What I would like to see you do is study the great artists from books like The Great American Pinup (by Taschen) and real life pinups such as Bettie Page with books like A Life of a Pinup Legend or even burlesque ladies like Lili St. Cyr. Look at the way the girls stand, sit, lay down and pose. Look at their hands and facial expressions, what they show and what they don't. Learn what and how they wear their dresses, hats, gloves, purses, stockings and shoes.
As you go through them you will start to see what makes you smile and solidify what your retro pinup style is. Take that and run with it darling! We each have certain styles and talents, don't be afraid to do something just because it's been done, go for it, just make it your own. If you look at the art as categories I would say that Alberto Vargas is very long lean lines with every detail carefully executed right down to the placement of every finger. Gil Elvgren is very girl next door caught in silly escapades, I call his work situational comedy with sex appeal. Rolf Armstrong is ball gowns, bathing suits and big smiles! George Petty is always very athletic and fun with lots of ballerina slippers, big tools and telephones. You can also take guidance from those pinup ladies of yester year such as Ann Melton, Jayne Mansfield, Betty Grable, Bettie Page, Bridgette Bardot, Mara Corday, Julie Newmar, Mamie Van Doren and soooo many others! Check out the thepinupfiles.com and hollywoodpinup.com and for current day pinups donovansdarlings.com for more!
It would also be good for you to try and work with photographers and friends that really get what true Pinup is. You can pay for portfolio shoots with studios such as my 21st Century Goddess or My Old Dutch! If you are just wanting to give it a go and see what you can come up with, shooting with a photographer or friend on a TFP (time for pictures) basis might be a good first for you! However as with any thing please do your self a huge favor, set your limits and do not stray from their boundaries. Keep your limits, safety and your common sense at top priority no matter what. Remember you are a lady and should be treated as one. Oh and Contracts, contracts, contracts! Never do anything until they are signed. The general rule of thumb is if you are paid for the shoot with cash or product 'they' own the pictures and you may have no rights to use them even for your portfolio. If you are not paid and it is TFP then you should still ask for a contract to make sure you do get your rights to use the images for your portfolio.
When you are looking at doing product modeling here are a couple things to keep in mind. You might find that even the clothing companies can try to take advantage and get you to do a full day's worth of work in exchange for a girdle or corset that only costs them a small amount compared to the hours they would have to pay for a model that charged them even the base rate of £20 per hour. Make sure you don't forget your worth. ;-) You can insist on contracts in these circumstances and always read them fully to know your rights to the pictures. One other quick note about working as a product model. Unless a company offers you a large paid contract do not agree to be an exclusive model for the company. I have had a lot of young ladies tell me of companies not using them to model unless they sign a contract saying they will not work for any other company that is selling in the same market. Celebrities get big money for that kind of thing, and they get the goodie bags! Don't settle for a few cheep freebees here and there unless it helps you starting out or that is really what you want! ;-)
You may also make more progress in getting sets built up if you start playing with photography your self. Have a friend you trust and can communicate with come over and just start snapping away! I started my site with a crappy family digital camera which had 1.3 mega pixels at best,some King sized sheets as back drops, retro furniture from the thrift shop and hot lights (hot lights in Phoenix AZ? What was I thinking!!!). Remember all the classic Pinup images we all love so much are grainy and alot of the time poorly lit so you don't need the newest and biggest tools to recreate the classics! With my Photography going to Print quite often I had to upgraded to get the best results for printing. I now have a top of the line digital camera and professional flash lights. I still run on a shoe string budget however and I still have sooo much fun!!! No matter what camera or lights you use make sure to put your imagination into it! You will be a set designer, a costume coordinator, make up artist, hair stylist and model all in one if you want to! My suggestion is ask your friends to help you!!! Take it from me it's tiring doing all your self! hehehe ;-)
Last but in no way least, learn Photoshop, Lightroom or a program for photo editing. You will need to learn all the macro's, tools, saving options etc... The only way to get out of it is to have someone at your disposal to do your picture editing for you. The more you know and do on your own the more you are in control of what happens to your image. I have put myself in danger of loosing it all a few times in my career and let me tell you that is a very scary place to be. Owning your images and being in control of them is just soooo important!
Right so anyway!!!! I think I have said just a few mouth fulls here and I wouldn't blame any of you if you were asleep by now!!! Feel free to comment and ask any question and I'll do my best to help where I can!
Huggs,
KateD
;-)
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