{"id":430,"date":"2025-12-22T07:11:25","date_gmt":"2025-12-22T07:11:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/?p=430"},"modified":"2026-02-08T19:18:36","modified_gmt":"2026-02-08T19:18:36","slug":"adding-color","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/adding-color\/","title":{"rendered":"40 &#8211; Adding Color"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Adding Color Takes Time<\/h2>\n<p>Progress doesn\u2019t always look dramatic. Sometimes it looks like showing up\u2014even when you\u2019re uncomfortable\u2014and staying present long enough to let the moment pass without retreating. The guys at <a href=\"https:\/\/learn.tattooing101.com\/\">Tattooing 101<\/a> continue to remind me of this.<\/p>\n<p>This weekend we had friends over for a white elephant brunch. My wife filled the house with good food. I smoked a pork butt out back. Crowds are still hard for me, even in my own home, so I found my footing where I could\u2014college football on the back patio, a few guys, cigars, and space to breathe. It wasn\u2019t perfect. But it was participation. That matters.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_433\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-433\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-433\" src=\"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/IMG_0642-225x300.jpeg\" alt=\"Original self portrait with shading and color added.\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-433\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Adding color and depth through shading to my imagined self portrait of future me.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In between conversations and tending the smoker, I worked on my sketch. I added shading. I added color. Slowly. <a href=\"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/intentionality-the-holiday-spirit\/\">Intentionally<\/a>. Not trying to finish it\u2014just trying to move it forward.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s how real change works. \u00a0Doubt will still show up. So will bad days, crowded rooms, and moments where the vision feels fuzzy. None of that means you\u2019re off course. It just means you\u2019re in it.<\/p>\n<p>Later, I spent time planning my tattoo studio\u2014imagining the new space where <a href=\"https:\/\/honorandink.com\">Honor and Ink<\/a>\u2122 will live. A vintage rockabilly backbone, layered with Texas roots, hot rods, motorcycles, sports, and military history. Not clutter. Character. Each piece chosen, each layer telling part of the story. Just like the sketch.<\/p>\n<p>This is what it looks like to <a href=\"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/vision-sharpening-the-blade\/\">sharpen the blade<\/a> instead of letting it rust. Small actions. Consistent effort. Color added one layer at a time.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t need to be who I imagine myself becoming overnight. I just need to keep showing up and putting in the work.<\/p>\n<p>The vision gets clearer every time I do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>That\u2019s how real change works. \u00a0Doubt will still show up. So will bad days, crowded rooms, and moments where the vision feels fuzzy. None of that means you\u2019re off course. It just means you\u2019re in it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":433,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,26],"tags":[19,20,22,35,13,12],"class_list":["post-430","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-motivational","category-reflection","tag-art-motivation","tag-creative-growth","tag-perspective","tag-rebuilding","tag-tattoo-artist-journey","tag-tattoo-shading"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=430"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":602,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/430\/revisions\/602"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/433"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=430"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=430"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/honorandink.com\/Blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=430"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}