Tag Archives: portrait

Elevenses Links

Happy October 29th! Or for those of you on the Gregorian calendar, happy 11/11/11!

From Ryan Voss comes this fantastic-looking blood recipe based off of Crayola washable markers. They said they used it in a production where a character in a white wedding dress was covered in blood every night. (h/t to Propnomicon)

So Field & Stream, of all places, has a behind-the-scenes look at the props of AMC’s upcoming western show, Hell on Wheels. They focus a lot on the guns used and how they achieved the many gun effects in the show, but be sure to make it to the bottom of the article, where they have a video on building an entire train. That’s right, an historically-accurate steam locomotive made of styrofoam, wood and a fog machine. I thought my cannon was cool, but this is simply amazing.

You’ve seen some of this before on my blog, but Rosco shared a more in-depth look at how we made the portraits for Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.

This looks strange and promising. Autodesk has a free preview of their 123D Make software, which will turn a 3D computer file into something you can print out, cut apart, and assemble into a three-dimensional object. They have a video which does a better job explaining it. The software is only available for Mac, and it is only free until February, so if anyone with a Mac tries it out, let me know how it goes.

Mantle Studios has a very well-made tutorial on sculpting with wax. I’ve done a bit of wax sculpting, but nothing approaching the level of detail in this tutorial.

Photography Props

I found an interesting little article about props in photography, which is actually a reprint from a 1922 article in Abel’s Photographic Weekly.

[T]he photographer felt moved to point out the fact that the modern camera specialist must have at hand more “props” as they are called in theatrical circles, than many a small sized theatre.

Some of us working in props already know the world of photography props is another outlet for our skills. I know other props artisans who have worked full-time for photography studios, and I myself spent a day at a studio doing carpentry during a shoot.

In photography, it is often the art director responsible for putting together the set and props. The art director will either pull this all together on their own, or hire outside help, sometimes even contracting the work to a scene shop. Some photographers will work on their own, either with an in-house staff of carpenters, decorators, and painters, or as in the case with many portrait photographers, by acquiring their own inventory of props one by one. Photographers will often post on the internet, either through Craigslist, Etsy, or some other site, when they are looking for custom props to be built.

So if you’re ever looking to branch out, or find some work in the off-season, don’t forget about photography.