New creative portrait – no photomontage, straight from the lens. Mina Žabnikar

Mina Žabnikar is an illustrator and graphic designer. I’ve been commissioned by Mladina weekly to do her portrait and I was thinking how should I do a portrait as an illustration. I’ve done a really successful portraits of illustrators Katja Pal and Eva Vasari and many more illustrators. Just click search under keyword illustrator and you’ll be surprised as I was how many illustrators I’ve illustrated and that’s just a selection. I guess it’s good that I forget how I did my last portrait, so every time I start from the scratch and invent a new image.

Anyhow on a forum Lukka was wondering how I did the portrait. Easy, without a photomontage. Do you remember my picture series Zombies? I know JC does, it’s from 1997. I did this picture on a sidewalk in the beginning of my studies in Prague (1994) and I love it and I was keep on shooting in the same manner for the rest three years.

The portrait of Mina is done in this manner, with a small flash burst in her face, since it is a portrait after all. So technically as you can see in EXIF I used a long lens, an exposure of 1/10 and a door as a light shaft, so light is directed in one direction and not scattered through out the space. Basically I needed a silhouette and if that silhouette is moving, it does a slimming ghost effect as you see it. Last I needed s flashburst directed by a honeycomb onto her face. In postproduction I just level out the contrast on her face. Simple as pasulj.

The End is near, Santa is coming!!!!

The End is near, Santa is coming!!!!
Enjoy it!!!!
B5

(Illustration by Tomo Lavrič)

PS: Don’t overlook the anagram.

Autistic dream team Andraž, Aleksander and Ciril Horjak

Aleksander Spasić, Andraž Virant and Ciril Horjak (also known as dr. Horowitz). Aleksander and Andraž are autistic children that are very talented and passionate for drawing. Ciril Horjak is an illustrator and comic writer and their tutor, really engaged to develop their talents. At this stage Aleksander is capable to help Ciril with coloring his drawings with a computer and Andraž is really passionate to draw locomotives and one of his drawings is in a calendar.

They have been creatively portrayed on a steam locomotive, because that’s Andraž’s favourite drawing motif and it’s selectively illuminated to represent it as a rocket of creativity. Commissioned by Mladina weekly, Striptiz rubric.

PS: Technique is described in details in THIS post:

New Striptiz portrait – Alenka Sottler, an illustrator

Alenka Sottler, an illustrator is next in a series of portraits for Mladina’s Striptiz rubric. She is amazing illustrator. Check what kind of technique she’s using! I took a macro shot of one of her illustrations, so here you go and figure it out. Very impressive. She won numerous awards throughout the world. Her illustrations of Cinderella are exhibited in Mestna Galerija until 25.6.2010.

Lately I’m over flooded with work and from editorial I usually get a contact of a person a day or two before the shoot, so as many times also this time I arrived to her studio without a concept. Further more in that week it was the second portrait of illustrator in a row, so that doesn’t make it easier to think about a concept.

I arrived to her studio under a time pressure, but nowadays I got used to it, so I’m not very stressed about it, and I didn’t had a clear concept, I just wanted to make a picture where two dimensional world would merge with three dimensional (in a 2D photography .
It’s amazing how mind works, but looking around the studio, observing illustrations, books, staircase, furniture, every sight it just doesn’t feels right, but then there it is a table “shining” in the middle of the room. That sight felt good! I got a concept. The result is above. I used mainly an ambient light and added a bit flash light through a soft-box on her face. Then she took a picture also from her perspective ha, ha…