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The background is terrible! That is way too much black and its not even faded out. Dont you ever do that again, please! Second, the placement for it is totally random and bad. You should always find a way to make it go with the flow of the body and not just a random awkward position. It seems to me that you don't know how to line well, since you relied your pitch black background to shape up the bird and the branch. You are not going to be successful artist if you don't get good with your lines.

i appreciate the feed back, and i did go to far with the black background and i'm going to fade it out when she comes back in. ill try something ells with the background next time. i placed it there because we are supposed to ad a cardinal to the upper left. What is your opinion on the color blending?

I think your blending is passable as decent, but it would be a bit better if you had structured the bird correctly. The wing of the bird looks distorted, the stomach looks messy. Just concentrate more on the structure of it and don't worry as much about the blending part.

i think the tattoo isnt that bad for a beginner, but the background destroys everything!
if your are not sure about your shading inks, just begin with the lightest tone-

my style is more with lining etc, i tryd to imagine your tattoo with some fine thin lines without that black, solid background, just a light grey , it wouldnt look bad this way.

hey bro, Im not one to critique anyones work on mikes forum, but Id be happy to tell you what I might have done different.

for a beginner your work is not that bad. time will only tighten up your work, just slow down and concentrate on the details, your work will come in time, just keep learning.
I would however recommend that you pick up some books on color theory. learn everything you can about contrasting colors and flow. also I would recommend that you find a chart of the muscles on the human body, if you study this, it will help you understand what body flow means, if you flow your work with the natural musculature makeup of the body your tattoo will look much better. because of this you can fix or redeem yourself with what you have done already.
I recommend that when you do the cardinal try to rework the background so that the background only, flows with the natural muscles of the back. also now that you have a "red" cardinal, this will give you an opportunity to put in better contrasting colors so that you can tie together both birds. I could go on with details on this topic, but ill be here all day.

my best advise it to buy everything you can afford on the topics of tattooing, every book every dvd, ect ect, eat sleep and shit this stuff and before you know it a switch will turn on, its hard to explain except that you just know what to do, you struggle and struggle and then all of a sudden things just start to make sense to you.
the best tip I can think of that will separate your skills from that of "just another artist" to "one that will get you the most respect is.
Alway put the art and its execution first, before money and time. your skill level takes time to build, but money and time will always be there. once you start putting out solid work, your time will be better manageable and the money will catch up to you.
when you are doing your tattoo, take your time and do every part of the tattoo to the best of your abilities, make sure every line is solid and consistent, pay attention the all the details, don't leave any loose ends. the one thing you want to avoid is what I call " coke bottle glasses tattoos", this is when you look at a tattoo as a "whole" and you don't see anything wrong, to you its just looks like the "tattoo is not quite as good as the photo reference", all parts of the tattoo are kinda blurred together to give it a "pass" when you look at the final product.
but...if you break down to tattoo carefully, you will start to notice some lines are a little shaky, or a bit of the color fill is not consistent, or you can notice some "dots" in your blending. all these details go unnoticed when you look at the tattoo as a "whole". but I promise you if you put as much time into every part of the tattoo, even the stencil,. more details in the stencil will give you more detail in the tattoo, but when you execute the tattoo, do every little part, don't move on until each piece your working on is consistent and complete. if you do this, your final result will surprise yourself, and I swear to you that you won't believe that you actually did that tattoo.
I hope that helps bro, take care.

stephen stacey

For a beginner his work is bad, I am sorry to say that. This Industry has been overcrowded with mediocre and below talented artists that only the real natural talented ones would be able to make a good living out of it. Sorry to disappoint. Here is an example of an talented artist work as a beginner http://www.mdtattoos.com/facemaster.cfm?task=message_list&thread_index=107861&generate=1

shrek,

Ill say this again, your work is not that bad for a "beginner". I've seen a lot worse and I've seen a lot better..however there is no set level of skill out there, or a comparison chart that states as a beginner, your work either sucks or not. the only person you need to compare yourself to is yourself. if every tattoo you do is better than the last then you have achieved what 95% of other artist cannot, and that's to learn, improve, and grow as an artist. I would suggest that when you seek critiques on your work, that you ignore the critiques that have an emotional attachment to them and concentrate only on the advise that will help you. telling you that your work sucks is not going to help you get better...... but by giving you encouragement for your current level of talent and advise on how to improve is the advise you need to focus on. this will help separate the advisers that are good mentor and those that just want to put you down. I'm pretty sure that the owner of this forum would not tell you that your work simply sucks,or bad or terrible; but that he would help guide you in the direction that will get the best out of your current skill level.
if you ever need any personal help or advise on your work, without unnecessary Adjectives of criticism I would be glad to help, just send me an email @ kryptonianink@hotmail.com

hope that helps bro, take care.

stephen stacey

Steve,
Well said. Thank you from all the beginners out there! You can always tell when a professional give criticism vs some who thinks they are a pro and should not even be giving critique. I have gathered a lot of information from your reply. Thank you