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Model: Kristen Drewski

It's been a while..... honestly I've been feeling completely uninspired. Plus I've been going through a "I hate photography phase".....

I finally after months had another shoot and only because it was a commission. Because I was in such a funk I almost didn't accept but now I'm glad I did because I had a good time. I loved how pale her actual skin was. If you're familiar with my work then you know how much I like pale skin. I asked her to look sad and she actually shed a tear! When I saw that I was so happy,..... is that wrong? :) She wanted a nightmare/dream/dark.... theme and well, this is what I came up with. As always I had no time to prepare and did everything the day of the shoot. It was a crazy morning spent looking for stuff I wanted to use, cutting out those damn stars and picking cloths for the outfit. I wonder if I'll ever give myself enough time to not have to do everything the day of the shoot. Lauren Weber did the make up and was her usual fantastic self.

The Criminal Mastermind

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you......... Mr. Clayton Stillwell!

THE Criminal Mastermind - Preview

My first shoot with a guy! I decided this year I wanted to start taking pictures of men. Clayton agreed to be my guinea pig. When I first met Clayton at work he was sitting in a pink cube with a big unicorn painted on the walls (long story). This was totally hilarious if you knew anything about Clayton. Anyway I was psyched to work with him because he's one of my favorite illustrators. Super talented guy check out his artwork.

Copyright 2007 Clayton Stillwell

Usually I'm making up a character and just use the model to bring the character to life. This time I tried to actually capture some of the models personality in the image. It's still a character but I think it's a Clayton character and somewhere in there it's still Clayton. While I did provide some of the props it was important to me that he wore his own clothing, something he would usually wear and felt comfortable in. We talked quite a bit about the T-shirt. I at first was against it because it had a big face of the Joker on it and I thought it was distracting but then I decided to go with it anyway because the Joker is his favorite character.


I didn't feel rushed this time, I took a bit more time preparing. Plus this shoot was just a straight forward portrait shoot. I was also able to convince Jane to come and help out with some of the paint stuff. The shoot was an experiment in a lot of ways and I learned a lot. First off I learned that working with a guy is way harder then working with a woman. Usually I have no problems posing a model or giving proper directions. I realized quickly that my usual directions totally didn't apply to Clayton. Whenever I asked him to do something specific he ended up looking far too feminine, it was weird. I finally just had to step back and let him pose more naturally. I did the make up. I've been wanting to get more into doing make up so this was great. I went for a slightly dusty/powdery look. I first applied black eye make up but thought it looked too goth so I went with the red instead.


Part of the shoot we experimented with liquid paint. I wanted to dip one of his arms in paint and have the paint run down his arm. I was mainly worried about the consistency of the liquid. I figured the liquid would probably be too runny which is why I also ordered powdered pigment. Well, when I pored the white paint into the bucket it turned out that the paint was super thick, so thick that I couldn't even poor it properly. I had to add a ton of water. I have no clue why the paint was so thick. It was almost like it went bad or something, that was a bit of a disaster but for shooting it was ok I guess. The shoot overall was a blast... as always.

That's Jane holding the bucket! You might recognize Jane from some of my photoshoots, she's one of my favorite models.