It has been a while since the last time I’ve done any illustration work. Recently I’ve created a new awesome piece that I would like to share with you. It is a koi fish illustration inspired by my tattoo. Read this post to find out more about my tattoo and see how I created the koi fish illustration based on my tattoo.
Final Illustration Preview
About My Tattoo Artist – Daemon Rowanchilde
I always wanted to get a tattoo ever since I was a kid. Finally, last year I decided to go ahead and get a tattoo done. After hours of Googling, I found Daemon Rowanchilde of Urban Primitive. Daemon is an amazing artist who has been in the industry for long time. He has done work for movie, fashion, illustration, and tattoo design. I particularly like his Energy Wave style/technique. Visit Urban Primitive and Daemonology to see his work.
Tattoo Research
Then I spent couple days on researching tattoo design. I found the koi fish very meaningful and decided to use it as my main design subject. Koi fish tattoo symbolizes "courage, aspiration and advancement".
According to Japanese legend, if a koi succeeded in climbing the falls at a point called Dragon Gate on the Yellow River, it would be transformed into a dragon. Based on that legend, it became a symbol of worldly aspiration and advancement.
Tattoo Sketch
Below are some of my concept sketches. It is a koi swimming upstream toward the sun.
I asked Daemon to incorporate his art into my design and he did this design which was used as the tattoo stencil. The floral and wave patterns were done free-hand during the tattooing process.
Finished Tattoo
The tattoo took 2 painful sessions to complete (6 hours each). Below are the photos of my finished tattoo.
Illustration Sketch
Based on my tattoo, I did the following sketch. The sketch was done on the returning plane from a Chicago trip (I was too bored). I did the sketch in about 30 minutes.
Tracing
As usual, the sketch is scanned and imported in Adobe Illustrator for tracing.
Here is the complete vector art in outline mode (over 2600 paths in total). The tracing process took about 12 hours.
Coloring
The artwork was then filled with color and gradient. The images below are different color themes that I tried. The coloring process took about 20 hours.
Texturizing
Then I imported the elements in Photoshop in separate layers. The texturing effect can easily be done by setting your layer blending mode to Dissolve. I used the Brush and Pencil tool to make the grungy background. Read my Vector Polishing tutorial to see the details of the techniques. The polishing process took over 10 hours due to the large file size and numerous layers.
Inspiration
The koi fish idea was taken from my tattoo. I made the fish tail a bit abstract so it can connect with the water wave.
The sun is also inspired by my tattoo design. I added a waterlily flower behind to make it look like kind of a flower and the sun.
The symbol on the fish head is the initial of my name and my girlfriend.
The flying mushrooms are a combination of jellyfish and mushroom.
The other design elements are mainly inspired by aquatic plants.
Related Article: Finding Inspiration From Your Environment.
naran_ho
Wow, wow truly inspiring, excellent Work.
Keith Davis
That is some illustration.
The detail is staggering.
Can’t imagine where you find the patience… or the skill.
tonir
amazing.
Chris Wallace
Awesome artwork, but I have no idea why people get tattoos. Not for me I guess.
Nikolaevi4
Wow, amazing work.
Sean Rice
Nice to see that it takes time to create something nice like this! So often I find myself disappointed that I can’t deliver something awesome in just a couple of hours. I always wonder how others can seem so prolific! Maybe it’s just an illusion.
Anyways, this encourages me to go ahead and take a long time on something if the outcome will be worthwhile! Fast client turnaround expectations be damned! Rome wasn’t built in a day!
Toni
Wow, that is one bad ass tattoo man, and not to mention an incredible illustration. Kudos!
Rudy
Awesome piece of work! I’m glad you posted the time it took to complete, this gives me encouragement to see through my work to the end and not give up after a couple of hours.
阿呆
With some Chinese elements,it’s looks very nice.awesome !
Xiawa
Awesome, beside your color sense, I am impressed by your sketch skills too :)
jason
I would pay to see you record you sketching something like this. I can’t imagine someone doing the sketch in 3 months times.
Nokadota
Wow, 6[x2] hours? Geez, I simply do not have that amount of patience. Thanks for the write-up though, the tattoo looks great, I love the tattoo artist’s style. I also learning how to do some texturing, thanks for that tip as well.
Ada Lau
wow you finished the sketch in just 30 mins.. Amazing! The detail of that tattoo is fabulous.
Delacour
When I first look at the post, i thought you draw your tattoo by yourself then had it done on your arm -_- nvm,great post….
AP
That’s Chinese legend, not Japanese…
The Frosty
Real awesome!
Callum Chapman
Great stuff! Really nice tattoo and outcome :)
Dave
This is superb. Awesome tattoo; fantastic illustration.
Paul
Awesome tat – great design
Mark McCorkell
That is AWESOME! Really love the idea and the design!
Lily
I love your artwork so, so much! The tattoo looks really faboulous.
You inspire me. Seeing your artwork makes me want to go and create something myself.
The koi fish is a great symbol indeed.
Mojtaba Moradian
Art Tattoo nowadays become more popular than before in Iran, you have a great website ! Continue … Goooood Looooouck :)
Mojtaba Moradian
ana
nice!
However, that’s chinese legend. not japanese! and Yellow river is located in China …
mabonic
It’s great. Thank you for inspiration.
Adrian
Wow great article. Thanks much for the inspiration!
mauricio
GReat!!!
would you recommend a beginner’s book for illustrator please, and a beginners book for photoshop, I know how to use fireworks but I am thinking to learn the aforementioned
Thanks, great job
BebopDesigner
Wow! I’m really blown away… Looks brilliant! love it. Thanks for sharing.
Cheers
ilz
Hey.. nice work! Thought you might be interested in the koi/ pagoda sleeve i’m currently working on:
http://webdesignandsuch.com/2009/09/koi-fish-pagoda-tattoo/
Aran
Wow, that is some stunning and incredible work.
The amount of time put into it is staggering… Thank you for sharing the process!
aledesign.it
incredible this work! Fantastic illustration!!
Alyson
Wow, thanks so much for this! I always wonder what artists go through to complete such beautiful pieces. You’ve inspired me! Please post more like this!!
b
this article is seriously inspiring! thnx for sharing ….. amazing! ;)
Sklep wędkarski
Amazing… Is it really feasible?
Steven Dolan
Inspiring, thanks for sharing. I’m new to Illustrator and things like this can open doors of opportunity. Have you ever considered doing a time lapse video?
Duy
Nice tattoo Nick! Cool inspiration!
Cyprian Gwóźdź
Nice tattoo – maybe I will need one too, if it inspirate so well :-P
Julia
Wow, simply magnificent!
Daniel Long
This is a very inspiring post. I like how the design has gone from a tattoo, to a great illustration. There is alot of detail and really like the gradients on the vectors. Stunning!
teddy w.
The real tattoo stories….
Great!!!!
vincent
the fish is in Chinese legend. and japanese took from it
the yellow river is china’s mother river
really cool design, takes a lot of time but worth, i love it
…….
1 more thing, koi fish lives in river, but coral and they other i dont know how to say(like a flower) are living in the ocean :D
great work!
Marco
Thx for this article! A lil bit of spring in my inpiration.
Now i think i have to get better ;-) Have fun!
Jack
This is absoutely stunning stufff. Thanks a lot Nick
Justin
No one has a Koi fish, way to be original….The design is nice and all, but your more creative than that it seems.
vectorss
Woov Amazing. Thanks
clippingimages
Great art and design of Koi Illustration. Wonderful tattoo. Thanks for sharing this nice post.
Scarlett
That is absolutely beautiful! If only I can save up to get a tattoo…:D
nOeL
Wow, this is awesome! I love the renderings!
Calvin Tennant
This is really good. Very impressed.
Caina
Very nice tatto! i’ll make one like this, not equals!! xD
FGD
Well done.
Glenn Van Bogaert
Wow, that is well done. I really like it. Hope you enjoyed the workt at it.
shylands
such an awesome post, If I had your patience I would illustrate my sleeve too, but i don’t :)
Redstage Magento
These are simple amazing and beautiful! Thanks.
Matt
I’m not a big tattoo guy, but I love how you demonstrate the process of your koi illustration on your site.
Dave Parker
This is AWESOME! Very very cool.
JakeCake
This is so awesome, even when thinking about how much time and effort you put into this single sketch, the finish is still absolutely worth every minute in my opinion :) now if only I could get myself to put more time in my own projects from now on! Thank you
Sidem
Awesome, wonderful….. Those words are not enough to express my thoughts….. Well done!
Denis
MY Tattoo here, and MY tattoo there. GET OVER YOURSELF MAN!
Wait for a year and you will see that the ink bleeds into itself. Too much-too soon. You should have got a small one first, to see what way the ink and your skin react.
I’ve seen your ‘illustration’ a thousand times before. Nothing new.
John
I don’t have any tattoos and I’m not an illustrator, but I am a fan of this blog. I think the tattoo and illustration are both beautiful.
Oh, and this Dennis character (from comment 58) sounds like he has some mental issues; don’t pay any attention to his negativity.
Max
I’ll second that comment. Denis from comment 58 is a Douche Bag. The tattoo and the illustration are beautiful dude. Take good care of that ink.
Yuki
it’s absorbing! I love the colors and Koi.
I’m Japanese so I can look many Koi’s illustrations but it’s different from them and great!
Leni
I do find your color choice for the tattoo quite interesting or it may come from the photos but to me it looks like violet, purple, bordeau…nice gamma. I also find your illustration style atractive and charming. Thanks for sharing it with us!
Trudy
Love it!!
Hilmon
Beee-yew-ti-ful!!! :-)
I’m one of those people who “..use photoshop for everything, but one day I’ll get my head around Illustrator”….. Seeing your process here just makes me want to take the plunge TODAY… well, maybe tomorrow :-) Briliant work!!!
Courtny Cotten
@58 Denis – Why do you have to be so aggressive towards Nick sharing his illustrative process with us?! I’m interested in you answer.
——————————————————————————————————
All in all this illustration did turn out pretty sharp.
Deina
You are The Man!!! I love how you merge the idea of sun and flower, or fin and wave… I wish I had half your talent! *falls on face in blind worship*
Patrick
Phenomenal work man. Absolutely stunning.
I have a confession. It’s sad – both my parents were artists that made their living doing graphic design. So, growing up, they taught me production art and graphic design and now that’s what I do. I can do rockstar print layouts and I’m getting pretty good at web design. I’m a badass production artist, but I never learned to draw. I can do all this cool stuff when you give me the materials to start with, but I can’t seem to make up my own. One of those things I really regret never paying attention to.
I’m jealous. You’ve got some major-league talent man, keep up the great work.
Jonathan
Nice! You’ve got lots of patience… :-)
Claire
Wow! That is a lot of work! And a very feminine illustration for a guy to have done. I would never have that much patience. Well, maybe for that kind of thing. Are you a graphic designer?
Glenn
This is my first time at this blog and I am absolutely amazed. Your Koi illustration is absolutely stunning, it makes me want to learn Illustrator more. I primarily use Illustrator for creating logos as I don’t know enough to do illustrations. Any recommendations on sites to learn Illustrator?
choco
coolllll
rx1 zayıflama hapı
very nice tattoo :)
nika
wow ;) amazing work, stunned by all dem details on ur illustration and tho not a big fan of colord tattoos, urs looks gr8, has sth even witout explainin the bg
Peach
That’s the best of the best.
Robin
Wow! Truly beautiful and inspiring!
Sarah
Wow! If only I could draw like that! The only good thing I can really draw on Illustrator is a smiley face T.T! Oh the envy….
Pavel
amazing – many hours ;-)
Settor76
I spent the next few months getting my demo reel ready. ,
Kelvin97
Most people agree that it is legitimate for jewelers to make ornaments out of raw gold, but they often deny that the same applies to the manufacture of coins. ,
Web Design Singapore
Nice no doubt but the koi isnt that visible, shouldnt it be the centre of attraction?
Sandra
Very amazing!
Greeting, Sandra
Tala
wow good jobs. i start to work on illustration. thanks for your tips
jolynn
I’m sooo glad to have found your site! the guidelines and tutorials are very useful! thanks! keep up the good work!
Bilal Aslam
Just one word: Wow!
salem
O.M.G 0_O this is the most beautiful and spierd desigen I never seen
Keep up with your beautiful artwork:D
Roxanne
Beautiful illustration! I stumbled onto your site in search of inspiring web designs – your site and art are definitely inspiring!!
Linda
wow good jobs. i start to work on illustration.
Daniel
As a webdesigner, im impressed, very nice! I can tell alot of work have been put into this :) Good work..
Lea
WAUW!!!! :D
It’s amazing!! :D
I wish I had your technique :) Or could learn it some how ;)
Looking forward to your new design :)
Gaps
Simply mesmerizing… looking forward for more… :-)
Website Design
Wow, great tips, will surely use them in my website
subagio
the true passionate of great work for art detailing
Kirill
Great work! My compliments.
Ms. Freeman
WOW!!! That is so mind blowing. I am in the process of creating a header image for my blog and downloaded a trial version of Coral Painter11. How do Photoshop and Coral Painter 11 compare. Have you used Coral before?
levitico cruz
Wow, great tips, will surely use them in my website
Dogal Urunler
nice illustration
DuROCHER
Wowww!! Nice Job.
Tks
tyas
OH MY GOD!!
acai
Wow, great tips, will surely use them in my website
Wayne
That is a beautiful design. It really is gripping. Nice Job!
Angelo Beltran
The tentacles, the fish scales, the textures on the bottom left corner…I love it! It’s refreshing to see line art at its awesomeness. Do you have any tips or resources you would recommend for beginners on how to trace and colorize using gradients in Adobe Illustrator?
Dave
Awesome Stuff!
Design Gallery
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Donstudio
Great illustration and great tattoo as well. Thanks a lot for sharing.
Don
Ryan Mcfarlane
This is a a really nice illustration man, loving the texture tips as its something I have never really got my head around. This blog gets better every time I visit, keep up the good work.
Mark Strange
Wow, really nice job on this one. Quite detailed..
web design hyderabad
Excellent Post , really loved it, its amazing that so much details can be drawn on a Adobe illustrator !
regards
Joshu
Jenni Smith
Your work is a huge inspiration and really is beautiful, I would love to have the time to do something as detailed and concentrated with colour. I think you’ve inspired my next project. Thank you!
craig
Love the vector work. Extremely detailed with a terrific choice of colours. Thanks for posting it.
Angelina M.
O.O WoW das sieht richtig super aus :D
DarkenedSoul
My eye caught this illustration while scrolling through your site and hell, some nice work man! I also liked the fact that u told us how much time it took to actually trace it n colour it all, at least I don’t feel like I’m alone now,
people trully underestimate the endless hours that can be spent on one piece…
Keep up the site n keep up the artwork, will definately pass by some more.
vincentdresses
喜欢你们的设计与技术，常来看看
Andrea Austoni
Amazing work Nick! I love the flying mushrooms. Original too, something that’s hard to come by these days.
Thanks for telling about the time it took you, it sounds just about right. Now it’s time to convince the clients…
Very inspirational illustration. Kudos for the guts to have such a giant tattoo done. It looks beautiful.
Kristen
Amazing work! Im a huge fan of yours! :)
Tony Newbury
Very nice work. I think I’m going to give that a go. Not sure what else I can use apart from a fish??? It could look nice just in shades of the same colour. Good stuff man!
casey
the detail in this design is truly amazing
Joel Glovier
I’m very interested to know your method of importing your vector objects as layers into Photoshop. For very complex illustrations I’ve done (such as this one: Revolution2009) I’ve always had a tough time with that. The struggle is if you export you .ai document as a .psd document, you tend to get alot of paths, objects, etc. merged together as one rasterized layer in the final .psd and almost have to put all the objects into their own .ai layers in order to get them to come out well!
MRS.O.
That is really amazing !
Anthony M. Grimaldi
This is a beautiful piece of artwork! This is dedication and passion for your craft. As a minor vector artist myself, I take enormous delight in all the details, shades, gradients, and shapes. There is so much to view, yet your focus is never distracted away from the koi fish. Wonderful!
capsiplex
Very inspirational illustration. Kudos for the guts to have such a giant tattoo done. It looks beautiful.
Daniel Wiedemann - Pixmac
Amazing design! Congratulations!
spongita84
Super awesome work!
Hian Battiston
I have just one word, AMAZING!
Lenard
It’s amazing…!!! it’s so detailed…
diş beyazlatm
wow tribal thanks pictures
kandyce
wow that is breathtaking…simply amazing! youre so talented…
H&H
Nicely done!! I know when you’re creating something it’s about the appreciation so the least I can do when passing by is to say I have enjoyed looking at your creation.
Sandra Vargas
Your art is absolutely amazing!! Fantastic artwork!! Love all the details you have in mind and the way you’ve conceived them on paper, skin, and digitally … wow that’s wonderful!!!
Chaos
I am completely blown away, i came here for some wordpress tips….. i have been here the whole day reading post after post.
This was so amazing. every little detail was so meaningful.
I am quiting my job.
Web Design
wow very creative!! thanks
Marcelo
nice illustration, I make tattoo of this illustration, without know, this is inspired in a tattoo
sry english
Pri
Ainda ñ estou na área, mas desde já estou totalmente admirada…parabéns!!!
snoutz
three words: u are awesome !!! I can’t imagine how’d u do that or where did your inspire came from out of your head…beautiful artwork..wish if i could have a sense of art just like u..keep going dude..
start
The detail is staggering.
Gudo Fredo
WOW ★★★★★
Aurora
WOW!!! awesome illustration!!! I just found this website from google and i love it so much! it has so many useful tutorials, not only for photoshop and illustrator, but css too!!! By the way, this illustration is so detailed and i like the grungy background you made. i had been looking for a tutorial teaching me how to make such a background a long period already, it seems like it’s not that hard to make one(hopefully it is not). anyways, i like your work so much!!
wahyu
wwoooww… luarrrr… biasa…
Nicholas Czuma
Really nice. I’ve always had issues working with vector programs for detailed designs, but I like the crisp clean look it produces.
Rowena N
WOW – I loved your abstract phoenix & peacock and haven’t visited your website for some time. I was looking for a WordPress Theme and saw your work again…Koi…I am still mesmerized. Your illustrations are absolutely beautiful. Thank you so much for sharing them…they are a beauty to the eye.
James
Awesome! Truly inspirational work – thank you so much for taking the time to show your working methods and creative process.
doris
nice illustration, I make tattoo of this illustration, without know, this is inspired in a tattoo
chiho
just wanna say, amazing…
rosette
Absolutely amazing! I love your tutorials. You are a real inspiration. I hope one day to come close to being able to do this!
Sean McCann
That design is beautiful! I love the creativity that art can inspire. Just started to use Illustrator myself so can hopefully create a piece as amazing as that in the future.
Darkened Soul
And again, coming back to watch this soft n niceness, it still is as beautiful as when i first saw this piece, respect ;)
Chelsea
My gosh, your designs are so delicious! Your a design king ^^
David Maguire
Wow to that! That is a simply amazing work of art! Kois are really attractive, be it art or real. I am a Koi fish grower myself..That work of yours, gave more importance to koi fishes. Thanks!
Werona Seitaneva
Wow…great work!!
Nell
you know you have a dick on your arm now?
Melvins
Very creative and inspirational idea, now I will try to make tattoo of this illustration. I got many design ideas from Web Designer Wall. All the posts at here are very helpful for the designer as it shows the latest trends in graphics. Thanks for such a valuable blog.
Los Angeles Web Design
Juno Mindoes
Bad news for folks who’ve been holding out for a white iPhone 4: Apple has delayed the white version of its popular smartphone until later this year. The white iPhone 4 was first delayed until late July, and then promised for the end of the month by Apple chief executive Steve Jobs just a week ago, but now there’s no ship date in sight.
Henry Peise
Still wonder white iphone 4 avaiable or not? We tells you the answer is "yes". Now you can buy the hottest white iphone 4 Conversion Kit and make a change!
best iphone cases
If I got a chance, i will prefer buying the iphone 4 white but not the iphone 4 Black. Who can tell me where is the Best iPhone Cases I would really want to take one. Best iPhone Cases and Covers, Sale iPhone 4 Cases, iPhone 3g Cases and Accessories
mikwillson
That is to be expected in a long-term, high-risk project like ours. So, we turned to the blogging community for help – and got it! We have published our problems, and the community responded with results!cheap ugg boots
Sirlaud Mimaose
I hope the next design will be different from this work .
Uçak Bileti
suleyman
Beto G.
I just had to comment, wow man very nice work…
altın çilek
I hope the next design will be different from this work .
hcg damla
you know you have a dick on your arm now?
narsis
very good, very nice,I enjoy of perfect design on human bodies…….good
Tracey Bushman
Truly great artwork! Thank you for sharing.
http://www.montblancpenoutlet.com
What is friendship?Mont Blanc PenWhy do we call a person our friend? When do we call someone a very good friend?
Daniele Morasca
Really fascinating by your work.
Navigate in your website is a pleasure.
Regards
Jomarl Natividad
Wow! nice artwork! Please send me some tutorial or suggestion on how to create a professional and eye catching logo design.
Thanks & God Bless:-)
Moliva
Navigate in your website is a pleasure.
Suzette
WOW! That is so beautiful! What a joy to see the process. Thank you for sharing.
abbas
Excellent design (Babol, Iran)
abbas
a very nice
JDML
Wow.
Satyanarayan Singh
It is a real Art. I am very effective from this Art.
CAT
Superbe =)
Jennifer M.
This is amazingly cool! I love this!! Thank you for explaining some of the details and thought process behind it. I am a first-year graphic design student and sometimes I look at other people’s artwork and think that I must be doing something wrong because I can’t achieve a certain look very quickly. It’s interesting to realize that even someone who knows what they’re doing has to take days sometimes to do the work on a design!
Adrian
This is really cool and inspirational!! I will definitely start to document my design process like this. And the finished design looks great. Thanks!
Daya
You are terrific designer