Artistic Nude

I think it's about time to go back to another project don't you? So I bet the title got you excited right? think it's a joke? ...Nope, no joke! 

You see, for the final DMP project in first year of Uni our task was to produce two A3 high res prints, one portrait and the other still life. Now obviously I'm not talking about the still life today, it was only a pot anyway!

I had no idea where to start for a portrait, even though this module was based on skill and technique, I didn't want the standard commercial portrait you see of a high res wrinkly old man smiling at the camera. And it was only until after a session led by Brian Spranklen where he went through some slides with us, that I found inspiration for my portrait. 

He went through some photographs from Richard Avedon, and there was one that just stood out and stuck in my head until I got home.

  

From what I can find, it's a shoot for vogue and the model is Lauren Hutton, but anyway, I thought this would be perfect inspiration for my portrait image.

So I posted an ad on my course page on Facebook, and huzahh! to my surprise, I had a few volunteers! We set the date and time and got shooting.

Now I'm not going to deny that I felt a little uncomfortable shooting my class mate nude, but it was much easier than finding a stranger to shoot. 

I didn't want to copy the image I just wanted to use it as a starting point for the shoot, so we tried a few positions with the theme being the shape from the inside of the cardigan over the chest and up to the neck, because this is the part I loved the most from the original image.

The model is Emma Hand and she was wonderfully calm considering the circumstances, and took direction very well.

Now obviously I took a less 'glossy' route with the skin, I decided not to use and wet products to highlight the skin, not only because I thought it was a bit much for me and my class mate, but because I have always preferred the more 'matte' look for the skin tones and shadows in a fine art nude.

The images were submitted in colour, but I've re edited these and it seems there is a bit of a theme appearing with my editing styles. This has been one of my favourite projects and any feedback on these images would be grately apreciated!