[R.Quecke]

If you’re looking for proper reference to Japanese clouds and air. I’d look into the names of Horiyoshi 2, Horiyoshi 3, and Yoshitoshi. All have different styles of that element, but all based in the same foundation. These are all tattooers, who are influenced a lot from the Ukiyo-e movement and era of Japanese art. From there you can look into Hokusai, Kyosai, Hiroshige, Kuniyoshi ( and countless more). All good references, but not as stylized or as recognized as Modern Japanese tattooing. Ive got 20 years of studying this stuff as a tattooer and have an obscene book collection on it. Without knowledge of the elements, and the stories, a lot of what you see is done wrong, only because of poor references. I hope this helps point into the right direction.

One more thing, you will run into quite a few different styles that are geographically based. Chinese clouds, Tibetan clouds, Japanese clouds, Indonesian clouds, all different in style and approach. You can see a huge difference in Japanese dragons next to Chinese dragons.