Happy Halloween :: Scarecrow Pinup

Celebrating Halloween by dressing up in a scarecrow mask and corset. Being both sexy and horrific at the same time. The mask is a custom hand-made prop and is modeled beautifully here. It was a lot of fun doing this shoot playing with the horror genre and applying different lighting setups to play with light and shadow both showing and hiding different aspects of the model and the mask.

Halloween is Coming ft. Dame d'Voltaire

In anticipation of Halloween I love including skulls with boudoir sessions. Using forced perspective to give a creepy vibe to the poses, here is Dame d'Voltaire playing with my favorite skull.

Day of the Dead - Life & Death

Welcome to the next installment of my mask series. In this instance, I layered a second mask designed to look like an aged skull and affixed it with strong magnets to eliminate additional straps or attachments. I wanted to have a juxtaposition of beauty & horror with a life & death mask. I painted the skull piece to completion before beginning the beauty design in blue. By doing this, I was able to align the nose and teeth more accurately between the two layers. Having two complete and separate masks, I can easily use them together or separately and still maintain a complete look. The beauty mask stands on its own and doesn't need to make use of the skull appliance. My technique for applying the magnets to the skull piece also allows it to be used independently if my model chose to adhere magnets to her skin using a makeup glue. This has not yet been a chosen method but perhaps in the future, I will find a model willing to experiment with that look.

Day of the Dead - Blood Lust

This is the next installment in my mask-making series. I have been creating masks as a hobby to build on my creative impulses. This is a continuation of my first tear-away Day of the Dead mask with this one being much more graphic with drips and blood stains across the entire face of the mask. All the blood details between the masks are hand-sculpted and are 3-D with hand-painted detail in varying shades of red to simulate blood and muscle beneath the surface. The smaller mask attaches with magnets embedded within the sculpture so no strings or fasteners are visible. The eye sockets are filled with black and red lace in order to separate the model's eyes from the mask. Black silk roses are splattered with red paint to mimic blood splatter and matches the other details on the masks. The juxtaposition of the horror of the mask and the beauty of the model is my new favorite technique.