Thursday, January 14, 2010
Sunday, December 20, 2009
La Vie En Rose
I was happy with the way the dress turned out. It's the same painted fabric as the background. Feels a bit like paper. It amazes me is how perfect Shelleys skin is. Granted she's wearing a ton of make up (on face and body) but still her skin is so smooth. Pretty girl.
Model: Shelley H.
Make Up: Lauren Weber
Make Up: Lauren Weber
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
La Vie En Rose - Preview
Finally. I can't believe my last shoot was in August. I was excited to work with Shelley. I saw her in a restaurant and spontaneously decided to ask her if she'd sit for a portrait. We literally spoke for about 2 minutes and I gave her my card. She called me back the next day and agreed. I have to admit I was a tad nervous since it's been months since I had met her and I knew nothing about her. Also was nervous that she might bail out the last minute. Not only was she reliable, she was incredible to work with. I always have a clear vision of what I want the shoot to end up looking like and it's amazing when it actually works out. She was totally what I had in my mind. And that girl has stamina she sat still on that chair for hours, never complained.
As for the set. The big thing was that I really wanted to paint the backdrop. I wanted it to feel a bit like a painting. I also wanted her to wear the same painted fabric so she would blend in more with the background. I have never painted on fabric before and didn't know what I was doing. Since I needed a large quantity of paint I couldn't use fabric paint. I found on the Internet a product called textile medium that I mixed in with the paint. This prevented the paint from cracking. I didn't want to pay a lot of money for the paint so I just bought some cheapo kids paint. I had NO time to prepare for this shoot. I wanted to stain her finger tips red and didn't have time to properly test the staining out, ended up using a combination of food coloring, juice and icing. I started ironing the backdrop a few days before because it literally takes days to get all the damn wrinkles out, if you've been following my blog you know by now that I'm obsessed with wrinkles. The night before I started painting the backdrop. I didn't finish until 2am. I was worried that it wouldn't dry in time. This was especially a problem since she was to wear part of the fabric as a dress.
Everything went smoothly. I set up the heaters in front of the drying paint and it actually was all dry in time. The only major problem was that the hairstylist cancelled a half hour before the shoot. That sent me in bit of a panic mode. I'm not very good at doing hair plus I brought nothing with me to actually do hair! So I ran over to Duane Read and bought a cheapo curling iron and a huge can of ultra strong hairspray. In the end I have to admit I didn't need anybody to do hair anyway since I went with open hair. Lauren did make up, she's so talented. I was very specific about what I wanted and she nailed it, love her! Shelley I would work with again any day.
This shoot was all about color and feel.
As for the set. The big thing was that I really wanted to paint the backdrop. I wanted it to feel a bit like a painting. I also wanted her to wear the same painted fabric so she would blend in more with the background. I have never painted on fabric before and didn't know what I was doing. Since I needed a large quantity of paint I couldn't use fabric paint. I found on the Internet a product called textile medium that I mixed in with the paint. This prevented the paint from cracking. I didn't want to pay a lot of money for the paint so I just bought some cheapo kids paint. I had NO time to prepare for this shoot. I wanted to stain her finger tips red and didn't have time to properly test the staining out, ended up using a combination of food coloring, juice and icing. I started ironing the backdrop a few days before because it literally takes days to get all the damn wrinkles out, if you've been following my blog you know by now that I'm obsessed with wrinkles. The night before I started painting the backdrop. I didn't finish until 2am. I was worried that it wouldn't dry in time. This was especially a problem since she was to wear part of the fabric as a dress.
Everything went smoothly. I set up the heaters in front of the drying paint and it actually was all dry in time. The only major problem was that the hairstylist cancelled a half hour before the shoot. That sent me in bit of a panic mode. I'm not very good at doing hair plus I brought nothing with me to actually do hair! So I ran over to Duane Read and bought a cheapo curling iron and a huge can of ultra strong hairspray. In the end I have to admit I didn't need anybody to do hair anyway since I went with open hair. Lauren did make up, she's so talented. I was very specific about what I wanted and she nailed it, love her! Shelley I would work with again any day.
This shoot was all about color and feel.
Monday, October 26, 2009
Bubble girl
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
... and back to sculpting for a bit.
A new photo shoot is in the works but I'm also back to sculpting once a week again so here's my update.
Uhm yeah, this is still the same sculpture I started in 2007. If you've been following my blog you'll have seen this project slowly progress. I've never worked on anything as long as I have on this. I just get too busy with other stuff. The upside is every time I do go back to working on this it's amazing how I look at it differently. I've also learned a ton about how to manipulate and change things that I thought were quite permanent. I've baked this sculpture multiple times at different stages only to then take half of it off again. Although dremeling off baked clay is a pain. Last time I posted her she had thick Farrah Fawcett hair. I didn't liked the hair, it was just too much, it took over the whole shape. So I thinned it way out. I decided to change the whole hairdo. I parted the hair more over to one side in order to add a hair clip later. This meant that I had to shave and cut of pounds and pounds of clay. I also am going to change how the hair drapes over her shoulder. Alena pointed out that her left ear was far too large and high up. Funny, I never noticed it before but definitely agreed with her that it was weird. I had to cut off the ear and re-sculpted it a tad lower and smaller. Next I'm going to go in and add in clay and re-sculpt the hair shapes.
Big thank you to the amazing Alena who as taught me everything I know about sculpting (and thanks for all the pictures she's been taking of the progress).
Older posts:
Second post
First post
01.08 - Old crazy hair
08.09 - Baked hair. Starting to cut and reshape hair.
Spray painted surface and dremeling hair to thin it out.
A) "Before ear" with drawn in corrections. B) After dremeling off ear and basic reshaping.
10.09 - Further cut off hair and recreated mesh to make the hair flow better.
New mesh.
Uhm yeah, this is still the same sculpture I started in 2007. If you've been following my blog you'll have seen this project slowly progress. I've never worked on anything as long as I have on this. I just get too busy with other stuff. The upside is every time I do go back to working on this it's amazing how I look at it differently. I've also learned a ton about how to manipulate and change things that I thought were quite permanent. I've baked this sculpture multiple times at different stages only to then take half of it off again. Although dremeling off baked clay is a pain. Last time I posted her she had thick Farrah Fawcett hair. I didn't liked the hair, it was just too much, it took over the whole shape. So I thinned it way out. I decided to change the whole hairdo. I parted the hair more over to one side in order to add a hair clip later. This meant that I had to shave and cut of pounds and pounds of clay. I also am going to change how the hair drapes over her shoulder. Alena pointed out that her left ear was far too large and high up. Funny, I never noticed it before but definitely agreed with her that it was weird. I had to cut off the ear and re-sculpted it a tad lower and smaller. Next I'm going to go in and add in clay and re-sculpt the hair shapes.
Big thank you to the amazing Alena who as taught me everything I know about sculpting (and thanks for all the pictures she's been taking of the progress).
Older posts:
Second post
First post
01.08 - Old crazy hair
08.09 - Baked hair. Starting to cut and reshape hair.
Spray painted surface and dremeling hair to thin it out.
A) "Before ear" with drawn in corrections. B) After dremeling off ear and basic reshaping.
10.09 - Further cut off hair and recreated mesh to make the hair flow better.
New mesh.Tuesday, October 13, 2009
More Huntress
Model: Rosalinda (and Aldo)Make Up: Lauren Weber
Finally got around to editing some more pics.... might even have some more but I'm simply too tired to continue tonight.
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My friend Dave Levingston (who is a great photographer) suggested I crop the top image. I agree that the composition is not great, it was one of the later in the day shots. When I was looking at it I knew it wasn't quite right but also was hesitant to change it but after then reading Dave's comment I thought I should try it anyway. I just wish it wouldn't make the image smaller (overall size) but my fault for not framing it better to begin with. So here's the square cropped version. Let me know which you guys like better.
Monday, October 5, 2009
The Harlem Open Artist Studio Tour
I'm falling behind... I still need to edit some Huntress pics and a couple of new shoots are in the works but it's a busy October so I probably won't be able to shoot until November. This weekend I'm participating in the Harlem Open Artist Studio Tour (HOAST 2009). Basically local artists in Harlem open up their studios to the public. I think it's a fun event, you get a map with the location of all participating artists and galleries in the area.
You can pick up the map at the Casa Frela Gallery where there's also an exhibit of the participating artists. (artists submitted 3, 4"x6" pieces for the show, it'll give you a nice preview). Here's the address:
Casa Frela Gallery
47 W. 119th Street (between Lenox and 5th Ave.)
NY, NY 10026
For a list of all participants:
http://www.hoast.org/CurrentParticipants.php
You can pick up the map at the Casa Frela Gallery where there's also an exhibit of the participating artists. (artists submitted 3, 4"x6" pieces for the show, it'll give you a nice preview). Here's the address:
Casa Frela Gallery
47 W. 119th Street (between Lenox and 5th Ave.)
NY, NY 10026
For a list of all participants:
http://www.hoast.org/CurrentParticipants.php
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