The Pin Up Project

I recently received a request to submit a "Pin-Up" image to a juried show coming up next month. Being comfortable with vintage images I decided to give that genre a try. My research revealed that Alberto Vargas was pretty much the creator of the style. He was the son of a peruvian photographer. He used live models for his most famous World War II paintings. These paintings appeared on Esquire magazine and on many B-42 bombers during the war. They were also pinned up on the walls of the soldier's quarters.

Early on I realized that a digitally captured photograph on its own would not evoke the textural and visceral  feel that one of Varga's drawings had. I looked into many different rendering effects and realized that it is very difficult to make a photograph look like a graphic rendering. Eventually I settled on a method and the result is these images.

The way the skin was rendered in most of the illustrations called for lighting the model at 90 degrees from both sides to create an even but graduated skin tone. As with most illustrations, the image had to be softened to have surreal effect. The background on which the image was placed was another consideration as it had to "blend" with the overall feel of the pin up.

It was a great diversion for me to undertake this project. Being able to look at a rendered print image and capture that feel on digital film was quite a learning experience. I will be submitting two of these images to the juried event. Please take a look at them and let me know which one you feel best captured your interpretation of the "Pin-Up" girl.