Hope you had/are having a lovely holiday, sweet friend. And now, I, for one, am going to have a much deserved nap on the couch.
P.S. You have no idea how many times I typed Lil Poop while writing this.
