Tattooed Dolphins...?

I love this idea. I've had people ask for some unique designs before, but I think this one is the most unique of them all. Dolphins with soga'imiti tattoos. Nice. My friend May came up with the idea and I was really excited, and nervous, about drawing it. Nervous, for several reasons - First, I've never designed a soga'imiti before, and I wanted to be sure it would be an authentic (or close to as possible) design. Second, each soga'imiti is one-of-a-kind design for the family line that wears it - And I didn't want to cause offense by making a design that would be too similar to anyone's personal design. Third, I had to try to figure out how to put it on dolphins, who obviously, don't have the same physical layout of which a soga'imiti is applied, i.e. a man's mid-to-lower extremities. And last of all, I don't have much practice drawing animals, dolphins especially... So it was interesting trying to draw them to look like they are "Samoan dolphins" holding hands, er I mean fins... And buff of course because they're Samoan, LOL. Anyhow, long story short I did my best and I hope everyone who sees it enjoys the design. May especially. :)

Taupou Aulelei

This design was originally done as one of my submissions for our annual Asian Pacific Islander Heritage month shirts. Since this is a design for a shirt, I kept the shading minimal and aimed for a really simple, clean look. Which is a big change for me since I'm obsessed with shading, LOL. This is my first time drawing a Taupou, which I've been wanting to do for a while now, and even though it's a very simplistic design, I'm very pleased with how it turned out, and I hope others will enjoy it as well.