Dark Fashion Portrait

The Dark Fashion Portrait, is a digital artwork, that was created for printing. It was made in 16 bit, 300 ppi (pixels per inch) and 70 centimeters wide. Before I cropped the image in Photoshop it was 17+ GB big! Thats a pretty large image to work with. I’m looking forward to see the printed result.

Photography or digital art - Dark Fashion Portrait, with black featherd collar, red glittery makeup and long claws. This images is just showing details of the final image.

Detail of the dirty hand with a green ring, from the dark fashion portrait, created by Garip Jensen.

cropped version of the dark fashion portrait. Dirty hand with a green ring. Black feathered collar, on a sharp looking model with long dark hair.

When I look at the result of the dark fashion portrait, I see almost what I had in mind from the very beginning. At first I thought of much longer ”nails” or claws rather, and lots of interesting details. I also thought of rotten rose hips, bugs, horns and barbwire. The latter remained in the final image as you can see at the top of this page.

Compromising for a better result

Before I even start sketching on a new artwork I begin the creative process with a detailed idea. The first sketches were made with very long nails/claws, but it did not look good on the photos of the model. Therefor you see the compromise of the longer nails/claws in the final image. Incidentally, all the details in the digital artwork are a constant consideration of what, in my eyes, looks good or not and I like the final result.

The dark fashion photoshoot

Aida was photographed with almost no makeup. Therefore I could control the look of the makeup more in detail afterwards. My ambition was to create a more artistic makeup, so that I did digitally on the computer. I went that way, because it is harder to control the artistic makeup during the photoshoot.

Aida was photographed in three different steps. The first step was of course the portrait of the model. Right lighting and the look or vibe for the character of the image. The second step was to capture right positioning and angles of arms and hands. That would end up like claws as intended. The third was the flowing direction of the hair.

Final step

The final step is of course to put everything together. It starts from developing the chosen raw files from the photoshoot, and after I’m satisfied in that process I go ahead sketching in Photoshop. So many decisions are made constantly in the search of how the idea should turn out. As I mentioned, the final result is almost matching the idea I had in mind from the beginning.

Convincing result

Details I first thought of that are not remained aren’t so, because they were better looking in the idea. The barbwire turned out well for the composition, because it is framing the model. And finally leading into the models compulsive look. Before I used the barbwire in this artwork I photographed it in my studio, the same way I photographed Aida. This way of working is, for me, more of a rule than an exception to achieving a better or more convincing result.

Subscribe here