How to Draw Tattoos on Characters with Copic Markers
Hey marker slingers, welcome back.
Thank you for all the love you have given the Hip Hop vs Comics series. It has been humbling to see how many times these pieces have been shared across social media, and a few of you have been asking specifically about the tattoo rendering on these characters. This post is a quick step by step breakdown of how I draw tattoos on characters using Copic markers, using Eminem as The Punisher as the subject.
How to sketch tattoo placement on a character
Begin with a pencil sketch of your character including the tattoos. Take your time with placement and make sure each tattoo wraps and molds to the curvature of the body part it sits on.
This is the step most people rush. A tattoo on a forearm does not sit flat, it curves around the muscle. A chest piece follows the contour of the pec. Getting this right in the sketch stage means you will not have to fight it later when you are coloring tattoos with markers. The sketch is your foundation for everything that follows.
“The sketch is the one place where patience pays off the most. Rush it and you will be fighting the tattoo placement for the rest of the piece.”
How to render skin before drawing tattoos
Once you are ready to move on to color, think about this first. Tattoos sit on top of the skin, and the most common mistake I see artists make is rendering the tattoos first without rendering the skin underneath.
Whatever is happening underneath the tattoo, the musculature, the light, the shadows, all of it affects how the tattoo looks on top. Skip this step and you end up with flat tattoos that look painted on rather than embedded in the skin.
Render your character's skin areas as if there were no tattoos at all. Shape the muscles, build your highlights and shadows, and get comfortable with the skin rendering before you touch the tattoo. Learning how to draw tattoo on skin starts here, with the skin itself.
How to draw tattoos on skin with Copic markers
I approach the actual tattoo the same way I approach any Copic marker rendering, building layers from light to dark.
For the Eminem piece I started with a palette of cool grays beginning with C00, the lightest in the range. I searched out the faint pencil outlines showing through the skin and started shading those tattoos lightly. What you will notice right away is that whatever is happening in the skin underneath automatically shows through the grays. The muscle definition, the highlights, the shadows, all of it reads through the tattoo layer.
This is what makes marker rendering tattoo effects work. You are not covering the skin, you are layering on top of it. The transparency of Copic markers is what creates that effect of ink sitting under the surface rather than painted on top.
Once you have your gray layers built up, use a black Copic or Micron multiliner to tighten the small details and outlines. Keep your line weight consistent with the style of the tattoo, thicker outlines for bold traditional style, thinner for fine line or script.
Want to see the finished piece?
The Eminem as The Punisher original and prints are available in the shop. If this tutorial helped you level up your tattoo rendering, go check it out.
• 11x17 Poster
• Hand signed and numbered
(frame not included)
Original Art
• Size 8x10
• Hand drawn one of a kind work of art
• Ink & Paint Marker on Mixed Media Board
(frame not included)
I hope this post helped but if you have any additional questions feel free to ask below.
Your friendly neighborhood marker slinger,
Ivan
