Irish Hare with wildflowers

This is a cover up for an unfinished and very faded rose tattoo - an irish hare for my good friend C.

It worked out beautifully, and we were able to use some of the grey shading on the old tattoo to add some natural-feeling dimensionality to the hare. I just added some shading over the top, and to define the drawing a bit more.

I drew the hare on paper with pen and ink, and added some ink wash with a brush, as I wanted a spontaneous and naturally intricate feeling. We needed some splashes of colour, as there was some colour in the original tattoo. I picked out some native Irish wildflowers from a list my friend provided me with, and added colour in a painterly and almost impressionistic style.

I drew a couple of options, but on the day we decided the seated hare would work best to cover the old tattoo, and it sat nicely on the arm. I was worried it might be a bit too wide, and positioned strangely on the arm, but it worked just fine.