We have been hard at work recently trying to put together a portfolio
for the upcoming Local Art in the Highlands: Womanly Art Show on May 12. We
asked each of our models to bring with them something that represents who they
are as a person or their occupation. We had one model, Kristy, ask if paint
brushes would be a good prop to use since she was an artist. Paint brushes
would have been a great prop but we had a better idea. We wanted to throw some
paint on her!
Paint splatter photography is a whole new thing for us and we
were so excited. It was going to be big day of experiments and messes. Because
there are so many ways to do paint splatter and we didn’t want to have to
hose down our model between different splatter processes, we called up another
fantastic model, Bridget. Both girls were amazing and we think Bridget may be
a front runner for our annual Pin-up Girl contest this summer so anyone else
looking forward to that event should probably start practicing those poses now!
As mentioned, this was a day of experiments. We watered down tempera
paint to dump, squirt, and throw onto our models. Squirting paint wasn’t
the greatest. The impact is really fast and hard to capture, plus is it is
very condensed and a lot like being sprayed with a super soaker. Our models
were great, though, and hardly even flinched. Throwing paint from a cup onto
the models seemed to work a little better. There was a bigger splash, the
paint moved slower so it was easier to time a shot, and it probably wasn’t
as much of a shock to the models. We really wanted to make a rainbow waterfall
that poured over our models so we made a nifty little contraption that would
allow us to pour all the colors over the models at one time. It’s
amazing what you can do with a couple of cups, some duct tape, and a piece of
tubing!
The last style we tried for the day was dry paint. This proved
to be the most difficult and we weren’t really sure what looked better:
the cloud of paint powder, the impact of it hitting the models, or just the powder
on the models afterward. Since it was powder, there was also the fear of
getting it in everyone’s eyes and mouths. By the way, when trying to
blow powder onto someone, keep the powder away from your mouth when you take in
your big breath of air (it’s not very fun to suck a bunch of paint powder
down your throat!). We tried packing a straw full of powder and blowing it
out, but it was too hard to blow out of the straw. Next we tried a piece of ¾”
tubing, but the effect wasn’t what we wanted. We had a thick piece of
paper that was folded into a V, which gave us a really big cloud but not much
of an impact when it hit the models. As a last attempt to get something with
the powder we just threw handfuls of paint powder. This gave us a cloud and
some impact. Sometimes it is just that simple! We have heard that chalk
powder works better for this kind of shoot. If there are any other techniques
or tricks that could make this work better then please let us know.
Ms. Bridget
Kristy
