Just for Fun No C&C will be given: Zombie Pinup

With Halloween coming up I thought I would share a couple from a fun shoot we did a while back for a model who wanted to recreate Zombie Pinup, a classic pinup illustration by Polish photographer and artist Zdzislaw Beksinski.

Body painting was done in the studio by a local emerging body painter and I fashioned the brain from ground pork and raw rice noodles frozen in a brain shaped jello mold. Add a little Hollywood blood and it smelled like hell but looked real good.

Lighting was a basic 3 light isolation on the 2 wall cyc in the studio per the chart below the images. While these were shot with a balanced pair of key lights we often shoot this setup with a single key light inside a 7' octabank for a beautiful soft light that evenly illuminates head to toe even with me standing in front of the box to shoot.

Not sure how Asher even found these but he asked me to post them up. The quality of them is pretty low but here are some behind the scenes videos from the shoot.

The Inspiration

The Paint Job

Making the Brain

Presenting the Brain

Zombie on the Loose

I like the 3rd picture, the light is nice and zombie moody. While I am all for eating brains something about the first two are not working for me. They are caught in between sexy zombie and a ridiculous feast of brain while not quite hitting either mark.

Thanks for the comments, perhaps I should have posted the original refference image to give you something to gauge by.

As I said this shoot was inspired by a 1949 Pinup Illustration. Here is the original.

While we took some minor liberties we stuck pretty close on theme with the first shot.

Bobby Deal said:

With Halloween coming up I thought I would share a couple from a fun shoot we did a while back for a model who wanted to recreate Zombie Pinup, a classic pinup illustration by Polish photographer and artist Zdzislaw Beksinski.

Body painting was done in the studio by a local emerging body painter and I fashioned the brain from ground pork and raw rice noodles frozen in a brain shaped jello mold. Add a little Hollywood blood and it smelled like hell but looked real good.

Lighting was a basic 3 light isolation on the 2 wall cyc in the studio per the chart below the images. While these were shot with a balanced pair of key lights we often shoot this setup with a single key light inside a 7' octabank for a beautiful soft light that evenly illuminates head to toe even with me standing in front of the box to shoot.

Click to expand...

Bobby Deal said:

inspired by a 1949 Pinup Illustration. Here is the original.

Click to expand...

Bobby,

Wow! Now I get it! I must admit I was ignorant of the origin of this Zombie character and the work of Zdzislaw Beksinski! Shame on me!

You have brought her up to date. The texture in the green adds movement and vibrancy that is missing from the original and is a pleasing interpetation. The lighting and the painting makes me think Marc Chagall gave you the green hues and brush strokes. Look at the distribution of various greens here:


This circular movement and texturing of the skin is well shown here:



and clearly illustrates how one can be inspired by another work and yet carry it through with one's fresh and original ideas and unique craft to stand on it's own.

Asher

Thanks Asher, this shoot really shows well the importance of a team inside the studio.

First credit has to go to Miss Stacy Scott, who is actually maybe the most intuitive model I have ever worked with. Directing her is as simple as getting a look on my face that I am about to ask for something and she would read my body language and adjust before I could even ask. Yes you guessed it, the girl is stone cold deaf but it is no handicap for her as a model and in fact may have made her a better model then she would have been had she been born with perfect hearing. She just missed making the final cut in Season 10 of ANTM.

The body painter (Alex at FantasyInk) gets all the credit for the green skin, shading and texture as well as the corset and stockings albeit the lines of the stockings were a bit messy but what the heck the guy is pretty new in the body paint game, I have no doubt he will improve.

The MUHA (Marissa "Rose" Castillo) gets credit for the eyes, lips and hair.

I made the brain styled the set and of course did the lighting and shooting but this project could not have been completed without my team in place.

Image #1 was the models choice for the final representation of the original drawing. Personally I thought this one was a better choice but you know the model was the client so she gets what she wants

Bobby,

This is a beautiful team endeavor then. I appreciate the fact that you give credit and that's as should be, but the final result is in your hands and you pulled it off splendidly. This is one of the most enjoyable shoots I have had the privilege of getting to know in detail.

Thanks,

Asher

Thanks Asher, we did have great fun with this one.

Now I must run and face my challenge for the day. I have a girl in makeup and wardrobe as we type. She wants to create a calendar for her boyfriends birthday, has brought a bag of lingerie with her which is good but her head............... It is empty, she has no concepts in mind. We had a consultation, she toured the studio etc. but she is one of those girls who has an idea and nothing else.

Fortunately the studio is diverse with lots of settings, I think our prop department is going to get some work in today!