LOVE HATE

My grandfather has the words LOVE and HATE on the inside of his wrists, and I have always admired them. I even drew up a tattoo design a few years ago that I am thinking about getting tattooed on my forearm.

these rings are sooo cute. I found them at here

For me the love and hate represents relationships, the good side and the bad sides of any relationship. It doesnt even have to be about a marriage or a love, it can even be about friendships, or even be a metaphor for other events, like for me, can represent my feelings about the Army when I was enlisted. I loved many things about the army but hated it at the same time.

I never asked my grandfather the meaning of his tattoos...so I finally called him and asked him what the meaning or story was behind it. He told me he was drunk and he got it with a buddy of his and he couldnt even remember the other guys name. I couldnt help but laugh at him. It was really funny and we laughed over the phone about it.

Its interesting to learn about your family and the stories they have. I look up to my grandfather so much. He served 20 years in the US NAVY as a CW04 and then served 20 years as a correctional officer in Lakeland, FL. He is also prolly the biggest Tampa Bay Buccaneer fan ever. Not only is his house painted in BUC colors, and has every type of sports memorabilia ever, he also has various buccaneer tattoos. I look up to him in so many ways, so in a way this is a lil tribute to him.

Love and hate, Ce Cilia

Sweet Surrender Art. Beauty. Fashion.

BOUND by Ink

I have found my new favorite tattoo magazine: BOUND BY INK! I picked up this baby when I splurged at Border's going out of business sale. What caught my attention to this mag, besides the gorgeous Queen Esther on the cover, was the design of the magazine (enter graphic design geek mode), the cover itself is nice and smooth and is a thicker paper which is nice because I like to take magazines with me everywhere and regular magazines get ripped easily.

I am starting to lean more towards magazines that feature stories about tattoo artists, or people with hella ink.  I like to learn about people and their walk of life, their background, the reasons why they get inked. I just love it.

I really enjoyed reading the article about Queen Esther, a model that made a name for herself and went on to open her own modeling agency. What impressed me is that she is not only a strong, beauitful, independent woman who owns her own business, but she accomplished all that with 5 kids! Yes, I said 5 KIDS!

I just wanted to share this with you and hopefully you will be inspired like I am

Thanks for stopping by as always!

Quote of the Day:

Seize the day that you are living in. When we make it a habit of putting off doing what we love, we send a message to ourselves basically saying that we aren't important. Life is really too short not to love every moment of it. Spend time exploring who you are at your heart's level. Make time to follow your dreams, and achieve the goals that you know you want to achieve.

Don't let the tough parts of life discourage you, for we all experience them. You are the master of your dreams, and only you can achieve them, nobody else will achieve them for you. Putting off the pursuit of your dreams will lead you to a dead end on Unfulfilled Street, and before you know it your whole life may have passed by. It is never too late to start going in the direction of where your dreams, and goals are located. As long as you are at least in the pursuit of your dreams by the time that it is your turn to go, the odds are better that you will be more fulfilled than if you would of never tried!

Sweet Surrender Art. Beauty. Fashion.

Tattoo Book

With Borders going out of business, Jermie, Nique and I headed there a few weeks ago to grab some book marked down 40-60% off. I mainly wanted to get some tattoo books, not just magazines, but an actual technique book. I found only One book, actually Jermie found it for me. Its called "Advanced Tattoo Art How-to Secrets from the Masters by Doug Mitchell. Its taken me a lil bit to read through it, I only have time to read it on my lunch breaks at school, but I gotta say, I really enjoyed it. It doesnt give everything you need to know to tattoo, but it does give some good tips on the type of needles an artists uses, outlining and shading.

I finally finished reading it from front to back and I just wanted to share a good book for anyone interested in it.

This picture above was the last tattoo of the book and was prolly my favorite one because it resembles my style of drawing. Someone asked me what my style is yet, and I am not sure. I wanna say I am more of a classic style, but not sure because I like all styles. I guess with each drawing I do, I will discover my style.

I hope you enjoyed this post! I am off to go put some stuff in my storage unit and then get to drawing that memorial piece.

Quote of the Day:

Sweet Surrender Art. Beauty. Fashion.

Thought Process

When someone asks me to draw something up for them, there is usually a process I go through. First, I get the basic details such as what they want, colors, and size. If it is a tattoo drawing, I like to know where it will go on the body so I can visualize it.

I have been watching tattoo shows such as L.A. Ink and Inked on Netflix, and just been basically obssessing about the tattoo culture. I have been paying attention to every detail I can, becoming a human sponge.  Last year, when I first moved back here, after seeing an ad posted online for a tattoo apprenticeship at a local tattoo shop, I jumped on it. I gathered all my drawings, all my sketchbooks and went down there and spoke to the lady in charge (of course a female tattoo artist) and she told me straight up about what it was all about-she didnt sugar coat it. (enter quick story)

She told me that an apprenticeship is tough work, it isnt paid, you have to be there everyday and it takes months before you can even pick up a machine. And trust me, this didnt scare me away, but I realized that it just wanst the right time for me. I needed to get a job, learn a trade I can work soon and fall back onto if I needed to. I told that manager thanks for the info, but that it just wasnt the right time. Enter going to Cosmetology school. I have been attending since January and will be graduating in December. So now, I am back on the tattoo track.

okay, okay- back on where I was going with this- and I think I remember where I was going with this. Oh yea- so when I am drawing up a tattoo, I get into the whole thing. It is not just a drawing, I love to hear the stories behind what it means to that person. I place myself in "their" shoes, when I draw, I imagine it as if the drawing is for me, as if I was getting that tattoo inked on my skin. Thats why I love watching tattoo reality shows, because the artists on there feel the same way I do about the art they are putting on someone. I feel more and more like I am meant to become a tattoo artist. With each piece I draw, I am one step closer to my goals.

So, for this next piece, is a memorial tattoo drawing. A friend of mine lost both her parents when she was young and as a tribute to them, she wants to get inked and she needed help coming up with something. I suggested two angels holding each other and the dates in scrolls under them.  This is my next piece I am working on.

Here are a few reference pictures I am using and going to take what I like and create my own version of what I think would be an amazing piece for her.

I hope you enjoyed this post on my thought process and how I help to create drawings. Sorry that I rambled on in a lil tangent. I am off to bed, I am not going to stay up until 3am again tonight.

Quote of the day:

Sweet Surrender Art. Beauty. Fashion.

Cities of Night Fashion Show

My friend, Nick who just graduated wants to put on a fashion show at the school where the theme is "Cities of Night" and fashion,makeup and hair will be focused on the trends of New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and London. We had a casting call for models last night and only a few of us showed up. So, we all put our heads together and just dived into planning this bad boy. Since Nick has graduated from the school, My friend, Jinaki "Naki Saki" are going to help head it up while he is working at a salon, since we both still attend the school.

We set the date for our fashion show which will be September 25th, Sunday from 6pm to 8pm. There will be a $5 admission fee, which half of that will be going to charity.  We are hoping to have 20 models, (4 models per City) but of course the more the merrier.

I am planning on doing makeup and background props and now I volunteered to help with the flyers and programs which I love to do! I get to indulge in my graphic designer geekyness side!!! lol

So, I just got done putting together this flyer above just to start it out, I am sure I will have to tweak it and make a black and white version so that we can get print out flyers in just black and white.

I have always loved planning fashion shows, in fact when I attended the fashion design program at the Virginia Beach Technical Education Center many years ago (10 years ago ), I had directed the shows both years I attended. So, this is right down my alley and I am excited to work on this, which will of course help towards building my portfolio and website (which will be coming soon)

Well, it is about to be 2am in the morning, so let me get off of here and get my butt to bed! Happy dreams!


Sweet Surrender Art. Beauty. Fashion.

Capricorn Tattoo

My good friend, Jak-Jak asked that I draw this up for her. She wants a Capricorn symbol and when I tried to ask details of what she would like, she said "I trust you" and "Do what you want to".  I love when people tell me that because it gives me the freedom to put my own artistic flair on it. I put myself in their shoes and imagine how I would want the tattoo design. She wants this as a side piece or possibly on her hip.

I have been making my tattoo designs big so that it can be framed on a wall or something. So, here it is, the finished rendering of this tattoo.

Here is a fun picture I wanted to share from a fashion show where me and Jak Jak dressed up as "chula gangsta's" lol Enjoy!

I hope you liked it and that it inspired you!

Quote of the day:

Many of us are quick to assume that if we are breathing and functional that we are actually "alive". Being alive is actually being the person who you really are at heart. You might be living your life, but that life may not constitute you being alive if you aren't living as the person who you really know you are. So many of us feel pressure to run our lives as those who claim they love us want us to live it.

The people who really love you will allow you to live life as yourself, and will encourage you to follow your heart, as long as they know that it won't kill you. Following your heart is making a choice to be alive. Following your heart requires you to listen to no one but god and yourself in order to make your decisions. Following your heart will leave you fulfilled and will also lead to happiness. What are you following? Your heart's path? Or the path that everyone else wants you to follow?

Sweet Surrender Art. Beauty. Fashion.

Geisha Girl

Yesterday at Paul Mitchell, there was a contest going on between students on who has the best makeup and hair for "Cosmetology Through Time" and we could pick whatever era we wanted to create a unique and timeless look. I paired up with my friend Carole, and we grabbed whatever supplies were out and went to work. We grabbed red, green and yellow toulle, red plastic beads, 2 packages of synthetic hair (or we call it weave) and a ton of bobby pins.

We wanted to go for something fun and different from what enyone else would do, so we decided to do a "Geisha Girl" theme. While Carole went to work to try and tame my bright "Vampire Red" hair, I started on my face makeup! We made a great team and it all came together.

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There were other time era's too, including rocker, 80's, grecian and eqyptian. We used whatever we could to rock our look out. We took two draping capes and made a makeshift kimono out of it and wrapped toulle around my waist and Carole made a paper fan so I could fan  myself.  We had a mini show and the whole school voted on the best theme. When I walked across the stage, I walked really fast with tiny lil steps the way geisha's did wearing those tiny shoes. Everyone voted for the Geisha look and we won the contest for the day! It was excited! We got a gift card to a bakery nearby, but I dont really eat there so I gave it to Carole!

Here is a glimpse of the other models:

Egyptian Inspired makeup

Greek Inspired

80's Inspired

Rocker Inspired

Avante Garde Inspired

I was able to squeeze in a makeup application while waiting for the fashion show to begin :) 

My Nick graduated as well yesterday!!!! I am so proud of him!

Have you ever seen a geisha do the robot? Oh I get down! lol

So that was my day yesterday at school. The next big project at school, is that we are putting on a HUGE fashion show next month. More details to come! I am helping to direct this with Nick and I have to get to work on the flyer and programs! I will blog more about it as I pull it together. 

Here is a glimpse at the next tattoo drawing I am working on for my friend Jak-Jak :) Not finished yet, but I am getting there!

Capricorn symbol with Lily and Rose with Scroll detail line work

I will blog the finished drawing soon!

I hope this inspired you to be creative and surrender to your inner artist!

Quote of the Day:

Living life with regrets is in a sense, not really living life. Picture yourself trying to drive somewhere. Do you think that you would be able to make it safely from point a to point b by staring into the rearview mirror the whole drive? Of course not! We must use this as an example to the way we live our lives.

Sure we have all made mistakes, and sometimes we wish that things could have gone differently, but it is impossible to keep reliving these moments and expect to move forward in life. In order to move forward in life take the experiences from your past and use them as stepping blocks in order to reach your new goals and dreams. In other words, don't let your past hold you back, learn from your past and use it to help you further your future. Be who you are now, and not who you used to be.

Sweet Surrender Art. Beauty. Fashion.