Butterfly for Zee

I’ve always had a fondness for tattoos, so I hardly ever turn down the opportunity to design one when it comes up. This one is for an original character of mine named Zee; it was actually good that I sat down and did this one since she’s the next picture slated for the artbook, and I’d need to put them on her. XD

She has five of them total, in varying sizes, starting over her heart and moving onto her left shoulder. They’re meant to be a memorial piece, primarily for her lover but also for the family she shared with her. There’s one butterfly for each member of the “family.”

It feels kind of important to note, though, that none of hers are actually this big—the biggest she has is only about two inches across, but I drew it at this size to make it a bit easier on myself. I was trying for a little bit of a tribal look here, but not as much as the phoenix I did for a different character a while ago. Some of the patterns on the wings wound up looking a little flame-like and, though I didn’t originally plan to do it that way, I decided to keep it since it sort of goes with the general transformation/rebirth theme present in Zee’s different tattoos. I also know the wings came out a little asymmetrically. >_< But I don’t mind as much as I normally would because I think it helps add to the illusion of flight.

Even though Zee’s butterflies are meant to be in color, I was also really happy with how the black lines came out by themselves. So I also posted the uncolored version, uncleaned, to scraps over here.