I was asked about a year ago to be part of a secret squirrel project, of course with Michael Paolini, Mark Heaps and Its Eight Darling I was on board. I love working with all of them.
The concept was to take famous painting and recreate them into beautiful photographs that warrant themselves to be pieces of art. Then have a little fun with them for Ryan and the Relics.
Here is my story...
The first project, I worked on was Young Lady in a Boat- James Tissot.
Photographer: Michael Paolini (Photographer)
Art Director- Mark Heaps
Model: It's Eight Darling
MUA- Sandra La Nelle Bilokonsky
Hair- Monique Yancey
Wardrobe- Rachel Chadwick
Hat- Laura Del Villaggio
The concept was to take famous painting and recreate them into beautiful photographs that warrant themselves to be pieces of art. Then have a little fun with them for Ryan and the Relics.
Here is my story...
The first project, I worked on was Young Lady in a Boat- James Tissot.
Photographer: Michael Paolini (Photographer)
Art Director- Mark Heaps
Model: It's Eight Darling
MUA- Sandra La Nelle Bilokonsky
Hair- Monique Yancey
Wardrobe- Rachel Chadwick
Hat- Laura Del Villaggio
Behind the scenes was so much fun! Monique was on wig duty for the day, as Eight's natural hair is super short. Makeup was done at Eights home, then we traveled to Zilker Park meet up with the rest of the crew to create magic.
My theater background became super handy with this shoot. The look was created by studying the original image and creating a natural look then adding the shading and contouring. One side of Eight's face was shaded more than the other to create the paint process. I am a firm believer to create as much as you can with makeup so in post production there is very little touch up.
Sometimes, actually many times my job as an MUA extends also to helping on sets. That day just happen to be one of those days. We had to find a way to steady the boat. Both Mark Heaps and myself are avid scuba divers, so to get into a muck filled area was right up are alley. Besides, sometimes you got to do what you need to do for the shot. This shoot was so much fun and honestly I was so happy to be in the water that day! Here is just a few behind the scenes shots from the day.
My theater background became super handy with this shoot. The look was created by studying the original image and creating a natural look then adding the shading and contouring. One side of Eight's face was shaded more than the other to create the paint process. I am a firm believer to create as much as you can with makeup so in post production there is very little touch up.
Sometimes, actually many times my job as an MUA extends also to helping on sets. That day just happen to be one of those days. We had to find a way to steady the boat. Both Mark Heaps and myself are avid scuba divers, so to get into a muck filled area was right up are alley. Besides, sometimes you got to do what you need to do for the shot. This shoot was so much fun and honestly I was so happy to be in the water that day! Here is just a few behind the scenes shots from the day.
Venus del Milo Statue- Sculpture unknown
Photographer: Michael Paolini (Photographer)
Art Director- Mark Heaps
Model: It's Eight Darling
Body Paint & MUA- Sandra La Nelle Bilokonsky
Hair- Monique Yancey
Photographer: Michael Paolini (Photographer)
Art Director- Mark Heaps
Model: It's Eight Darling
Body Paint & MUA- Sandra La Nelle Bilokonsky
Hair- Monique Yancey
The next shoot I was part of was my favorite. It was also ALOT of hard work. Eight had placed out in the universe that she was in need of a body painter, although we had worked before we never got on the topic of body painting. I of course responded "Hello, Eight! I body paint!" And actually I had been wanting to do some body painting projects for my portfolio.
The original concept for the shoot was to do Venus, but actually The Birth of Venus. However after Mark and Michael started setting up lighting and well into the body painting itself. We changed it up to Venus del Milo
Poor Monique was actually called in last minute with this shoot, as Misty Mittelstedt one of the other hair artists working on the other pieces of this series was traveling at the time. I have tons of wigs, however not a wig that was completely white. However, Monique made the magic happen and fashioned together cheap halloween wigs to create the hair. Not bad for a day notice.
For this shoot, I used a combo of airbrush techniques and "painting" techniques. If you ever have worked with white body paint, let's just say its a pain. I used soft grays and once again study the statue and the pose and added the shading. I still remember after 3 hours of body paint, Monique's trip to the store for a sheet, setting up the shot and BAM MAGIC. The RAW images that was coming off Michael's camera was so beautiful. It was breathtaking and I felt like as an artist. I arrived. The lighting was perfect and the shading was perfect. It was just perfect makeup. Till this day, it is one of the proudest makeup jobs I have done. Something so simple, yet so beautiful. Yes, Eight was covered literally from head to toe in makeup, as the legs (plus shading) was done before we decided to change it up.
We combined the 2 breathtaking works of art of The Birth of Venus and Venus del Milo.
Here is the behind the scenes of that shoot. Michael ended up taking some breathtaking extra shots!
The original concept for the shoot was to do Venus, but actually The Birth of Venus. However after Mark and Michael started setting up lighting and well into the body painting itself. We changed it up to Venus del Milo
Poor Monique was actually called in last minute with this shoot, as Misty Mittelstedt one of the other hair artists working on the other pieces of this series was traveling at the time. I have tons of wigs, however not a wig that was completely white. However, Monique made the magic happen and fashioned together cheap halloween wigs to create the hair. Not bad for a day notice.
For this shoot, I used a combo of airbrush techniques and "painting" techniques. If you ever have worked with white body paint, let's just say its a pain. I used soft grays and once again study the statue and the pose and added the shading. I still remember after 3 hours of body paint, Monique's trip to the store for a sheet, setting up the shot and BAM MAGIC. The RAW images that was coming off Michael's camera was so beautiful. It was breathtaking and I felt like as an artist. I arrived. The lighting was perfect and the shading was perfect. It was just perfect makeup. Till this day, it is one of the proudest makeup jobs I have done. Something so simple, yet so beautiful. Yes, Eight was covered literally from head to toe in makeup, as the legs (plus shading) was done before we decided to change it up.
We combined the 2 breathtaking works of art of The Birth of Venus and Venus del Milo.
Here is the behind the scenes of that shoot. Michael ended up taking some breathtaking extra shots!
So with all the fun in extras...this was the final rendered shot for Ryan and the Relics Check Out their music!
View the other images in this series- Art Come to Life
View the other images in this series- Art Come to Life