Four Elements and a Puzzle
 

Here's a design I've been working on for a while. It's a custom tattoo design I did for a fellow TFP'er. I'd like to improve the "flow" of the fire to more mimic that of the waves (but mirrored, if that makes sense), however I'm still pretty happy with it. Lemme know what you all think.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...urelements.jpg


This is a really quick pen and ink piece I did to express my feelings about a girl I recently met. I'm curious to see if anyone can get the point of it. It's not a blatant way of stating my feelings for her, and so far very few people have been able to think "outside the box" enough to figure out what the picture's saying. And yeah, I know it's weird and kinda confusing, but that was the point. :p Think of it as a riddle...

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v284/oDD_LotS/bee.jpg

umm... shes the bees knees or something?

The elements are amazing. So much detail, and I really really like the style. Not much else to say, except thankyou.
Give me a whlie for the riddle...

matteo101: Thanks! I'm glad you're happy with it. If you want any changes made, lemme know and I'll see if I can do some adjustments. Otherwise, if you do end up getting it tattooed, all I ask is a picture of the finished product.

Zephyr66: I'm gonna hold off on revealing what the picture means for a day or so, so that I can get a few answers in without bias...but I'll let you know soon whether you got it.

I'd think it'd be possible to have the fire mirror almost exactly the wave forms if you want that. The color difference could convey the elemental difference. Of course I haven't tested it but I can visualize it working.

maybe do something with the height of the water and flames. it reads right to left for me since the flames are higher then the water which sticks out more.

That element tattoo is awesome...I have the basic workings of my next tattoo but its so plain right now...hmmm *walks off wondering if majik could spruce it up for me******

ART, you raise an interesting idea. I may try to do something like that. My initial idea was to "swirl" the fire, so that it had the same visual weight as the waves, only upside down and backwards so as to form a frame around the pencil work.

st33lr4t: I think you're right. The balance is a little off, and I need to fix it somehow to better frame the image.

ShaniFaye: I'd be happy to help you out with anything you need. I've done some designs for several of the members here, and I've got a few more in the works. Just PM with details and links to any sketches or whatever that you have.

nice ... i may post something about fractals if i can work out what i want to say :) but in short the waves and the fire could be similar in form but to different levels of detail ... like a branch looks like a tree? does that make any sense?

That's my thought - sort of a yinyang thing.

So Majik, its been a while. Wanna let us all know the answer to the puzzle? It has been bugging me.

Sorry, I took off to Fort Lee, VA for the weekend with my best friend's pregnant wife to visit him on post and forgot to update before leaving...

The Answer: Zephyr66 hit the nail on the head.

that was fairly easy...

Zephyr: I thought so too! But I showed it to SEVERAL family members and friends, and none of them got it...even after a ton of "hints" they couldn't figure it out. The one guy that finally got it had never actually heard the phrase "the bee's knees" before.

clavus: That's exactly what I was shooting for! To visually express the opposite nature of the elements via their physical positioning...or something. :)