NEED LINEWORK ADVICE!!
i am an apprentice at a great shop with a fantastic mentor, great shop mates, etc, but ive been struggling so much lately with understanding why small things have been happening with my linework that overall destroy my quality of lines 😭 i talk to my mentor about it all the time, watch other artists, look at youtube, etc, but i would love some more advice because i just keep running into the same problems and im not exactly sure what is wrong
my mentor and i have talked a lot about stretching well, stretching in the direction im pulling, having a full ink cartridge, checking the needles before using them, making sure im not using too much or too little ointment, having 3 points of stability, needle not too far out or too shallow, speed, voltage, etc but i feel like im still so lost in understanding what exactly im doing incorrectly to get such dogshit lines
he had me doing circles and lines for MONTHS on paper, then fake skin, and then eventually on myself, my partner, and then other people. somehow my first few tattoos felt more consistent than my last few??? im using a machine that my wonderful coworker gave to me as it was collecting dust so im not sure what it is but he says he thinks it has a 5 stroke, it’s a lil finicky and seems more consistent at a 7-9v so thats what i usually use, im extremely attentive to changes in line quality so i try to adjust all the time to make it better but lately i feel like ive been worse???
i’ll attach some pics with rough timelines, if anyone has any advice PLEASE let me know and be honest with me!! i know my work is dogshit rn and i just want to put my all into getting better. thank you for any and all advice, tattooing means the world to me and i want to dedicate my life to this craft
im on mobile so hopefully it all loads in order but the spider is my first on myself, jester beetle my second, (ive done around less than 15 skin tatts so im not gonna attach them all) but they all lead in chronological order to my most recent, the chibi sun face 😭 i know i FUCKED those cross hatch lines and have other things to work on but specifically i’d love advice on linework consistency