AN: Alright, back at it with Ink Master Kara Danvers. The competition and the critiques are only going to get tougher. Everyone knows who the competition is and who to try and take down. The pressure is on each and every person, it's just a matter of who can handle the pressure. ~Immortalshark
*Tommy's POV*
I knew Kara was coming back so it wasn't a surprise when she walked in. Kelly walked in so it was obvious those two were in the top two. It was just a matter of who was sent home. Then just like that Lisa came walking in, so Jerry got eliminated.
"You know, if he could have pulled off and done tribal, Jerry would have stayed and one of y'all would have gotten booted." Kelly said.
Thank God he didn't cause then whatever the next challenge was going to be was probably something else he can't do. Then Kara piped up.
"This is not the time to relax, those of you who are at the bottom, need to step it up. The challenges are only going to get toughere from here on out leaving very little room for mistakes." Kara said.
"That's correct. The judges want to see everyone step it up a notch." Kelly said.
While everyone was critiquing each other, I noticed Kara had slipped out. Probably to the balcony. I headed out there to get away from the ruckus that was the other competitors. Shana followed me out.
"Hey kid." I said.
"Hey." Kara said.
She was looking up at the stars, or what stars could be seen.
"You did a wonderful job there kid." I said.
"Thanks, so Shana, how'd you like the challenge?" Kara asked.
"Eh, it could have gone better. My client was Mammoth since the canvas I got had seriasis and it was flared." he said.
"That's sucks. But at least you got a judge and had some guidances for what you were doing." Kara said.
"Yeah, but I gotta work with what I got and that's what I got. I was pissed that I might have been screwed from the get go, since I am one of the better competitors, but I was nervous to get Mammoth since he's so well known." I said.
"I hear ya. So what do you guys think is going to be the next challenge?" she asked,
"Something to do with shading I feel like. The judges were commenting on the shading and blending too. If the line work was nice, they commented on the shading. Either shading or contrast to create depth to the piece." I told her.
"Yeah I feel it too." she said.
Then between the three of us, we had very nice conversations. We commented on where we could have done better, but all in all, just helping each other out to get better. Over the next couple of days, I saw Kara just sketching in a sketchbook. Then came the day of the challenge. This time, we were down in the shop. There were paints laid out on tables.
"Good morning artists. As always we kick things off with a flash challenge, a short skills test to show whether or not you can do it. For this flash challenge, you will be inking something that can make or break your tattoo from being good, to better. Shading." David said.
I leaned over to Kara, "Called it."
Kara chuckled, "Yep."
"Canvases, come on out." David said.
Then out walked a group of models, in all white. Damn, this just got a whole lot more interesting.
"Today, the canvas is still human skin, however you won't be using tattoo ink. You'll be using paints to create depth. Your goal is to create a design, that pops out." David said.
I can do that.
"You have 90 minutes to complete this challenge, time starts...now." David said.
It's off to the races. I decided to do a skull, make it seem like you can reach into the eyes and the nose. I glanced over to Kara to see what she was doing and ho boy. She's doing a wolf. Damn that looks cool. I hope she can pull it off, though knowing that she's capable of completing the elimination challenges in time with stunning work, she can handle a little 90 minute challenge.
I looked over to see what Al was doing and I had no idea what the hell is going on inside that head. When all was said and done, I looked around to see a flower, a fish, some water, Kara's was amazing, Shana did some nice work, Kelly did the sun, Lisa did a flower as well.
The judges came around and sure enough, they were impressed by Kara's work. Although they chose Al as the winner because he did the definition of shading. Kara just smiled.
*Kara's POV*
I looked at Tommy and Shana's work and they looked nice. Tommy did a skull and it looked like what he wanted, for someone to be able to reach into the eye and the nose. Shana did a fish and this is his element, black and white. The judges came around and were impressed by the work some people did, not so much with Jackson's or other peoples.
I looked to Al's work and he literally painted her black and white. What the heck was he thinking? Yes, what he did was the definition of shading, but the challenge was to see whether or not you can shade well in a piece. Of course, I was a little upset that Al had won the challenge. He did absolutely nothing. I was upset for only five seconds before letting it go and then got ready for the next challenge. I had a nice lunch and we went back to the shop to learn what the elimination tattoo is going to be.
It probably had something to do with shading. So black and white is included. Its just a matter of what the challenge is.
"In this weeks elimination tattoo, you'll be using only black. You'll be able to dilute your ink so it'll be gray. Black and gray is one of the oldest forms of tattooing. We're testing you on shading so your final project should look three dimensional. So let's meet your canvases. Come on in guys." David said.
Al got to pick his canvas. It was another five hour limit. Good. I met up with my client, who was the one who wanted the head tattoo. Once again, we were able to use the rest of the afternoon to talk with our clients.
"Good Afternoon." I said, "Have a seat."
He sat down in the chair.
"What are you looking at?" I asked.
"I was looking at an elephant. A japanese realistic style." he said, "An elephant and tiger."
"Okay. So my head tattoos, cause I can do them, take longer than the time I'm given in this competition. Is there any chance you're willing to move it to a different place?" I asked.
He considered it, "Sure. How about the ribs then?"
"I can do that. Now for details. Keep in mind it's all a grayscale just no white only black and gray." I said.
"Okay, since Tigers love the water, how about the elephant, with the characteristics of both animals coming out of the water? Sort of like it's charging through and the waters splashing up around it." he said.
I did my rough sketch as he described it on the full page of my sketchbook.
"How does that look?" I asked as I showed him.
He whistled low, "Damn, that looks cool."
"Can I measure out the area? I like to get a measurement of the area I'm going to be tattooing so that I can draw my stencil to scale." I said.
He nodded and I measured out his rib cage. I put the measurements down in the sketchbook and got to work on the details of the sketch. I had the body of an elephant, the tail of a tiger, the trunk and tusks of an elephant with the bottom teeth as tiger teeth. The water was coming up and around the elephant. I shaded it the way I like it and decided that it looked great.
I closed the sketchbook, put it in my drawer, and headed out to the table to get food. I walked in on Al stirring up trouble. I heard him talking about how Bill was complaining since he got another head tattoo. The others were either ignoring it or getting in on it. I ate then headed out to the balcony to look at the stars, sketchbook in hand.
The stars were beautiful tonight. I put on some soft music and just drew. I loved just to draw sometimes. It helped clear my mind. I then turned to the sketch of what I was going to do tomorrow and began scaling it down to the size of the area. I was done when it was lights out.
In the morning, we met down in the shop to get ready to do a five hour tattoo.
"Alright guys, you'll have five hours to complete this challenge. Remember, the judges will be looking for the three dimensional aspect of the tattoo. Time starts...now." David said.
I showed my client what the stencil looked like and he liked it.
"Man, this is why I'm not an artist. I couldn't do that." he said.
I chuckled, "Do you like it?"
He nodded.
"Great. Let's get started then." I said.
And we did. I outlined the tattoo first in a thin line just to get the tattoo in before going in to shade. I decided to make it look like the elephant was coming out of the waves. At the one hour mark, I looked at it and was happy. I went in to touch it up a bit and at the thirty minute mark, I did what I do for all clients.
"Would you like some water?" I asked.
"Sure. That'd be lovely." he said.
I went to get the water. I came back and set to work again. I finished it right as time was called.
"Alright, what do you think?" I asked after I had put the salve on.
He looked at it in the mirror, "That is a sick tattoo. I like it."
"That's great." I said, "i'm glad you like it."
The camera crew came around, took a picture, and then carried on. The clients left and it was time for us to go up to the loft, eat and get ready for the critiques. The guys were complaining a little bit about how things started to blur for them and they had to take a break. I just kept quiet, even as Al started going off on his path to try and get everyone else off their game. Soon, it came time for us to meet down in the shop and this time, the critiques were harsher.
"Welcome to tonight's elimination. Al, you're up first." David said.
Al stepped up.
"You happy with this?" David said.
"Yeah man I mean, it was right up my alley man. The wooden cross and the pearly gates of heaven." Al said.
"I don't think anyone would look at that and think that it was a fence." Oliver said.
"It looks like swiss cheese at the bottom." Chris said.
"I love that part. It's my interpretation of the pearly gates." Al said as he tried to talk his way through.
"The shading is not there." Chris said.
"You just don't have any good examples of a good gradient. A smooth transition from black fading to gray to the skin and back." Oliver said.
"This was your time to shine. Yesterday, you understood what the test was. You defined shade, like you killed it. Why not today? When it counts?" Chris said.
I watched as Al walked back to his place with a pout, as if he couldn't understand why the judges were calling out the flaws of his tattoo. Lisa was up next and she had a beautiful floral design, but it looked unfinished with the way she did heavy blacks in some areas and grey in others. Jackson had the foo dog, but it was dark. Shauna was great with the different kitchen accessories. Then it was my turn.
"Kara, you're up." David said.
I headed for the center and looked at the judges.
"Are you happy with this?" David said, as he did with the others.
"Yes. I'm particularly happy with how the waves turned out." I said.
"It's a beautiful tattoo. The way that the elephant tiger looks like it's coming out of the water is killer. I liked that you made it seem that the water was cocooning the elephant as it came charging through. The teeth are nice as they stand out." Chris said.
"I love how you incorporated the features of both the elephant and the tiger. The tattoo moves well with his body." Oliver said.
"Thank you Kara, Tommy, your up next." David said.
And one by one, they all got called up. Each one had a different reaction to the critiques. Soon we were heading up to the loft as the judges made their decision. We got up and sat on the couches. Al then decided to get a feel for what the judges put us through.
"So, how'd y'all feel about that ass whooping we just got." Al said.
And unsurprisingly, some rose to the bait. Bill pointed out that he did put in smooth shading in his.
"It was too dark man." Al said.
"I disagree." Bill said
"I have never seen one that dark." Al said, "I'm tell you that's bullshit. You've got elements of the ******* thing wrong, you're missing ****. Come on man."
Al was being a freaking asshole to everyone. Then Tommy stepped in and turned it on Al.
"You were supposed to do heaven's gates. That did not look like heaven's gates." Tommy said.
"It was supposed to be." Al yelled.
"Oh it was your interpretation." Tommy said.
"You've never invented something as an artist? You've never invented your own thing?" Al said
"Tell me the truth. You really think those looked like gates?" Tommy yelled back.
"Listen." Al tried to interrupt.
"You really do in your heart, you're saying to me…" Tommy said.
"They're my interpretation of my-my gates of heaven." Al said
"Then you better hope you don't go there cause those are ******. They're not gonna open for ya." Tommy said.
"So then what do the look like then?" Al said with an affronted look on his face, as if he can't believe that no one could see what he saw.
"Be honest with yourself." Tommy said.
"I am." Al said.
"You really think those look like gates?" Tommy said.
"To me yes!" Al said.
"No they don't. You're full of ****" Tommy said.
"Well its my version of…" Al said.
"You're so full of ****" Tommy said.
"My vision of heaven, is not your vision of heaven!" Al yelled.
"Look at you. You're full of **** right now." Tommy said.
Man, Al does not like it when he's the one getting critiqued.
*Chris's POV*
Us judges were deciding on the winner and who goes home. We were deciding and we could hear the contestants. Lisa's was nice, Shana showed that she knew how to work shading, Bill's looked unfinished, and Al screwed himself over. He showed us that he knew what shading was, but then as soon as he got a machine in his hands, he screwed it up. Kara's was absolutely amazing, the way the elephant tiger looked like it was charging through the water and the water coming up and around the animal was stunning. The kid has a great career ahead of her, plus, she has a great attitude about this whole thing. Not really complaining when we tell her what to work on as she comes back in the next challenge and that stuff we tell her to work on is ironed out.
Oliver went up to the loft to get the four. It was Shana, Kara, Al, and Bill. Kara and Shana got the top two with Shana being the winner. Then we went to the bottom two.
"At this point, both of you could be justifiably be sent home." David said.
"This competition is covering many areas of tattooing, and if you don't have down the majority of tattoo skills that are out there, then this competition is not for you." Oliver said.
I saw the two look at each other, "I think that you are better than what you're doing. You're competing for 100 grand and you're gonna do something that's on somebody forever. That's the fact." I said.
We critiqued Bill's and told him where he went wrong and what he could improve on.
"Al," David said.
"There's just not any good examples of a smooth gradient from dark to light." Oliver said.
"You know, the dark skin tone is one of the shades, so it's different on the darker skin. You got to include his skin color into that blend." Al said.
Oliver shook his head, "We have some dark areas, we have some light areas, but you did not show me, technically, tattoo-wise, that you can make that come to life in the skin."
Al looked mad at how his critique came out. As if he couldn't understand why he's in the bottom. You can't do well in one area then **** it up the next.
*Kara's POV*
Damn, the judges just gave it to him straight. They had just finished roasting Bill for not wanting to wear the tattoo that he did on his client.
"The judges have decided." David said.
The pause was for effect.
"And Al. You do not have what it takes to be an Ink Master." David said.
Then the judges came in with some good things for Al to think on.
"What I hope for you in the future is that you can take your tattoo technical ability up to the same level of your artistic skill." Oliver said.
"Your art and the way you see things you have that. You're application is the part where you have to get up to other people and work." Chris said.
"Time to pack up your machine and head home." David said.
AN: Alright, Al has finally been eliminated. Bill got by on the skin of his teeth. The judges are starting to crank up the heat under the rest of the competitors. It is no time to relax, only get better.
So what do y'all think? Kara's obviously soaring above the rest of the competitors and is the one the other competitors are gunning for. Unfortunately for them, they may set her up for a great tattoo and screw themselves over. I'm going to be focusing on one other person at a time. The other competitors are still competing and getting critiqued, but I'm gonna focus on a competitor to take them down and out of the competition. If a character isn't mentioned, then they are still in.
Anywho, I saw a fic where Kara is the CEO of either CatCo or L-corp and I wanted to do something along the lines of that, or have it where Kara's doing extremely well, Cat's happy, and James is not so happy. What do you guys think? ~Immortalshark