When I left behind my third tattoo apprenticeship, I realized I had to turn back to my roots to discover what happened to my motivation.

The technique for blending in color realism was a little over my head in the medium at hand. My "mentor" must have thought berating me for being too slow was more constructive than instructing me in proper technique.

"You don't have the luxury to take your time while you're learning".

Shortly after redesigning everyone's business cards, squeezing in clients on my days off and pumping out web advertising for the shop, all while keeping the shop itself in tip top physical shape until 10pm every night or later after my full-time gig, I received a shitty text from my boss.

"You have 2 weeks to shape up your game or you can find another job."

On a fucking mission, I packed my measly few grand worth of equipment before my boss made it to the shop and let him know he could find another artist. I'm not some fool scratcher who can't function well enough in society to find employment anywhere other than a third rate street shop; where you can find a bag of dope fallen on the bathroom floor accompanied by some bald headed cat in a goatee and a "Monster" fitted nodding out behind the service desk.

At home I started on the cardinal and this is what I was left with after about 12 hours stretched over a week or so. It has been, in my opinion, one of my more successful pieces as of late. But at least was proficient enough to pick up where I had left off about a year ago with the human figure. With all the time I spent at these apprenticeships, I felt as if i had neglected my family, friends and my traditional fine art projects. That was a few months ago but at this point I've pushed my work to the next level with having foreground and background elements especially, rather than a figure floating on the paper

even if she was sexy as hell

Thanks for reading, folks at Steemit!

For my first post, I thought I might introduce myself with my experience in this realm, since that all we have to build our identities. Otherwise, I'm Sean, a poly-medium art addict. Along with graphic design, I work in graphite, charcoal, oil & watercolor paints, pastel, photography & photo editing, digital illustration, memes, propaganda, tattooing & concept design and whatever else I can get my hands on. I'm looking to join the crypto market and make Art my primary practice