Critique this Koi Dragon outline

[finegentleman 58]

I started an initiation thread where everyone convinced me to pursue better artists. I'm extremely grateful for all the great advice I've received.

Now, I just want you guys to critique this koi dragon outline my old artist did for me. I hope it isn't wrong for me to post this picture up online, but I'd like specific comments about it so that I can better recognize strong artwork.

Here is the thread I was talking about:

http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/initiation/5185-first-tattoo-dragon-koi.html

[TaeTae 15]

If you are trying to learn how to recognize quality tattoo work then the portfolios of the tattoo artists mentioned in the other thread is a good place to start.

Good artwork doesn't necessarily correlate to good tattoo work.

[bugxjuice 4]

I don't know if any tattooers posted in that thread - maybe one will chime in here, maybe not. I'm not a tattooer or really much of an artist so I'll try to keep it short:

1. A line drawing is not a tattoo - a shoddy artist can take a great line drawing and turn it into a horrible tattoo. A poor line drawing is not a great indication though.

2. You really should spend some time with this thread - http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/2396-what-makes-good-tattoo.html, and go through the lattest tattoo thread too, as almost all of the tattoos posted in there are great quality work.

3. How could you expect someone to critique a design at such an oblique angle?

[finegentleman 58]

I don't know if any tattooers posted in that thread - maybe one will chime in here, maybe not. I'm not a tattooer or really much of an artist so I'll try to keep it short:

1. A line drawing is not a tattoo - a shoddy artist can take a great line drawing and turn it into a horrible tattoo. A poor line drawing is not a great indication though.

2. You really should spend some time with this thread - http://www.lastsparrowtattoo.com/forum/general-tattoo-discussion/2396-what-makes-good-tattoo.html, and go through the lattest tattoo thread too, as almost all of the tattoos posted in there are great quality work.

3. How could you expect someone to critique a design at such an oblique angle?

cool. I'll go through that thread

[polliwog 866]

This isn't the line work, but I'm a novice at getting tattooed, also. The first thing that stood out to me in the portfolio that you posted there was the shading - it looks really patchy once you spend time looking at expertly colored tattoos. Just one place to start training your eye.

[temporarytattoo 0]

The portfolio which is an very nice strategy, if you want to get the lining of the tattoo then you should look make it more aggressive with dark colors that would give it an very good look.